Marvin blinked.The lights smeared into halos, the bass throbbed like a second heartbeat, and the cocaine still clawed at his sinuses. But the man across from him—sitting like he owned the whole damn world—wasn’t a hallucination. The face was too familiar, too sharp, too heavy with judgment.His throat tightened, and the word fell from his lips before he could stop it.“Dad.”The syllable carried weight he hated—reluctance, disbelief, a child’s shame tucked inside a man’s voice.Mr. Richmond leaned back against the booth, his expression was carved from stone. His eyes flicked over the bottles, the powder, the women circling like vultures. Disgust pulled his mouth into a line.“For all the years I’ve known you,” his father said, voice low but slicing through the noise, “I would’ve bet a billion dollars you’d never set foot in a strip club—let alone be sniffing cocaine. Your dead mother would be disappointed. She would have believed she trained you right.”Marvin flinched, shoulders cur

The air inside Warehouse 17 felt alive. Every breath Marvin took came with the taste of rust and salt, every heartbeat echoed in the hollow space. His pistol stayed steady in his hand, but his eyes flicked from the shadows above to the five men on the ground closing around him.And then his father spoke.“Ha. So you honored my invitation.”The voice was calm, proud almost. Marvin tightened his grip on the pistol.“What do you want from me?” His words cut through the air, sharper than the steel beams above.Mr. Richmond didn’t rush to answer. He let silence linger, heavy and suffocating, as if the pause itself was part of his power. Finally, his voice fell like a hammer.“To be honest,” he said, “I don’t know how to answer that question. But I feel that your existence in this world is a threat to my reputation.”Marvin blinked, stunned. “A threat? I don’t understand.”He stepped back a pace, shaking his head. His voice cracked with anger.“All I have done all my life is try to sustain

The beam slammed toward Marvin like a spear of lightning.He raised his hands and focused, aura sparking around his body. The blue glow tightened into a shield, invisible to the eye but humming with raw telekinesis. The laser hit it and screeched across the barrier, splitting into two arcs that melted steel beams on either side.Marvin slid back across the floor from the force, boots cutting trails in the dust. His teeth clenched. His father’s strength was overwhelming, but he refused to yield.“Father,” Marvin called, his voice was steady but sharp, “stop this before you make me break my wall of defiance.”Above the roar of power, Mr. Richmond laughed. “Spare me your weakness. Power decides everything!”The air shook as his aura flared again. Sparks and crackles leapt from his body, bouncing across the warehouse floor.Mr. Richmond unleashed a storm. Beams of electric light stabbed down in rapid fire, each one exploding on impact. Steel crates melted into glowing slag. Sparks rained

The warehouse still groaned like a wounded beast. Dust spiraled down from its rafters in lazy sheets, turning the blue glow of the Veythar Ascendance into a haze that looked almost holy. But there was nothing divine here—only ruin.Mr. Richmond’s body lay crumpled in the cratered floor, his eyes glazed, his lips were frozen in the faint curve of a smile. The man who had schemed, who had taunted, who had dreamed of bending his son into a weapon, was gone. His aura was extinguished. His revenge ended before it could begin.The figure standing above him—Marvin’s body, but not Marvin—did not mourn. It did not pause. It did not even look at the corpse. It was already moving, because Mr Richmond had never been its true goal.The Veythar Ascendance tilted its head toward the broken warehouse doors. Night waited beyond, quiet and still, save for the hum of a distant city. The glow in its eyes flared, and with slow, deliberate steps, it left the ruin behind. Each footprint burned faintly int

The night was no longer silent. The ruins of the street seemed to shiver as two powers stood face-to-face.The Prime Minister’s eyes glowed brighter than they ever had, sky-blue flames burning like the heart of a star. His aura spread outward in waves, crackling against the darkness, shaking the broken glass and twisted steel around him.Opposite him, the Veythar Ascendance grew taller, its blue fire blazing, its alien power wrapping Marvin’s body like a monstrous shell. The ground cracked beneath his boots, and each breath came with the sound of storms breaking through the sky.The air between them tore open. Sparks flew. The heavens seemed ready to split.And then they moved.The Prime Minister launched forward first, his fists wrapped in blue light. He struck like a soldier who had trained his entire life, every blow was sharp, precise, and controlled. His aura cut through the air like blades.The Veythar Ascendance met him with a roar. His hand swung, carrying the weight of a mo