"Bring the iron suppression collar, he is an unstable criminal who must be re-sealed immediately!" Vice-Patriarch Damon roared, his hand shaking as he pointed at the severed arm lying on the gate plaza cobblestones.Lucas didn't flinch, his dark eyes locking onto the court mages advancing with heavy black chains."Touch those chains and your hands drop to the mud," Lucas said, his tone flat, cold, and echoing across the entire capital entrance.The five hundred gold-armored guards hesitated, their heavy spears trembling as they looked at the glowing ancestral tablet floating above Lucas's head.The Grand Chancellor slammed his iron gavel against his stone desk, his face red with frustration. "Vice-Patriarch Damon, the Supreme Clan Challenge has been invoked! You cannot re-seal a challenger before the public tribunal convenes!"Damon stepped forward, his eyes burning with frantic desperation as he unrolled a second scroll covered in glowing green runes."He is not a legal challenger, C

"Keep your hand near your daggers and stay behind my left shoulder, Esther," Lucas said, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper as they slipped past the broken outer perimeter wall of the old Peterson clan territory.Esther pressed her back against the mossy stone ruins, her breathing tight and heavy as her daggers cleared their leather sheaths."The outer guards are gone, Young Master," Esther whispered back, her eyes darting across the dark, silent pine trees surrounding the former main estate. "Damon pulled every patrol inside the secondary gate. The entire border district is dead."Lucas didn't slow his pace. He moved like a phantom over the damp earth, his leather boots making zero sound against the mud as his High Mage core thrummed with razor-sharp spatial perception.His awareness expanded three hundred yards ahead, cutting through stone structures and dense foliage like an invisible blade."He didn't pull them inside to defend the perimeter," Lucas said, his dark eyes

"Hold the message scroll right there, Esther, don't open it until I clear the spatial wards," Lucas said, his dark eyes fixing on the blood-stained courier bird lying dead on the wooden table.Esther’s hands trembled violently as she sliced through the black twine binding the parchment to the bird’s leg."They took my younger brother from the eastern market two hours ago," Esther whispered, her voice cracking with raw, suppressed panic. "Damon’s shadow guards left his silver crest pinned to the window sill."Lucas stepped closer, his High Mage core thrumming with razor-sharp spatial perception as he unrolled the heavy parchment.The blood-written text on the scroll flared with a faint crimson light, projecting Vice-Patriarch Damon's cold, mocking voice into the small tea room:"Esther Peterson, bring Lucas Peterson to the abandoned iron quarry outside the city gate before midnight. Deliver his live core to my shadow squad, or your brother's limbs will be served at the public ritual fe

"Guards, arrest the Vice-Patriarch for treason against the high council!" Magistrate Julian roared from the elevated box, his hands slamming against the balcony rail so hard the wood split down the middle.Lucas didn't wait for the capital guards to move. He slammed Vice-Patriarch Damon into the stone altar floor, his boots crunching down on the Vice-Patriarch's ruined, bleeding right shoulder.Damon gasped, coughing up thick globs of black blood as the violent energy backlash tore through his internal meridians."You think a forged projection saves you, coreless trash?" Damon choked out, his eyes bloodshot as he pointed his broken left hand at the side columns. "Malakor, activate the secondary blood-drain! Kill every witness in the tiers!"Chief Alchemist Malakor scrambled toward the brass control pedestal, his hands shaking as he reached for the central blood stone.Lucas didn't even turn his head. He flicked his left wrist, firing a three-inch needle of compressed spatial force str

"Get up from the floor, Vane, or I drag you through the clan gates by your collar," Lucas said, his dark eyes fixed on the trembling old man kneeling beside the ancestral altar.Patriarch Vane pushed himself up with his iron cane, his gold-embroidered robes covered in white dust, his breathing shallow and ragged."The capital guard escort is waiting at the outer gates, Lucas," Patriarch Vane whispered, his cloudy eyes filled with absolute dread. "If we step out of this manor under a royal death warrant, neither of us makes it to the court alive.""The guard escort isn't here to kill us on the road," Lucas said, his voice cold, flat, and dead. "First Prince Valerius wants us breathing when we enter the Supreme Spire so he can execute the Peterson bloodline in front of the entire assembly.""You don't understand the power of the First Throne!" Vane choked out, clutching his chest as his heart hammered wildly. "They have three Saint-realm grandmasters watching the high court! Your spatia