Dragna City.

A thundering explosion erupted in the center of the capital.

“What the hell?!”

All of the citizens were panicking at the sudden turn of events. A light flashed and a residential district was disintegrated before their eyes. Flames fell from the sky and reduced a commercial district into a sea of fire. Storm winds lifted people and buildings off the ground and into the air where they were reduced to dust.

“What the hell is happening?!”

Screams like that were common as disasters continued to strike the city.

“You really don’t care about them anymore, huh?”

Krow mocked Raven with an excited grin.

“I care it just that you need to be stopped at any cost.”

Raven stomped the ground and a black dragon appeared behind him. The air trembled and the ground cracked open as it roared.

“Is that so? Then there’s no reason for me to hold back.”

A purple aura surrounded Krow’s body.

“Let’s get crazy!”

Royal Palace.

“Move! Move! Move!”

“They are reported attacks happening all over the country!”

“This isn’t an outside threat! These are traitors! I repeat! There are traitors among us!”

Soldiers ran passed Alexis as he entered deeper into the palace. None of them took a glance at him. Some even ran straight at him…and they ran through him like he was a ghost.

“……….”

He silently arrived at the throne room by passing through the doors. The throne room was empty with no one sitting on the throne.

“I didn’t know that you could make yourself into a specter. You really need to teach me that technique.”

Nova appeared out of nowhere with a smile on his face.

“You know, for research purposes.”

“Nova, if you’re here that means that I was suspected from the beginning.”

“You’re just getting straight to it huh? You’re not even going to act innocent?”

“Why do I need to do that? I have pride in my position as a leader in New Era.”

“Leader? Now that’s a surprise. And here we thought you were just an ordinary member…But doesn’t that mean that you’re a founding member?”

“You can say that.”

“Then you’re ranked higher than Krow.”

“Yes, I am.”

Alexis looked around.

“I understand why I want to stall for time, after all, it’s my objective for coming here.”

He looked at Nova.

“But I don’t know why you’re stalling. After all, you have me surrounded.”

“Well, we can’t underestimate a New Era Leader now can we?”

Alexus appeared next to his son and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Isn’t that right, my traitor of a son?”

“You’re overestimating my title, Father. I’m the “weakest” of the five leaders.”

Alexis remained unfazed by his father’s taunt. Nero, Ecko, Rouge, and Andreas also made themselves visible.

“Says that the man who came to challenge all of us.”

Nero snickered at Alexis while sizing him up with his eyes.

“So how about it? Wanna show us the power of the group you betrayed your family for?”

Their bodies flickered and their positions all changed with them surrounding Alexis. Long cuts appeared all over his body before it collapsed into chunks of meat.

“That was way too easy.”

Alexus examined the corpse as if it belonged to a stranger and not his son. His eyes widened.

“A clone? Is this a clone?”

“What?”

Suddenly, the earth started to tremble. Cracks ran through the ground and the ceiling. The floor burst open and countless giant capsules spouted from the earth. The ceiling caved in and they saw an alchemic sigil in the sky. With a crackling sound, lightning was fired from the sigil and hit the capsules. The capsules opened up and people stepped out of them. They were all different ages and races.

“No way…”

Alexus and the others couldn’t believe their eyes. That was because despite the age and race being different they all had the same face. Alexis’ face.

“What the hell is this?”

“This is something that I was experimenting with for some time.”

Another Alexis descended from the sky and landed in the room.

“Clone technology?”

“No, Ecko.”

Alexus glared at his son from across the room.

“These are artificial humans, Homunculi.”

“That is correct. The greatest taboo in alchemy, the homunculus. I mastered the creation process a few centuries back and went on improving it thanks to my colleague inspiring me through her own work.”

Nero scanned the room.

“These guys aren’t half bad. The weakest one is slightly below the Divine Realm. These must be one of your trump cards?”

“You can say that but now they’ll be slaughtered by you, I included.”

“You’re a homunculus as well?”

“No, I’m a normal clone.”

“So the real Alexis isn’t here, huh?”

Andreas looked irritated.

“Looks like you’re dead set on stalling us here but are these enough?”

Rouge had a mocking tone.

“No, which is why I also placed human bombs in each of your domains.”

“What?!”

Alexis nodded.

“Over the last couple of decades, I took random people from the five domains and turned them into bombs without their knowledge. Those people are now roaming freely ignorant that they’re about to destroy their homes. Just so you know, each human bomb can destroy up a mile radius when they exploded. Each of your domains has a thousand of them each. I’m sure you can imagine the damage that they’ll cause if they’re not stopped.”

“By stop, I’m sure you mean killed.”

“Of course, Nova. You guys have to kill five thousand of your own people to save the ignorant majority. However, these people all have families and friends who would mourn their deaths. So killing them will surely earn their grudges.”

“You sure put a lot of thought into this. First, we have to kill all of you in here, then we have to search for the human bombs, and kill or isolate them. If we kill them we earn new grudges, if we isolate them we waste more time. Either way, you achieve your goal.”

Nova laughed and swung his arm. Alexis’ head flew off his body and hit the ground. He crushed it under his feet and spoke to the others with a smile.

“Leave this trash to me. You guys go find out whether he was telling the truth about the bombs. When I’m done, I’ll go hunt down the traitors.”

“Good work, Junior.”

All the branch leaders took off except for Nero. When Nero looked at him he explained.

“I’ll have your mother conduct a search. She’s sensitive to lifeforce so she’ll immediately know when someone’s soul has been tampered with. Rouge will surely have his wife do the same. As for the others, they’ll have to think of other ways.”

“So, you’re going to help me out here or will you go hunt the traitors?”

“Neither. I’m going to wait.”

“For what?”

“I can’t get in touch with the Demon Nest, I’m pretty sure it’s been taken over. If that’s the case, there’s someone who’s been freed that only I can stop. I’m waiting for him.”

Nova nodded as if he understood immediately who Nero was talking about.

“Then, I’ll get started.”

The army of homunculi charged at Nova who had a savage grin on his face.

“This is gonna be fun.”

Elsewhere, Ranga Flameheart, son of Joseph Flameheart, was walking through the burning capital. Around him, soldiers were clashing with “citizens” who were attacking people and property.

“Halt!”

Some soldiers stopped in front of him and pointed their weapons at him.

“You look suspicious. State your name!”

“Well, I’m walking around with a smile on my face while everything is going to hell so I’ll naturally look suspicious.”

He lifted his hand in front of him.

“But the thing I hate the most is being restricted.”

An emerald light flashed and a section of the city exploded leaving behind a sea of emerald flames.

“Let me tell you my motto.”

Ranga walked through the flames with a grin on his face. He lifted his hand in the air.

“True liberation must be grasped by your own hands!”

He fired emerald lights into the air. The lights fell down on the city and caused multiple explosions killing everyone near them.

“Right now, we’re grasping our own freedom with your destruction.”

His body flickered and a chain of explosions erupted through the city. It only stopped when Ranga reappeared walking slowly.

“Authority, class, bloodlines, clans….I’ll destroy them and obtain true liberation.”

“I see that you’re still caught up on that liberation crap.”

Marc Saevus emerged from the emerald flames.

“I told you already there’s no such thing as true freedom in this world. Everyone is a slave to something, it’s just that some of us don’t get to choose our masters.”

“And you? Who is your master?”

Marc smiled.

“My greed, of course.”

“And it’s because of your greed why we’re going to kill your brother?”

“No, that’s just business.”

The two laughed and walked through the sea of flames.

“So do you know where he is?”

“In the Primus Domain with his wife.”

“And just how are we going to get in there?”

“Krow already arrange for someone to let us in. Raven, Nero, Nova, and Kimiko should all be busy right now thanks to Krow and Alexis.”

“I see. What about his wife?”

“Kill her too.”

“Your own sister-in-law? How cold.”

Ranga laughed.

“I never liked her and her bloodline makes her too dangerous to leave around. I don’t want that thing coming after me later.”

“So you’re afraid of her, huh? Is that’s why you asked me for help?”

“Shut up.”

“Hahaha!”

Marc was right. They were able to enter the Primus Domain without any trouble. The two were familiar with the place so they had no trouble reaching their target. That’s when the problem started.

*Boom!*

The two showed no discretion. The moment they arrived at the hospital they went on a violent rampage.

“So what’s the plan? Do we kill everyone in the hospital or just those who stand in our way?”

Ranga asked after breaking a doctor’s neck.

“My brother is on the VIP floor. The patients there are either big wigs in the Primus Branch or their families and close friends. Killing them will make it harder for the Primus Branch to recover after this.”

“It’ll definitely piss them off, that’s for sure.”

“That’s the aim. While anger can motivate people, it can also make them narrow-minded and predictable. That’s what I’m aiming for.”

“Alright. Then I’ll take care of them while you’re visiting your brother.”

Their bodies flickered and they disappeared from where they were. Marc reappeared in front of a door. He lifted his hand to knock the door.

“Hm?”

The door burst into pieces. Marc moved back to avoid getting his head cut off by a scythe.

“That’s quite the greeting, little sis.”

Sasha pointed her scythe at him.

“You heartless bastard! I won’t let you near my husband!”

Marc smiled.

“How cold. I just want to show some brotherly love.”

In the special space where the Demon Nest existed, a large group of people from all three clans stood in front of the gates of the prison. At the head of this group was Gizmo.

(When Miko was imprisoned here I heard that Krow came here and asked to meet someone but the warden denied him. After he was denied he asked the warden to pass on a note to the inmate he wanted to visit. The warden took the note and told his subordinate to burn it when Krow left.)

A creak echoed through the space and the gates slowly opened.

(What the warden didn’t know was that his assistant was working for Krow and the letter was originally meant for him. That letter had instructions regarding to today.)

The gates opened completely and an army of inmates walked out of the prisons. Some dragging the corpses of the prison guards.

(The letter told him to free as much of the inmates as possible but also make sure to prioritize freeing one person above everyone else.)

The army of inmates that numbered in the thousands divided to create a path. The clanking of boots could be heard as someone walked to the front. It was a man dressed in a stylish brown suit. This man was quite attractive especially with his thin frame glasses and his brown hair swept back. He gave off the feeling of a scholar.

“……….”

He swept the crowd in front of him with his ruby eyes. Whenever his eyes fell on someone they would immediately look at the ground to avoid his gaze. When this gaze fell on Gizmo he felt his feet become rooted to the ground. He couldn’t move a muscle. Not because he was under the effects of a spell or anything like that. This was his body reacting to the superior entity before him.

(So this is him. The man who brought the Dragna Empire to its knees all by himself and slaughtered half of its population in less than a day.)

“From the fact that all of you sinners are standing before me, I take it that New Era finally decided to come free me.”

The man walked towards Gizmo and looked him in the eyes.

“And who are you?”

“Gizmo, Master Alexis’ apprentice.”

“Alexis, huh? You’re the only one that can look me in the eyes here so you have potential.”

He looked at the army of criminals behind him.

“Follow me, Sinners. It’s time to bring justice down on those who imprisoned us in this hellhole.”

“Ohhhhhh!”

The inmates roared in excitement. The man patted Gizmo’s shoulder.

“Lead the way.”

He walked past Gizmo and the members of the three clans made a path for him to walk. Gizmo turned around and watched his back.

“The Dragna Empire’s greatest and most dangerous criminal…”

He followed behind him with a rare smile on his face.

“Bloody Justice, Andre Bernard.”