“Give me the status!” Mercer looked at the guard who had entered the study. Malcolm, Evelyn, Merlin, Marcela, Miles, Kenway, and Serzen were there too. After closing the portal, Malcolm took them back to the capital and they went to the mansion directly. The space shuttle exploded near the mansion, the dead bodies and carnage were all still there. When they arrived, Mercer had just returned from his massacre and had his whole body bloody.

Mercer found out who the axe guy was and after removing his mask, he recognized him to be a member of the Bach family. There were also guards and soldiers working for other families while most were truly members of the criminal parties. But it didn’t change the fact that the families also participated in this ambush.

“Sir, 13 bases have been hit by criminal parties and there are more than 300 casualties. Most of them are guards in Form-Rank, while two leaders and Mr. Roger also lost their lives. Monetary damage is close to billions UD. While one of the bases raided completely and everything inside had been stolen.” Guard reported.

“Which base?” Malcolm asked with a frown.

“The newest base that was built a month ago. There were dual elemental orb testing conducted there, and the leading researcher was kidnapped. His status is unknown.” Guard said in a sullen mood.

“What about families? What are their answers?” Merlin asked.

“They claimed that the members of the families were undercover agents and worked with criminals. They had stolen information from families too and their losses are incalculable. They are even blaming us because of their loss!”

“Crack!!”

Miles looked over and saw a thick marble table was broken into pieces from Mercer’s fist. His eyes looked like he was ready to kill, and his body was shaking with anger!

“I was so silent recently that people forgot about me.” He said with a low voice, but the tone was so cold, Miles felt he was freezing. A glacier formed in the room in the form of an invisible aura. Mercer looked at everyone in the room and said with an irrefutable voice, “Use whatever means you have to dig who was behind this attack. Every one of them will be hanged!”

“Yes, sir.”

***

“What can I do for you, Miles?” Sina Azari, the man from the assassin family asked with a smile. Hassan Mus introduced Sina and Sachiru to him, so they could train together. Miles only went there once and only by using their physical bodies, Miles was able to play with them like children.

Sina’s family, The Azari Family, were in the assassination and information business. They were hidden blades of Unity against the criminal parties. But that hidden blade was nurtured to kill Evelyn the previous day only to be saved by Roger. Miles didn’t give a shit about the integrity and honor of the Cross family. He only wanted to pay those who wanted to harm his mother!

“I want information. You either come clean or we will use other means.” Miles's voice was cold. Out of respect and familiarity between the two, Miles wanted to visit Sina and ask first, if he was not a sensible man and hid the information, he would use other means too.

“I didn’t like your tone, Miles,” Sina said with a frown. He was the heir of a strong and established family after all. Miles was bluntly threatening him.

“I am in no mood to talk respectfully or civilly. A person from your family tried to kill my mother. Is the Azari family behind that person or not?” Miles asked without any expression on his face. He looked like a metal statue. No emotion could be felt. Although Sina was stronger than Miles, he felt threatened when he gazed at two dark blue eyes.

Sina looked at his face and admired his ability to keep his emotions in control. “You would make an amazing assassin.” He praised, then continued, “We had a disagreement in the governing lately. One of my uncles claimed we were regressing and we had gone soft.” He sighed and explained.

“My uncle is Sirvan Azari, actually a cousin of my father. His father was also a radical man and wanted the Azari family to be in the lead of Unity for long years. Later, because of his black propaganda, most young members of the family had their brains washed, thus my grandfather banished him from the family. He gave his son, my uncle, a chance to redeem his father. It was all fine until my grandfather died because of an old wound, last year.”

“My condolences.”

“Thanks. Anyway, after my grandfather passed away. Uncle started to act like his father and influenced younger members to his side, and wanted Father to act more brutally. He said and I quote, ‘we are an assassin family and we should take what is ours by force.’”

Miles looked at Sina and waited for him to continue. Sina sighed and kept on explaining.

“A few weeks ago, he broke into a family meeting and suggested we take the alien's body by force, and with it, we could also take the dual elemental orb to raise to the glory. Of course, my father rejected it in a heartbeat and kicked him out of the meeting. But he still had a bad feeling about it, so he kept an eye on my uncle. But uncle’s web had gone further than we anticipated. We only realized it when we first saw the footage of the attack.

The Azari family is willing to cooperate and reimburse some of the damages in exchange for a partnership with the Cross. We were waiting for you to come, actually.” Sina explained.

“Alright, as long as you are willing to share the evidence with us, the Cross Family is willing to work with the Azari family.” Miles nodded.

“With all due respect, Miles. Are you able to make this decision?” Sina asked, and continued. “As far as I know, you broke the ties with your family.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I don’t know about other things, but I am sure I can make decisions when it comes to dual elemental orbs.”

***

A different part of the capital,

Merlin looked at the person shivering in front of him. It was an old woman in rags.

“Please, young master. Spare me.” She begged with her quaking voice.

“Why should I? You sold me out, did you not?” Merlin said coldly with a little bit of killing intent.

“No, no. Young master. I would never dare, I couldn’t dare!” She prostrated in front of Merlin, “It wasn’t our team that had attacked you. They just used us as decoys. They used us!” She shouted with hatred.

“Why should I believe you?” Merlin looked down on the woman on the ground.

“I can give you the footage we took secretly. Those hateful families! They used us!”

***

Underground of the Capital, a criminal party’s headquarter,

“Why do I owe the pleasure, Malcolm?” Man with strong muscles said. There was a huge scar on his face, a masterpiece left by Malcolm. It was obvious that man’s hatred for Malcolm was boundless.

“Aldo, we have known each other for a long time now, and you also know I could raid this place to the ground a long time ago. But after our battle, I realized that your cause is different from other criminal parties. I don’t say you are white, but you are not black either. So I let you live and keep operating.” Malcolm said calmly.

“You get what I try to say, right?” He added.

“Cut the crap, Malcolm! Tell me why you are here.” Aldo said with anger boiling inside him. He knew Malcolm better than his wife. They were rivals once, so he knew Malcolm wasn’t there to mock him.

“You wouldn’t join those lowlives when they attacked my home, but you must have been offered a deal for it. Tell me who it was.” Malcolm didn’t beat around the bush any longer and asked.

“I indeed know.” Aldo smiled and reached out his wristwatch. “I was going to end these guys anyway, why not use you as my weapon.”

***

In many places all around the capital, there were similar interrogations and information plundering going on. The Cross family was one of the ruling parties of Unity since it was created, and they had connections almost everywhere.

Even the spoiled princess Marcela had her friends and admirers who could help her gain intel through them. She was connecting with her admirers in every part of the capital to learn as much as she could.

Kenway, Serzen, and others were also working hard to learn as much as they could. Those who battled and died were their comrades. And the people who saved them, Cross Family, had been threatened. They were even angrier than the Cross Family.

Miles was also using some other means to gain more evidence. He, unlike others, had another leverage he could use. After he discussed it with Sina, he asked his Father and they agreed to work with the Azari family. After he was done with them, he hacked into people’s wristwatches by hanging around some members of the big families.

Almost every hunter replaced their wristwatches after they leveled up to a new level. After all, higher-tier wristwatches had better hardware and abilities. But, despite the same size, the power of the higher-tiered cores was much higher. Thus, the computing ability of higher-tier wristwatches was out of Coin’s league.

He had to hack into the wristwatches of teenagers with some power and standing in the families. But it wasn’t easy to do so. After all, the people Miles was targeting also didn’t have too much information. After all, they weren’t in the management of their families, thus the number of intel Miles could vacuum was limited.