The Hale Family held one of the highest statuses in Atlas City. In the center of the compound, they had an enormous stretch of luxury residences—basically their own private district.

But right now, the Hale estate was in total chaos.

Word from the confrontation had already made it back.

And inside the Hale Family itself, an outright civil war had erupted.

On one side were the Hale Family’s core members and their diehard loyalists.

On the other side were the Hale Family’s non-core relatives and much of their private forces.

Alexander and Dominic’s deaths had spread like wildfire. And along with it came another piece of news—one that poured gasoline on everything:

The Hale Family had been creating thralls.

Worse—rumor had it the only successful thrall had been made using a non-core Hale family member.

The moment that message hit, the non-core branch exploded.

Fists turned into blades. Blades turned into blood.

At the same time, some of the Hale Family’s private forces flipped sides immediately, turning their weapons on the people they’d served yesterday.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. When the wall collapses, everyone pushes.

They all understood the same thing: the Hale Family was finished.

And if they didn’t cut ties right now, when that group arrived, they’d die right along with them.

Victoria—Alexander Hale’s granddaughter, the one who’d always walked around like she owned the world—stood there in a daze.

One moment, people were still treating her like a jewel, cradling her in their palms.

The next, those same people were screaming for her head.

The switch was so fast she couldn’t even process it.

"Tyler—what the hell do you think you’re doing?!" Victoria shouted at a young man across from her. "You actually dare lay hands on me?!"

It was unreal.

Tyler Hale used to trail after her like a puppy, a full-time simp. And now he was raising a weapon against her.

Tyler sneered. "You still think you’re some noble young miss?"

He spat the words out. "A woman like you—if you didn’t have ’Alexander Hale’s granddaughter’ stamped on your forehead, you would’ve been chopped up a long time ago."

"You...!" Victoria’s chest heaved with rage.

"Victoria, stop wasting breath!" Sebastian barked, panic tight in his face. "Run—now!"

Their side’s average strength was higher, but the other side had overwhelming numbers. If this dragged out, they were dead.

And worse—those people were already on their way.

If they didn’t run now, they wouldn’t be able to run at all.

Victoria’s eyes were shaking, desperate for denial. "Sebastian... tell me this isn’t real. Grandpa and my dad are fine, right?"

Sebastian’s voice cracked. "Victoria, it’s real. The Hale Family is done. We have to go—right now. Or none of us are getting out."

"Looks like you’re already out of time," a voice said.

The fighting froze.

A group of people walked in from outside like they owned the place.

Every face in the estate turned toward them, fear spreading through the crowd in a heartbeat.

Victoria’s eyes locked onto Ethan—and she flared up again, still not understanding what had happened. "You?! You actually dare come to the Hale Family’s home?!"

"Victoria, shut up!" Sebastian roared, voice raw with urgency.

Sebastian glared at Ethan, trembling with fury. "Ethan! Even if the Hale Family was wrong, you already killed my grandfather and my father. Isn’t that enough?!"

"It’s not about ’enough,’" Ethan said, tone flat and matter-of-fact. "I finish what I start. I don’t leave loose ends."

Victoria’s pupils shrank. "You... you killed my dad and my grandpa?!"

Ethan looked at her like she was exhausting. He shook his head. "Honestly, calling you an idiot wasn’t even an insult."

"Aaaah!" Victoria snapped completely, sanity burning out in one instant.

She grabbed a longsword and charged straight at Ethan.

"Victoria—come back!" Sebastian shouted.

"Miss Hale!"

People behind her yelled too, startled and terrified, reaching out like they could physically drag her back.

Too late.

Victoria had already sprinted into the open space between them.

A longsword on the ground suddenly lifted into the air—like an invisible hand had grabbed it.

It shot forward in a straight line and pierced clean through Victoria’s throat.

Her body jerked once, eyes wide, and then she collapsed.

Ethan didn’t blink.

He wasn’t the type to go easy just because the target was a woman.

Victoria’s body went rigid, her eyes locked on Ethan like she wanted to burn his face into her soul. Then the strength left her, and she collapsed to the floor—dead, and furious about it.

"Victoria!!" Sebastian’s eyes went bloodshot. He glared at Ethan like he wanted to rip him apart. "You’re really going to wipe us out to the last man?!"

"Yes."

Sebastian’s jaw trembled. "You’re ruthless. I’ll make you pay for this!"

Ethan looked at him like he’d just heard something tired and predictable. "Uh... you won’t get the chance."

"....."

Ethan turned his head toward the other side—the branch-family members and the private forces who’d flipped.

"Want to live?" His voice was calm, deadly. "Kill them. If even one escapes, none of you are walking out alive."

"!!"

A shudder ran through them.

But the moment they heard they had a way to live, they didn’t hesitate. They surged at Sebastian’s group like starving dogs.

The fighting exploded again—only this time it was vicious, desperate, and personal.

"Big Mike, you stay here and keep an eye on things." Ethan looked at him. "We’re going inside to see if there’s anything important."

Big Mike made a pained face. "I wanna go too."

"Stay." Ethan didn’t budge. "Out of all of us, you’re the one with the best wide-area damage. If something goes sideways, you’re the right guy to hold the line."

Big Mike sighed. "Fine..." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Chris and the others immediately poured into the Hale estate and started sweeping it like a raid.

Ethan grabbed a Hale Family member, asked where Alexander’s room was, and headed straight there.

He wasn’t "interested" in the thrall-making technique because he wanted to make thralls himself.

He’d already realized it: the corpse in his spatial storage ring was very likely a thrall.

What he needed was the control method.

He didn’t know how strong that thing truly was, but he was sure of one thing—if he could control it, it would be absurdly powerful.

That was why he was moving so fast.

Alexander’s room

Ethan activated [True Sight] and scanned under the bed.

There it was—an actual hidden compartment.

And inside it... a box.

Ethan finally let out a breath. He’d been worried someone would steal it or destroy it in the chaos.

He flipped the entire bed aside, then slammed a fist down.

The floor cracked and shattered, exposing the compartment and the box beneath.

Ethan carefully pulled the box out and opened it.

Inside was an old, antique-looking book.

He flipped it open. The writing was a little different from modern text, but not so different that he couldn’t read it.

Besides the manual, there were several small medicine bottles—filled with a red liquid. No label, no explanation. No idea what they were for.

Ethan didn’t waste time. He stored the box in his spatial storage ring, then moved on to loot the other rooms.

It took them more than an hour to strip the Hale estate clean.

Most of what they found wasn’t useful to them, but there were still plenty of good items.

The biggest haul was in a hidden warehouse: a mountain of crystal cores—over a million of them.

Almost all were below Tier 5. Tier 5 and above had probably already been spent.

Still, it worked out. Fallen Star City had plenty of higher-tier cores, but low-tier ones were always in short supply. This filled the gap nicely.

By the time Ethan and the others came back out, the outside fighting was already over.

All of the Hale Family’s core members and diehard loyalists had been wiped out.

The non-core relatives and the former private forces had taken brutal losses too.

They’d had numbers, but the other side had better average strength. And once people thought they were going to die anyway, they fought like it—no fear, no restraint.

It ended as a near mutual slaughter.

Ethan looked at the scene with flat calm. No pity.

He’d originally planned to wipe out everyone in the Hale Family. The internal bloodbath had simply saved him some work.

He glanced at the survivors and waved a hand. He didn’t intend to kill them.

Most of the time, he did what he said he’d do.

"Go to the Kane Family," Ethan said. "See if General Kane will take you in."

"Yes!" The survivors answered like their lives depended on it—because they did.

They bolted immediately, terrified Ethan might change his mind.

Ethan stretched his shoulders. "Alright. Let’s go eat at General Kane’s place. We’ve been running around all day, and we still haven’t eaten."

Chris coughed. "Uh... General Kane probably isn’t in the mood to eat right now."

Ethan’s expression didn’t change. "That won’t work. Ryan invited us."

Sean laughed. "Yeah. When you put it like that, I’m starving."

Big Mike rubbed his stomach. "Same."

"Then move," Ethan said, already turning. "Let’s go."