First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 388: The Engagement Ceremony (iv)

The moment the alarms screamed through the tower, Xavier slipped into the chaos like he had rehearsed it. Guests were running. Guards rushing. Vampires flashing their crimson eyes, trying to figure out which direction trouble was coming from. Nobody noticed Xavier sliding between bodies, stepping behind collapsing decorations and thick marble pillars until he was simply gone from the hall.

Angel didn’t disappear with him. She went the opposite way — straight up the steps toward the stage where Reva still stood with the ring in her hand.

Luther was already beside her, calm in the middle of all that disorder. He didn’t look scared or confused. He just watched the crowd scatter with an expression that made it seem like he expected every second of this.

Angel reached them and grabbed Reva’s wrist. "Come on. We’re leaving. Now."

Reva gave her father one last long look. It wasn’t dramatic or loud. It was the kind of look someone gives before stepping through a door they can’t return from.

Luther met her eyes. He didn’t try to stop her. He didn’t ask why. He simply nodded once and turned away as if he had accepted everything that was about to follow.

Angel pulled Reva through the emergency passage, and the steel shutters dropped behind them, sealing the route.

A few corridors away, Lucian nearly collided with Luther.

"We’ll have to postpone the ceremony," Lucian barked, trying hard to stay composed. "And the merger negotiation, everything—this attack changes the priority. The Blackwoods need to find who’s behind this. Hopefully it’s an accident, some system failure, and not—"

"We’ll see," Luther said, brushing past him without a hint of concern.

Lucian watched him walk away, confused and furious at the same time.

Down another route, security guards were dragging Lucas out of the hall, holding him by the arms while he shouted demands and questions. He wasn’t being evacuated from the tower, just the hall, since they needed the heir somewhere safe and controlled.

Xavier spotted them from across the long hallway and began trailing them at a calm pace, hands in his pockets like he was on a stroll.

Several vampires — the same elder-class bastards who had always taken any chance to insult Reva and speak against Luther — noticed Xavier moving toward Lucas. They considered it to be the best time to get revenge on Xavier for insulting them back at the castle.

Their expressions twisted. They didn’t hesitate. They activated their bloodline abilities at once, their limbs warping with power as they lunged toward him.

Claws. Fangs. Accelerated movement. Compressed shockwaves.

They threw everything they had in a split second.

But nothing touched him.

The moment their attacks reached Xavier’s hands, the Aether-Veil Gauntlets flickered faintly. Every hit lost its force on contact, turning into harmless taps. The vampires stumbled, confused. They tried again — faster, stronger, wilder — but every blow dissolved the moment it reached the gloves.

Xavier tilted his head. "You done?"

They weren’t — but they didn’t get another chance.

Xavier grabbed the rifle slung over the belt of a guard he’d dropped earlier and fired point-blank at the nearest vampire. The bullets ripped through him and splattered his body across the wall. The others froze only long enough to feel fear before Xavier moved again.

He stepped forward, grabbed a second vampire by the throat — the gauntlet negating the sparks of blood-magic flickering around the man’s skin — and drove a knife straight into his chest, carving upward before tossing him like trash.

A third tried to run.

Xavier shot him in the back of the head without breaking stride.

The guards escorting Lucas heard the gunshots and looked back in terror. Lucas tried to turn around, but the guards yanked him forward even faster, dragging him away as Xavier continued cutting down the remaining elders one by one.

They weren’t random targets. They were the same pieces of shit who had mocked and shamed Reva at every council gathering. The ones who called her unworthy. The ones who laughed the loudest when she was targeted.

Xavier killed them without hesitation. No mercy. Just efficient, brutal removal.

The hallway stank of burned blood and gunpowder by the time he finished. Bodies lay cracked and twisted across the floor tiles.

Xavier stepped over one of the corpses and kept walking toward Lucas, expression calm, like he had simply taken out the trash on his way to something more important.

Xavier sprinted down the hallway, chasing the guards who were dragging Lucas away. They kept glancing over their shoulders, panic twisting their voices as they shouted at each other.

They weren’t trained to deal with someone like him. They weren’t even sure what he was. The corridor lights flickered red with the alarm, turning everything into a pulsing tunnel of chaos.

One guard finally turned and fired.

Xavier dodged the first burst, slid under the second, and kicked his legs out from under him. The man hit the ground face-first, and Xavier stomped the back of his skull hard enough to paste it into the floor. Bone cracked like cheap plaster. The other guard tried to pull Lucas along faster, but Xavier closed the distance in seconds.

He grabbed the man’s collar, yanked him back, and slammed his head into the wall until the helmet cracked. Blood streamed down the tile. Xavier didn’t stop until the guard’s body went limp.

Lucas stumbled backward, tripping over his own feet, sweat rolling down his forehead.

"You..." he whispered, voice trembling. "You freak—"

Xavier punched him in the mouth before he finished.

Lucas dropped to the floor and skidded across the polished surface. Xavier didn’t give him time to breathe. He grabbed him by the hair, dragged him upright, and threw him through a side door into a lounge room—glass shattering everywhere as Lucas crashed into a decorative display shelf.

He coughed blood and shards of glass, wiping his mouth with a shaking hand.

"You think... this is going to end well for you?" Lucas spat.

"It’s not supposed to end well," Xavier said, stepping over broken panels. "Not for you."

Xavier pulled his hair back with his hand and took a deep breath in.

"You have no idea how many times I have dreamed of this situation."