Miles walked into the grand hall, revealing the true grandeur of Lykaon Mansion.
Luxurious carpet covered the floor, masterful paintings graced the walls, and well-designed furniture decorated the room, with a glorious chandelier bringing all the individual elements together with perfect harmony.
However, Miles's attention was on something else, something on the second floor, reached via one of two diverging staircases.
He gazed at the familiar painting, visible to anyone in the grand hall, depicting a well-dressed couple. The gentleman was handsome and clean-shaven, with a stern but pleased look on his face, and the lady was beautiful with a little makeup, curls of auburn hair down her back, smiling with bright brown eyes.
They were Etan and Agnes Lykaon, his parents.
Miles felt his hands reaching for the wooden pendant on his neck, hung by an old piece of string. It was carved out of rosewood, half of one face painted white and the other half black, with a small dot of the opposite colour at the center of each.
Unfortunately, the paint had faded and started to flake, while the wood was weak and brittle. Anyone would assume this was a worthless piece of trash.
But the way Miles was staring at the pendant, was as if it was his most valuable treasure.
According to Zhan Shen, this was a Yin Yang talisman, supposedly depicting the balance between darkness and light, depicting that everything existed in stark opposites.
But Miles treasured it for a different reason altogether. Simply put, it was the last gift he had received from his parents.
Sure, he had the Lykaon Insignia ring on his finger, which proved his right as the last heir of the Lykaon Family and even allowed him to do a host of different things, but... he preferred the Yin Yang talisman.
He wasn't completely sure why, but it probably had something to do with the fact that it wasn't taken from his father's dead corpse.
Tucking the talisman back under his sweater, he bowed to his parents, "Mother, Father, your son will not let you down. I will take back what is rightfully ours, I will take back Lykaon Industries. No matter how impossible, I will do what needs to be done. "
With one last glance, Miles continued onwards finally reaching the gym.
It was a large room, equipped with a dozen different training equipment. He knew that there were more advanced training equipment for purchase, but Zhan Shen had assured him that these were sufficient for now.
Miles pulled off his thick sweater, which he didn't really need but had to wear lest he be pestered by a worried Zhan Shen, and walked over to the overhanging punching bag.
Choosing not to wear any gloves, he released a flurry of punches on the poor sand bag with all his might.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He started to punch harder, as the punching bag took on the face of his blasted uncle, Harold Maximillian. His uncle had been one of the deciding factors leading to Miles being pushed out of the executive affairs of Lykaon Industries.
Oh, how much he wished this bag was Harold.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
His punching reached a new level of intensity, as his uncle's face was replaced with his own.
Brown eyed liked his mother, raven haired like his father, but ultimately, worthless and insufficient.
To lead and rule in a world where Faehumans held the reigns of humanity, in a world where the threat of the Fae was always consistent, you needed power. And in a company at the level of Lykaon Industries, it was ruled that at the bare minimum, one had to be an Epsilon in terms of Faetality, 1000 or above.
Unfortunately, Miles was not.
He was a Zeta at 997, just three short of reaching the requisite number. Just 3 small units had changed everything.
It was universally accepted that Faetality was decided at birth, and could not be changed.
Even so, he had done everything in his power, and searched high and low for methods to increase it. Naturally, they did not work.
As a result, he had lost Lykaon Industries, his parents' legacy, because he was insufficient. It was his fault, and he had no one to blame.
RIP!!!
A loud ripping sound rang out as the leather of the punching bag split apart, splattering the ground with sand.
Miles was forced to stop, heaving heavy breaths of exhaustion.
His worn knuckles throbbed with pain, the skin had even started to bruise, but he definitely felt better.
Miles was sweating profusely, his shirt sticking to his skin. He wanted to fall down and rest, but as old Zhan would say, sweating was the best time for some Qigong.
He was just about to start his meditation, when a massive crash rang out from the grand hall, shaking the ground.
Miles was instantly alert, 'What's happening? Intruders? An attack?'
Just then, the mansion security system kicked in and the Lykaon Insignia ring on his index finger sputtered to life, a mechanical voice speaking.
Miles hurriedly brought it to his ear, and listened.
*ALERT! ALERT!*
"LYKAON AIRSPACE BREACHED. TWO FAE TRANSPORTERS DETECTED."
*ALERT! ALERT!*
Miles's eyes widened in shock, 'Fae?! This far from the border? And why here? What do they want from Lykaon Mansion?'
But he wasn't shocked for long. This was the type of situation he should be able to handle as the Lykaon Heir.
First, he needed more information.
Tapping once on the 'L' of the ring, he ordered, "Play the Capital City News, anything related to a fae invasion."
The ring paused for a moment, before shifting to audio obviously hijacked from a news channel.
A news anchor's voice could be heard, "This, just coming in. An armada of Fae Flying Ships have been detected within Capital City Airspace. The Military has already mobilized and made first contact with the invaders. Battle has started and we urge all citizens to remain inside their homes to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
As for the invading Fae, it's been reported that they are an independent Orc tribe, unrelated to the major Fae forces at Galgaroth.
Our Military confirms they can handle this level of threat with ease.
All of us at CCN, once again urge all citizens to remain inside."
Miles heaved a sigh of relief.
If it was just a wandering orc tribe, it was nothing much to worry about. The military could handle it. He was also relieved to find out that this wasn't anything related to the Lykaon Mansion either.
At that same moment, the ring sputtered out once more, "PRELIMINARY SCANS COMPLETE. THE FAE TRANSPORTERS ARE UNARMED. DANGER LEVEL: MINIMAL."
Miles's eyes shone brightly. These two Fae ships were probably non-combat forces trailing the orc tribe from behind, as an emergency escape route or something similar. They probably didn't even know where they were, within his land, within shooting range...
While the situation was fairly dangerous, it was also an opportunity ripe for the picking.
Miles was not a Faehuman and could not take on two ships possibly filled with orcs, but with the Lykaon Insignia Ring on his hand, he was far from powerless.
Tapping twice on the 'L' of the ring, he spoke mercilessly, "Activate all anti-fae protocols. Wear the forcefields down and bring down the ships, preferably in one piece. Use the minimum force required."
The ring sputtered out a reply, "AFFIRMATIVE. SHOULD THE MILITARY BE ALERTED?"
Miles paused before replying, "No, no need. I doubt they'll pay attention to any stragglers, before taking care of the main force. Besides, we cannot afford to be seen as weak right now. Just take care of the Fae ships."
BOOM! BOOM!
Loud booms rang out, shaking the earth as the cannons hidden in the garden got to work.
Miles swallowed nervously. He was taking a fair bit of risk by not alerting the military, but he was confident the defense systems could handle two unarmed transporters.
If all went well, he'd have two expensive Fae ships in his hands soon enough.
Wait.
Now that he thought about it, if it was just two unarmed Fae transporters, then what had crashed into the grand hall?
Considering that the defense system had not reported anything, it was probably just debris or something.
Still, he had to check.
He ran back out into the grand hall, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
Everything had been destroyed. The grand hall had been ravaged mercilessly, as if a typhoon had flown through. The furniture lay in pieces, and the carpet was ripped into rags. A huge gaping hole could be soon on the roof, while the glass of the chandelier lay scattered all over the place.
Miles immediately turned to the painting of his parents, and felt his heart ache at the sight of the deep gashes riddled through the canvas.
But he didn't have time to grieve, as a loud boom rang out, as if the sound barrier was broken.
He hadn't noticed before, but there was a large blur at the center of the room. The air crackled and popped, the floor below was littered with cracks, and gusts of wind blew all over, centered around that blur.
'What in the holy hells is that?'
As if in answer, the blur cleared up, separating into two figures, two monsters.
One was a brown-furred humanoid wolf, while the other was a pale sickly man. Both of them were heavily injured. Deep gashes and wounds littered their bodies, but judging by the heavy breathing and shuddering of the pale man, he was in worse shape.
'What the hell are they!? They were that blur? So fast?!'