***
In the northern part of the city of Urich lies the vast manor of the Arcer clan. The family acquired this plot not so long ago, about twenty years ago. Earlier, at the time of dawn, the clan had an even more impressive estate...
«Stop, this is the territory of the Arcer clan!» shouted the guard at the gate.
The estate was surrounded by a high, impregnable fence, and had enhanced security, unlike the Bach clan, which had no walls and no guards. Why is all this necessary when the clan consists of demigods without exception, whom only the insane decides to attack.
«It's me Anna,» the girl shouted, galloping on a horse to the gate.
Her sister followed her, both of them looking tired and shabby. However, their faces were incredibly happy, as if travelers in the desert had found an oasis with cool water.
«Miss Anna?» — exclaimed the guards, of whom there were already four on the post. «And also Mrs. Susan?»
The Guardians were shocked to see the sisters, as they thought they had been kidnapped and, according to some rumors, were being held captive by the Bach clan. The head of the Arcer clan was not absolutely sure of the authenticity of such information, and therefore did not openly provoke a neighbor in vassalage, limiting himself only to a request for an investigation.
«Yes, it's us, quickly inform grandfather that we have returned,» said the older sister, in an orderly tone. We need to tell him something urgently.
«Yes... Everything will be done now, follow me,» the post commander quickly responded.
After that, some of the guards continued to stand at the gate, and the commander and another guard decided to escort the two sisters to the head of the clan. The path was not close, because of the size of the estate, it was truly huge, perhaps even too much.
Ten minutes later, members of the clan were already standing at the door of the estate, absolutely everyone was here, because because of the kidnapping of the girls, they decided to stay at home, away from sin.
«Anna, Susan...» the older man said doubtfully.
It was the head of the Arcer clan, Laray Arcer, a mid-ranking ice demigod. He looked bad, he had a lot of wrinkles, short stature, and in general there was some kind of decrepitude in his image ... Despite his appearance, the man was not so old, he was only sixty-five years old.
— Grandfather! both sisters exclaimed with sincere joy and relief in their voices.
Jumping off their horses, they quickly rushed to their grandfather's arms ... However, he did not react to them, quickly cutting off his granddaughters with a clearly posed question: — Why are you here? How were you able to return?!
— Aren't you glad to see us? Susan asked offended. We went through a lot to get back home...
«No, of course I'm glad, but I thought you were now in the Bach clan ...» Laray said, trying to understand how his two granddaughters, whom he, to be honest, had long buried, stood in front of him alive.
During the search for their kidnappers, the clan failed to find any clues, it seemed that the customer simply did not exist. But in fact, this is exactly what happened, two ladies were kidnapped by slave traders quite by accident, and when they found out their identity, they decided to hide them, because they did not burn with an ardent desire to provoke the wrath of the Arcer clan.
And here, when the two sisters have already, in principle, been buried, a strange, even somewhat ridiculous rumor pops up ... Allegedly, their kidnappers are the Bach clan, with whom the Arcer clan, even though there was no open conflict in public, but in reality were far from friendly.
Basically, they have a blood feud...
However, only Laray Arcer knows about this, who organized the assassination attempt on the daughter of the head of the Bach clan, and her husband. And if, let's say, Bradomir somehow found out about this... Then it is logical that he decided to take revenge by first kidnapping two of Larey's granddaughters in order to provoke the Arcer clan to attack.
Fortunately, the head of the clan Arser quickly understood the plan of his enemy, and did not make a rash decision, on a hot head, and took the most logical action in this case — he complained to the Moiser clan.
Now, today, an investigation was to begin, during which the Bach clan would be checked up and down ... There they would find the girls from the Arcer clan, in principle, no matter in what condition, even in pieces, the main thing was to be found. And then, the Moiser clan and all its vassals will unanimously destroy the Bach clan for betrayal and the crime he committed. If the girls are not there, then it's okay, you can just apologize ...
«We were there,» said the naive soul of Susan. — Grandfather Bradomir rescued us from the captivity of slave traders, and said that we should live with him for a while until you find the customers of the kidnapping. You're old friends with him, right?
— What the hell are you talking about!? Laray flared up, he didn't like what was happening more and more. What other friends? What nonsense!
Not only did the kidnapped girls return when he least expected to see them, they also tell him some nonsense. Anyone would get angry here, so the old man is quite understandable ...
«Still, I was right, the old grunt, Bradomir, swindled us,» Anna snorted. «Grandfather... I don't know what he wanted from us, but we managed to escape in time, and immediately went to you.
— Escape? Doubt was clearly imprinted on the old man's face.
The other members of the Arcer clan, of whom there were already twenty people gathered in the courtyard of the estate, also expressed their absolute incomprehension of what was happening with their faces. However, no one dared to speak, especially now, when the head of the clan, obviously, is not in the best mood.
«Yes, we escaped through the window, and then we stole horses from the stable, and immediately galloped here along the bypass road,» Anna explained, feeling a little pride in the implementation of the escape plan.
The old man looked first at one of his granddaughters, then at the other, and then took a deep breath, trying to subdue the rage that was ready to flare up inside him.
— That is, you want to say that you — two juvenile fools, in terms of strength hardly higher than some kind of under-fence mob, were able to escape from under the nose of Bradomir Bach ?! — holding the last threads of sanity, cursed Laray Arcer. «This freak, with a wave of his sword, is capable of laying down a hundred other knights ... But he's not able to keep track of you, damn it ...»
Looking at the stupid faces of his family members, both at the guilty granddaughters, and at the others gathered in the yard, the head of the clan could not contain his rage, and broke loose...
— Yes, I you ...
In anger, Laray grabbed Anna and Susan by the throat and lifted them up. From his expression it was obvious that he wanted with all his heart to personally strangle both ...
— Grandfather...
— Sorry...
The head of the Arcer clan was deaf to their pleas, and only squeezed their thin necks more tightly, starting to pass icy energy through his hands, using his divine spark for this.
Ice energy began to penetrate the girls' bodies, gradually freezing them. The family members gathered in the courtyard looked at this spectacle with horror, they clearly understood that Anna and Susan would not see tomorrow.
But then, suddenly, something strange happened, instead of turning into ice sculptures, the girls began to somehow absorb the ice energy that Laray directed into their bodies.
— What the hell is going on? — due to surprise, Larey's grip weakened, but the process of absorbing ice energy did not stop there.
Energy gushed out of the head of the Arcer clan without his control, and quickly flowed into the bodies of the girls, which caused them to somehow unnaturally swell and swell.
— Run, quickly! the old man shouted, and began to create a barrier of concentrated magical energy around him, in order to protect himself from what should soon happen.
The clan members did not have time to take a single step, when a huge explosion of icy energy occurred, instantly covering the entire courtyard of the estate ...
The facade of the mansion was covered with ice, as was the ground in the courtyard, and even the nearby lake. Only Larey Arcer survived, all the rest, at first, turned into ice statues, and then, due to the kinetic energy of the explosion, were broken into fragments, which were now lying in different parts of the yard.
The head of the clan, although he was alive, was in a very sad state. In any other situation, he might have been able to defend himself against such an attack, but alas, the explosion of ice energy took him by surprise. Both of his arms had been torn off, and his chest was covered with half-frozen blood. He was seriously injured, and could not get up from the ground on his own ...
Once the effects of the explosion wore off, LaRay was able to look up to see the results of what had happened. He had a good view of the entire courtyard, as he was thrown back right up to the doors of the mansion.
The old man's ear caught loud, clear claps, somehow they felt malice and contempt ...
"Yeah, it's nice to be here...