"Run, Nyx, run! Save your sister!" A middle-aged man with a disheveled appearance, blood dripping from his mouth, said to a ten-year-old boy.
"No, we refuse to leave you behind! You must come with us. Where are we even supposed to go without you?" The boy shouted back as he held tightly to his little sister, whose face was covered in tears.
Before Nyx and Anna were five intimidating men, looming over their father, who was currently on his knees—Troost Blackthorn. The treated glass that enabled him to see clearly was broken, and his tailor-made suit was covered in blood.
The man looked miserable, but that didn't matter as he continued to beg these powerful men to let his children go.
"After all I did, is this how you repay me?" Troost said, tears streaming down his face. "I beg you to look back at what I've done for you, for the world, and let my children go."
"Shut up, Troost!" One of the men spat out a thick glob of saliva at the kneeling man, landing perfectly on his face. "You don't tell us what to do. We call the shots!"
"What did I ever do to you people? All I did was help the public and sponsor the heroes. Where did I go wrong?"
"Having too much money, that's where you went wrong," a short man said. "We're supposed to be the elite clans, but how is that even possible when you, a worthless dud, have all the wealth and influence in the world? How is that possible when the heroes and our subjects respect you more than us?"
"You want the property and money? Take it, it's all yours. Just let me and my children go."
"Oh, we would be taking the money, all of it, but I don't think any one of you would leave here alive," another man said, a tall, mighty-looking man with well-built muscles and a gigantic greatsword resting on his back—Jason Vancouver, the patriarch of the Vancouver clan.
"You bastards! Why don't you kill me and leave the children? They did nothing to you. It's me you want, so take me!" Troost remained adamant as he stared at the faces of Nyx and Anna, tears sliding from the eyes of a full-grown man.
'I couldn't protect you, mother.' He thought as he clenched his fist, 'But I won't let the same happen to you too, even if it's at the cost of my own life.'
Although these five sons of bitches had infiltrated his manor and destabilized his security and men, Troost wouldn't give up without a fight. Being the wealthiest man on Earth, he naturally had an arsenal of super items.
Rising to his feet, Troost Blackthorn stared at the face of Jason Vancouver as a black leather armor manifested over his body. But this was not just any armor. Each part of this armor—the chest plate, the legs, and so on—were all S-ranked items.
Knowing this, the five men were shocked a little because S-ranked items were very rare to come by, and even they were privileged to have one each, but this mere dud had a full set, and they strongly suspected he had more.
"Seeing you like this only solidified our reason in killing you. If we have left you to survive even a bit more, I'm afraid our position as Elite clan would just be in name, and all the power would rest in your hands," Vancouver, who seemed to be the leader of the five, spoke as he pulled his greatsword from his back, which was also an S-ranked super item.
Seeing Vancouver, the others followed suit and drew out their S-ranked weapons, all attacking Troost at once.
Ganged by the five strongest on Earth, Troost Blackthorn didn't even last a minute as he was overpowered effortlessly.
"This is your end!" Vancouver declared as he raised the sword to cut off Troost's neck, but that was when a little boy stood in the trajectory of the descending blade.
"Stay away from my father!" Nyx shouted at the top of his voice.
"If you want to get to him, you'll have to pass through me first!" Nyx said as he went to punch Vancouver in the leg, but it only tickled the giant man who laughed at his antics.
"Hahaha, kid, you want to save daddy, huh? Then save him in hell!" Vancouver sneered as he struck his sword down. Seeing the sword coming down, Nyx closed his eyes, with only one thought in his mind as he watched the descending blade.
'I'll make them pay, I'll burn all of them, I'll burn the world if I have a second chance, I'll kill all the heroes!'
"No!" Suddenly, Nyx heard a loud scream and felt someone push him out of the trajectory of the blade.
Falling to the ground, Nyx turned around just in time to see the sword splitting his father's face in two, and at that moment, his entire world seemed to freeze. With the sword line still visible on his face, Troost mouthed these words.
"Save…your sister."
Then his face fell apart.
Nyx was in a trance. Not even a strand of tear fell from his eyes. Instead, he started laughing manically.
"I'll kill all of you!" He screamed like a psychopath as he held his sister's hand and started to run for the door. For ten and seven years, this trauma was just too big for them to bear. For Nyx, who witnessed the sword splitting his father's face, it was much worse, but he knew he needed to fulfill his old man's wish.
It was only by surviving that he could return for all these bastards.
However, it was at that moment that he heard the voice of their trusted butler.
"Don't allow the girl. She's very important! I repeat, don't let her escape!" The butler, a man with white hair, shouted at the top of his voice. He was actually a tier 1 superhuman.
"So he was the one that betrayed us!" Nyx gritted his teeth as he ran. The way these guys had taken out all their security had been too easy. 'It was all because of him. Allison, you traitor!'
"I can't run anymore," Anna suddenly stopped. "Go. I'll only delay you. Father is dead. I don't want you to die too and leave me alone. So go. They say I'm important, that means they'll not kill me."
"No!" Nyx reprimanded her as he proceeded to carry her, but she bit him and ran back to the men who were chasing them.
Anna had always been too mature for her age. She knew that the chance of them escaping was already small, so all she could do was to stall her chasers for her brother to escape… she knew he would come back for her.
Clenching his teeth, Nyx fought the urge to go after Anna, but he knew that if he returned now, they would catch the two of them, so in the end, he decided to flee like a coward.
He decided to abandon his sister to escape.
"I'll come back for you." He made a promise to the moon under the night sky.
Because the five elites didn't see Nyx as a threat to lose sleep over, they didn't even chase after him.
Soon, a loud screeching noise sounded as a car that was about to hit Nyx came to a halt. In his chaotic state, the ten-year-old did the first thing that came to mind: stopping a car.
Stepping out of the car, a beautiful, cold-looking, blue-haired lady with light blue eyes that held chilly indifference stepped out.
"Please, save me." Nyx dropped to his knees and pleaded.
***
(present)
Coming out of the very familiar nightmare, Nyx opened his eyes, discovering that he was lying on a king-sized bed.
"How did I get here?" The red-haired boy questioned as he looked around, and what he saw shocked him.
On the walls of this massive room were portraits of scary oni-shaped masks with deathly hollow eyes and black teeth. This was a very popular mask all over the world because it was Nightmare's trademark mask.
"Weren't these masks banned?" Nyx thought in confusion. "And, most importantly, whose room is this?"
"You're awake."
Just then Nyx heard a familiar voice. Staring at the direction of that voice, he could see it was the pink-haired girl.
"How are you feeling, cutie?" Violet displayed a smile with crazy glints swirling in her eyes.