As soon as I heard the gunshot, I let go of everything I was doing. Protecting my son had the priority over everything else.
Dammit, why today of all times?
This neighbourhood was supposed to be our shield. Any incoming foe had to overcome the most notorious families that originated from the surface, yet now most of them were missing for one reason or another.
It was also the only day my brother and his family were away.
I gathered every bit of strength I could and made a long leap over our house to immediately face the threat. The first thing I saw as soon as I landed on the ground was a couple of cars rapidly driving away from our location.
Instinctively, I drew out my powers, tore a hole in the back of my right hand, gathered a few droplets of blood, and used them to shoot the drivers of those two cars. Unfortunately, an invisible force deflected both projectiles.
Damn it, invisibility? No, I would've sensed them, they are hidden by an illusion… This is bad.
As soon as I reached a conclusion, I began mentally preparing myself for the battle that was about to happen.
There were traces of demonic powers being used, and there was the pungent smell of blood staining the yard. More specifically, Lucy's blood.
I felt my blood boil at the mere thought of them escaping with my son. I was already thinking of how to deal with them as I turned around to prepare myself for the chase.
They had already destroyed the car stationed in front of our house, the spare car in the garage was destroyed by a large spear that came down from above.
I started to feel uneasy. I didn't hear nor sense anything strange happening within our perimeters. A bunch of random kidnappers wouldn't be able to do such a thorough job in such a short amount of time.
So this is how we're going to play? Was he your objective from the start, or was I? I need to wrap things up quickly before those bastards get too far away from here.
They knew when to strike; they knew how to strike and even had the tools to do it without me even noticing it… if they wanted to kill me they would've tried long ago meaning this was not only a premeditated attack but it was by a large enough group that possesses a monopoly over certain demonic abilities.
There was only one individual, or group, that knew the necessary information to pull off a stunt like this one.
"Are you not going to show yourself after causing this mess?" I shouted while looking at the Staffen family manor.
Uneasiness was slowly building up in my heart. I hoped to be wrong; I hoped that whoever it was would attack me from behind, so that I could rest those suspicions of mine, but ultimately, my hunch turned out to be correct.
The kids were gone. Just a couple of days earlier, they had gone to visit a parent who lived somewhere far away. The only ones that remained behind were the patriarch and his many wives.
Even the other neighbours had decided to disappear, and that day was coincidental when the entire neighbourhood was empty.
To think you would stab us in the back after we've shown you nothing but friendliness, we've allowed you to raise your kids in a safe environment and this is how you repay us? Shame on you! What kind of man would backstab the hand that fed it when he was in need?
No, everyone was in on this. They closed their eyes and feigned ignorance… How dare these fuckers, after everything we've done for them?
I clenched my fists, ready to fight at any time.
"Are you really going to pretend that nothing happened here? Do you think you can get away with what you've just done? You do know that this is a death sentence, not only for you, but for the rest of your family as well?" I shouted as I began to use my powers.
They manifested in the form of a blue mantle covering my back.
"You think I'm as retarded as Julian? I know what's at the end of this road. You're going to try to kill off the rest of my family, anyway. Might as well struggle as best as I can in an attempt to carve out a future for my kids." He shouted back at me with contempt. His purple eyes were snining brighter than ever.
The illusion placed around our territory was slowly vanishing, revealing a handful of armed combatants, people wearing tactical suits, holding rifles, and pointing them at me.
"And you're telling me you didn't deserve to be wiped off after pulling a stunt like this? We offered you a choice. It was you who refused it."
"That wasn't a helping hand, but a shackle. You tried turning us into your slaves! We're not going to serve you or your tyrannical family any longer!" He responded.
None of his wives were present there. The people present there had all different scents I couldn't recognize; they didn't seem to hold much power, and from the looks of it none of them had assimilated even a single one of those odd beings.
He's more careful than I had given him credit for. He knows some of my abilities and already took preventive measures to deal with them. Damn it, I need to be as quick as possible so I can start chasing the car.
I knew that at that point there was little I could've done to change things or turn them in my favor, but I simply couldn't just bow down my head to him, I was filled with so much anger I wanted to rip his face apart with my own hands, gouge his eyes, and rip his teeth off his mouth by hands.
The surrounding soldiers were trembling in fear, nervously holding their firearms with their fingers already on the trigger, ready to shoot at the given order.
Their helmet had black tinted lenses to protect them from flashing lights. Their body armor would've probably protected them fairly well against friendly fire, and some of them were probably holding small demonic artifacts.
The moment I tried to make a step forward, one soldier holding a semiautomatic shotgun opened fire, landing his shot on the right side of my face.
"This is revenge for Lucy." Glaive said while his soldiers began to shoot at me.
I used my power to piece back the flesh that had come off my head as a result of getting a shot at point blank range, afterwards; I sent the blood coated pellets back at the sender.
"Are you really going to sign the death of you and your family over a small scuffle between kids?"
Then I had to use some of my blood to create a protective wall around me as the many soldiers began firing at me all they had.
"If what you want is the survival of your kids, this is not the way to go about it, even if you can kill me. What do you think will happen? Do you think you can escape the eyes of both my brother and my wife? They will be hunted down till they made sure that your bloodline has been eradicated." I warned him.
He didn't seem moved by my statement, not one bit. As a matter of fact, he smiled at me. His eyes seemed satisfied for some reason.
This lunatic! Don't tell me—
"If you want your kid to stay alive, then put your arms behind your head, kneel down, and surrender yourself." A soldier shouted.
"Stand down!" Another joined in.
"Put away that liquid!"
"On your knees!"
Soon every soldier was shouted the same thing in unison while keeping their fingers on the gun trigger and aiming their weapons at me.
His soldiers were a lot more scared than he could have anticipated. I could feel my abilities brimming with power. There was enough fear to create an attack powerful enough to kill quite a few of them.
"I swear to god, if you touch my kid…"
"Open fire!" He didn't even allow me to finish my sentence.
I took small glances at the soldiers, their eyes were filled with terror. They, too, were hoping to resolve this issue as peaceful as possible.
Fighting here is pointless… No, he's fighting to protect his own kids, I doubt he's going to kill his only hostage, so long as he cares for them he won't be able to kill Lucy
I made spikes emerge from the wall, impaling the nearest soldiers, and pushing away the ones charging at me. I rapidly absorbed the body fluids of the few soldiers that I had killed and conjured most of it in my hands to make a spear.
You're dead.
I rushed forward, freely extending and shortening the reach of the weapon while spinning it around my body to cut through the endless waves of soldiers in front of me, then thrusted the spear aiming at his face.
Glaive Staffen, in response, placed his right hand in his mouth and ripped his lower jaw, infusing it with his demonic powers to summon an army of giant maggots emerging from underground to form a large wall in between us.
I was about to turn my spear into a sword to cut down the fleshy wall but I was then shot once more by one of the soldiers behind me, so I stopped myself to extract the bullet and made a tall wall all around me to act as a shield.
Many eyes began to appear all over his face as he also began to unleash his transformation. His flesh was slowly melting and falling off his bones, only kept up by a bunch of maggots living in his body.