When Neo received the news of their disappearance, his eyes turned colder than hell.

​From every pore of his body, an extremely dense killing intent emitted, swirling into the air almost as if it were a living entity.

The ambient temperature inside the room plummeted instantly, and the reinforced metal walls began to groan under his rage.

​Ghost was already tearing through warp space, pushing its drives faster than ever before. Still, even at maximum warp speed, it would take 5 hours to reach Sol’s solar sector.

And this 5 hours felt like an eternity to Neo.

​Elena, Clark, and Noir stood around him in a tense silence, feeling deeply uneasy and worried by the suffocating aura rolling off his body. It felt as though simply stepping too close to him would kill them in an instant.

​Noir could not fully understand human emotional attachments, but with her demonic senses, she could feel that Neo was scared too.

The fear of losing his family was consuming him from within, hidden beneath a devilish wrath.

Taking a slow, deliberate step forward, Noir completely ignored the lethal aura that threatened to shred anyone else who dared approach.

She reached out, her cool, pale hand gently wrapping around his rigid knuckles.

​"Darling, Look at me," she said softly, almost like a soothing melody.

​Neo did not move at first, his gaze locked onto the glass shield. But the gentle, persistent warmth of her grip finally drew his bloodshot eyes toward her.

Her heart skipped a beat, but she maintained control.

​"I do not fully understand the delicate nature of human attachments," Noir murmured as she went closer until her forehead gently rested against his shoulder.

"In our understanding, love is a weakness, and family is often just the first knife waiting to slide between your ribs. But now I am realising maybe we were wrong all this time."

​Her expression suddenly became downcast.

​"My entire clan, my brothers, my sisters, and my mother... they are all dead."

Her words sounded hollow.

"They were slaughtered by the Saint lands just because they were trying to keep the demon empire alive in their heaets. They were wiped out until nothing but ash remained of our lineage. Out of everyone I ever knew, everyone who shared my blood, no one survived. Except my father."

"My father survived because he was the strongest. And you, Neo, are becoming the absolute pinnacle of existence. That little Byzon Company did not take your mother and sister because they are strong. They took them because they are terrified of you."

​She tightened her grip on his hand, while her red luscious lips curled into a ruthless smile.

​"They think they have found a leash to control a god, but they do not know they only signed their own extinction on the death note. So do not let the fear consume your focus, darling. Save that darkness for the moment we arrive, and we will burn their world to ashes together."

Her words resonated with his core.

​As such, Neo’s bloodshot eyes slowly regained their clarity.

​She was right. There was no reason to go berserk. He needed to think with calm and calculation.

​He knew that too. But sometimes, he lost all reason when it came to his loved ones. He only wanted to destroy those enemies until nothing remained.

​This wasn’t going berserk. This was his stance against the universe.

​Five hours passed in waiting.

​When the ship finally reached the Solar Sector and entered Earth’s orbit, Neo stood up abruptly.

​His figure now radiated a terrifying calmness.

​He, Noir, Elena, and Clark were the only ones to descend, leaving the others on board, hidden under the veil of invisibility. Neo’s group took a smaller vessel to land.

​It tore through the atmosphere like a meteor until it was ten kilometers above Chronopolis. It slowed down gradually, finally landing right in the garden of Green Vine Villa, his home.

​The maidservants and the butler heard the roar of the thrusters and came running toward the landing site. Upon seeing the four-wheeled, bug-shaped space vessel, they were understandably confused and alarmed.

​But when their master’s young and handsome face, and hus strong bidy that looked as if it were carved by the hands of gods, and an oppressive aura forged by battles and hardships came into full view, they gasped.

​As soon as Neo took his first step into the garden, they instinctively bowed their heads...

​This was not done using force; it was the natural, habitual instinct of weaker lifeforms submitting to a higher one.

​Neo was not just a Metahuman anymore; he was on the threshold of crossing the boundary to become an Ascender.

​"Young Master... You have returned. Heavens... you have changed so much. Your stature, this overwhelming presence... you have become a man of unfathomable strength. You truly look like a supreme sovereign now."

​But the brief moment of pride in his master’s growth was instantly swallowed by immense guilt. The old butler’s knees gave out, and he collapsed onto the manicured grass, pressing his forehead against the dirt in a deep kowtow.

​"But this old servant deserves death! I failed you, Young Master. I failed completely! When those phantoms arrived, we were utterly powerless. They bypassed all our security arrays like they were nothing, and before we could even draw our weapons... they were gone. I could not protect the Madam... I could not protect the Little Missy. Please, punish this useless old man!"

​The other maidservants also dropped to their knees behind the butler.

​Neo looked down at the trembling old man.

The terrifying aura surrounding him did not diminish, he understood that it was their fault.

It was his for not taking them with him.

​Neo stepped forward and gently placed a hand on the old butler’s trembling shoulder, effortlessly stopping his kowtow and pulling the old man back to his feet.

​"Stand up, Alfred. You are mortals facing the absolute elite of the galaxy. The fact that you survived to give me this report is enough. This was not a failure of your loyalty; it was a difference in power."

​He gazed at the massive luxurious villa that now felt entirely empty without Nina’s excited laughter and his mother’s warm smile.

​"You do not need to be punished, Alfred. The only ones who will face punishment today are the ones who dared to lay their hands on my family."