France leapt eagerly into Ramon's broad embrace like a little girl, and he tightly hugged her back, a bright, relieved smile breaking across his authoritative face.
"It is truly good to see you back safe, my love," Ramon murmured gently, his eyes tracking over her shoulder before he smoothly switched the direction of the conversation toward the white-robed stranger. "Now, who might this new friend of yours be?"
France lowered her head to look at the polished floorboards, a faint blush creeping across her cheeks as she took a polite step forward to formally introduce Leylin. "Dad, this is—"
[Beep! High-density energy signature detected from the primary target!]
A.I. Chip's red alert warning suddenly flashed across Leylin's vision.
[Classification: Hostile mobilization of native Spirit Aura. Vector: Direct interception tracking behind the host's blind spot!]
Swish!
The exact microsecond France started to speak, the warm paternal light within Ramon's eyes instantly flipped into a deep-seated frost.
As if on an synchronized cue, a black, shadowy figure erupted from the dark corners of the office, launching a ruthless ambush at a fatal angle toward Leylin.
Leylin casually glanced backward, an amused, relaxed smile playing on his lips. Internally, however, his mind was quietly impressed by the amazing velocity at which the strike was descending.
He was also mildly confused by the sudden, unprovoked aggression. Even though his had easily mapped out the hidden presence lurking within the room long before he stepped inside, he hadn't anticipated that the City Lord would launch a kill-strike without a single word of inquiry.
The incoming attack was ruthless, precise, and executed with zero wasted motion, the undeniable hallmark of an elite assassin.
Puff!
The hidden attacker successfully connected its surprise blow, driving its razor-sharp claws directly through the target.
Unexpectedly, however, the claws passed completely through Leylin's frame as if he were no more than a phantasmal specter or a lingering ghost.
Leylin's body scattered smoothly into a cloud of dark shadow particles, before seamlessly reuniting to reform his solid figure a few feet to the left.
He had effortlessly executed his Shadow Concealment spell to render himself completely untouchable.
Boom!
Due to the absurd, blinding speed at which the attacker had launched, it was entirely unable to halt its forward momentum after missing its target.
The dark silhouette crashed catastrophically directly into the heavy mahogany executive desk. Under the immense kinetic impact, the solid wood instantly shattered into a hundred flying pieces, kicking up a massive noise and a dense cloud of splintered dust inside the office.
Leylin calmly deactivated his spell, his eyes focusing through the settling dust to inspect his aggressor. He was pleasantly surprised by what he found.
Resting within the wreckage was an odd-looking cat hybrid known across the province as a Slayer Lynx.
The creature was built for assassination; its muscular frame was wrapped in a shifting, light-absorbing coat of midnight-blue fur, its large tufted ears twitched, and its heavy paws were tipped with black claws that retracted into the leather pads.
Elongated, sabertooth fangs peeked past its lips, and its double slit eyes in shape of a cross gleamed with a bloodthirsty desire.
"So... you aren't a mere Corporal stage practitioner after all," Leylin remarked, his tone full of ridicule as he looked at the City Lord. "You are actually a Sergeant Stage beast tamer! To think you have been hiding your strength all this time, intentionally constructing a lesser reputation across Linthin Town. But before me... your hidden power is still far from good enough."
Although Leylin's database regarding this foreign planet's classifications, meditation techniques, and specific monster evolutions was still relatively fresh, he had gathered essential data from Eta's memory and his conversations with France.
Consequently, he recognized the specific species crouched before him.
The Slayer Lynx was none other than the evolved, superior version of France's own Assassin Cat. As for the precise mechanics governing how this transformation functioned, a proper research had yet to done.
However, he now understood the reason why Ramon Greg had been so adamant about France securing that specific feline; because their innate spiritual aptitudes were identical, Ramon could utilize his experience with an Assassin Cat to guide her future development.
Yet, exceeding the wildest calculations of the rival noble houses within Linthin Town, Ramon had already breached the boundaries of his rank, ascending to the Sergeant Stage while his contracted beast evolved into Slayer Lynx.
The chasm separating a Corporal from a Sergeant was as exaggerated as the distance separating a standard Level 3 Acolyte from an Official Magus.
A Sergeant Stage beast tamer gained an evolved physical strength, allowing them to directly share passive attributes and cast skills alongside their contracted beast, placing them on an entirely different level of existence.
Leylin felt a minor flash of surprise at seeing Ramon manifest a strength parameters higher than his initial estimation.
Yet, to a Rank 3 Warlock, a surprise of this caliber was about as threatening as the gentle purring of a household cat.
In actuality, it was not Ramon's hidden Sergeant rank that amazed his mind, but rather the unique, un-analyzed biological traits of the lynx itself.
In stark contrast to Leylin's relaxed expression, Ramon Greg's face was mask of absolute shock and horror.
He stood frozen behind the ruins of his desk, completely unable to utter a single word of reply to the Leylin's mockery.
After a moment of silence, the Ramon's shock twisted into a cocktail of anger and helplessness.
"So... it has finally come to this, huh?" Ramon gritted his teeth, a death-defying glare locking onto Leylin's face as his hands trembled.
"I suppose I must feel deeply honored that a 'True Sergeant' has personally come to claim my life! But do not think for a single second that I will go down without a fight! Ziggler, come to my side!"
He bellowed the name fiercely, calling forth the power of his beast.
Leylin's brow lifted slightly at the declaration. Listening to the man's frantic words, he deduced that the City Lord had mixed up his identity with a rival political faction, plunging their interaction into a misunderstanding.
"If you refuse to listen to reason," Leylin murmured coldly, his black eyes narrowing, "then I shall simply have to force you to comply."
"Master!"
Bang!
The double doors were violently smashed open from the outside. A wave of elite mansion guards and heavily armored knights flooded into the executive office, instantly raising their spears and drawn steel directly toward Leylin's position.
"Summon!" Leylin commanded indifferently.
Without wasting a single glance on the incoming soldiers, he casually flicked his wrist. Half a dozen spectral Magi spilled out from the dark void of the Soulbound Devourer, their translucent, chilling forms solidifying instantly across the room.
The undead Magi unleashed a barrage of targeted binding circles, gravity webs, and advanced freezing spells, restricting the movements of the security forces without fatally attacking them.
A chaotic array of beasts rushed forward to defend their masters, but they were instantly intercepted by the spectral Magi.
Rank 1 spells parried the animals' paws, teeths, and elemental attack, and bind them into submission, while the armored knights were casually thrown backward across the floor with simple blows from the summons.
Even with their attributes suffering from the world's 20% suppression penalty, the undead Magi possessed reinforced bodies that vastly surpassed the strength of any standard mortal warrior.
In a pure physical brawl, not even a veteran Silver Knight like Gill could hope to compare to their power.
Deciding to bring this tedious farce to an immediate conclusion, Leylin's pupils violently dilated, shifting into the thin, vertical amber slits of an ancient serpent.
He unleashed his Rank 3 spell—Intimidating Gaze.
He controlled a fraction of his spiritual force to leak into the room. The sheer weight of his crimson spiritual aura descended like a slab of solid lead, instantly turning the blood inside Ramon's veins to slow down and freezing the oxygen within his lungs.
The crushing pressure filled the Ramon's mind with a primal terror he had never encountered in his entire life.
Ramon couldn't even open his jaw to draw a breath, let alone speak; he could only stand paralyzed, staring up at Leylin with wide, horrified eyes before rolling his gaze in a desperate prayer toward his daughter.
Leylin had intentionally filtered his aura, sparing France from the gravity well; otherwise, given her fragile body, her internal organs would have instantly collapsed into a bloody pulp from the immense friction.
He thought to himself with a quiet, inner laugh: 'A hidden powerful family, a destined wasteral of a son, a secretly strong father, a daughter with an innate beast... did I somehow stumble directly into a standard protagonist's arc?'
Suddenly, a flash of motion cut through his perception.
Despite being pinned under the weight of the suppression field, the Slayer Lynx, Ziggler, broke through its paralysis, launching a desperate, lightning-fast slash straight toward Leylin's throat.
Leylin's A.I. Chip immediately ran a analysis, tracking the spiritual strings binding Ramon to his beast.
Even while its master was suffocating, the lynx could still freely channel the Spirit Aura through their symbiotic connection.
It appeared that Leylin's spiritual force did not possess an absolute suppression effect over this deep soul link. In truth, Leylin had purposefully left a deliberate opening within his domain, solely to judge how the Spirit Aura behaved when pushed to its threshold.
"This is intriguing," Leylin murmured.
The Lynx abruptly vanished from space, utilizing a blinking trait to instantly re-manifest directly above Leylin's head.
Its eyes ignited with a blinding, boiling crimson light, assembling a high-density laser beam that crackled with destructive energy, about to explode downward.
Leylin simply maintained his relaxed, elegant posture, a mild smile gracing his handsome features. "No matter. This fight is already over. Umbra Hands."
Boom!
A massive, clawed hand composed of solid, ink-black shadow materialised out of the floorboards, snatching the lunging Slayer Lynx clean out of mid-air.
Trapped in the iron grip, the cat frantically discharged its stored ocular laser beam directly at Leylin's face.
However, a translucent barrier flickered before Leylin. The high-energy crimson beam collided against the shield, dissipating harmlessly into sparks without leaving so much as a single dent on the array.
The Umbra Hand squeezed hard. Crunch! The distinct sound of fracturing ribs echoed through the quiet office. Its elemental energy collapsing, the Slayer Lynx let out a sharp, agonized meow before going limp.
"Ziggler!" Ramon cried out in heartbreaking agony, his eyes wide as he looked at his lifemate, turning a desperate, pleading gaze toward the Leylin.
"Do not be so overly dramatic," Leylin stated, as his six spectral Magi formed a disciplined military line right behind his shoulders, standing like stoic soldiers. "If I truly harbored a desire to execute your lineage today, a single one of my summons could easily slaughter every living soul inside this estate within minutes. I merely chose to teach your naughty little cat a lesson."
Ramon looked at the silent, terrifying specters and realized the truth of the statement; each one of these cloaked entities felt like a monster, and Leylin held a dozen of them at his beck and call, to say nothing of his own personal, god-like personal power.
"As you can now hopefully understand, I am not the individual you are confusing me with," Leylin smiled. He dismissed the spell with a wave of his hand, and the spectral Magi instantly dissolved back into the void.
A luxurious chair composed of dark shadow-matter rose smoothly from the floorboards behind his boots, and Leylin sat down comfortably, elegantly crossing his legs.
The suffocating gravity vanished from the room. Ramon leaden muscles releasing their grip, as he collapsed heavily onto the floorboards, drawing in ragged, desperate gulps of air to stabilize his failing lungs.
"Dad!" France let out a frantic cry, throwing herself to his side to support his shaking shoulders.
In a broken, labored breath, Ramon spoke, his eyes fixed on the floor as his pride shattered. "Please... please forgive my offense, my Lord. This old man foolishly confused your eminence with a nemesis. If it pleases your wrath... I shall gladly atone for this slight with my own life. I only beg that you show mercy and spare my family."
France burst into hysterical tears, her voice cracking as she looked at Leylin's face.
She immediately slid off her father, slamming her forehead violently against the hard stone floorboards in a desperate, pleading kowtow.
"No! Father, please! My Lord, I beg of you, please forgive us! Spare my father's life!"
In her frantic mind, the image of Eta's mangled, armless body screaming in the dirt flashed vividly; she knew with certainty that this monstrous entity would erase their entire lineage without a single hint of remorse if provoked further.
Leylin lets out a wry smile at the melodramatic display.
Waving his hand, a current of solidified spiritual force gently lifted both father and daughter back onto their feet.
"I have no intention of slaughtering your household," Leylin stated calmly. "France, you may leave the room now. Your father and I require a private conversation."
"My-My Lord!?" Terrified that her father would be executed or permanently crippled the moment the doors locked, France frantically lunged forward, attempting to tightly grab Leylin's boots to beg further.
"France!"Ramon, however, immediately wrapped his strong arms around her waist, pulling her back. He looked into her teary eyes, his voice firm and absolute as he commanded her to leave the chamber.
"Listen to his eminence."
Leylin released restrictions over the mansion guards and the injured Slayer Lynx.
Recognizing the chasm in power, Ramon barked a final, authoritative order to the trembling sentries, instructing them to clear the workspace immediately and forcefully escort the weeping France out.