The three entered the house with a collective sigh.
Kayden went upstairs immediately to change his clothes. Despite missing his simpler days, he had grown accustomed to luxurious clothing.
When he came back down, he found that Henry had changed as well.
The two sat together, eating some fruit in a quiet atmosphere until Henry asked, "Where's Colton? Wasn't he here just a moment ago?"
Kayden shrugged while biting into a slice of apple. "I have no idea."
Henry spoke as he headed upstairs, "I'm going up to check on Mafilda and Mary. And don't eat too much without me. Also, it's cold why are you wearing a short-sleeved shirt? You're going to catch a cold."
But Kayden did not wait. The moment Henry disappeared upstairs, he devoured the remaining fruit at lightning speed.
Later, Kayden went upstairs, where Henry soon joined him, standing quietly by his side.
"Everyone's fine… but Colton disappeared."
Kayden did not answer. He simply stared down the hallway. "Colton is extremely fast."
Henry raised an eyebrow and shrugged slowly. "Isn't it normal for him to change his appearance?"
Kayden nodded absentmindedly before replying in a half-serious tone, "Maybe he turned himself into a cockroach."
Henry paused for a few seconds before saying thoughtfully, in a strangely calm voice, "In that case… maybe I stepped on him."
Kayden shot him an annoyed glance before sighing and walking toward the kitchen. Henry followed immediately.
They found nothing there, so they headed to the living room instead, where everyone was gathered quietly — except for Colton.
"Mom, how are you?" Kayden asked, completely ignoring everyone else.
Isabel smiled brightly, her face glowing with happiness as though she had just heard wonderful news. "Eden! Congratulations on your recovery. We truly believed in you… and you too, Henry, congratulations on your smooth progress in training! Look at my sons they're doing wonderfully, unlike someone else." She pointed toward Roger.
"It wasn't me who broke the statue," Roger lied shamelessly. In truth, he had shattered one of Isabel's favorite statues because of his recklessness.
After seeing their family, both Kayden and Henry sat down quietly. Only a few moments passed before one of the servants entered carrying several dishes Kayden liked.
The servant was Tim, one of the workers guided by Mafilda.
Kayden sat there without enthusiasm, eating mechanically as if completing a routine task. Henry was the same, chewing absentmindedly. The food had no flavor, and the peace around them felt meaningless.
Roger watched them for a moment before raising an eyebrow mockingly. "Even I, the punished one, think the food tastes good. Have you two never seen food before?"
Kayden swallowed a bite quickly and stared at him with cold indifference. "You know Adam, right? That man brings poverty and hunger wherever he goes… he's cursed."
Henry let out a muffled laugh and pointed at Kayden. "He even wore donated clothes."
Soft laughter spread through the room.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Arthur approached Adele and asked quietly, "Where is our guest now? Has he started progressing already?"
Adele answered with a faint smile, "I gave him a pile of books. He's in his room reading quietly now… though I can't tell if he's making progress yet."
She sounded as though she were speaking about a gentle child absorbed in a toy, yet there was unmistakable confidence in her voice.
Arthur looked at his children for a moment, something close to silent amazement lingering in his eyes. He had never expected his chaotic and violent life journey to lead to such a peaceful moment — sitting here, surrounded by people he called family.
It felt strange to realize he had built something he had never planned for.
His gaze wandered across the room before stopping on Isabel's eyes. Her green eyes carried countless unspoken words. She smiled softly at him, though she quickly looked away afterward.
Then Kayden broke the silence.
"Father… where are humans really in this world? How could there be all these wars, lords, and immortals while we knew nothing about them?"
"The answer is simple," Arthur replied calmly as he sat down. "I concealed everything that could have caused problems including knowledge of your world. Since you two are twins, there was a high chance neither of you would develop a spiritual core, so I hid everything. But both of you found your own ways to uncover information, and my protection failed. One of you ended up trafficking corpses, and the other fell into darkness."
Kayden pointed at himself, and Adele nodded. He was the one Arthur meant.
"As for humans… they are dangerous. They learned how to survive among people who possess spiritual cores. They know everything, and they are excellent at protecting themselves. But our world was always viewed by ordinary people with admiration, fear, or sometimes hidden resentment. That was true even without the disasters we cause. The overwhelming power we possess was enough to impose its own order upon the mundane world. But no one likes being forced to accept a system they do not understand."
"So some groups claimed they were righteous and began taking ordinary people under their protection. That's why the king receives support because he protects their rights. Families like Theodore and Sylvester? If a human enters their territory, they may never leave alive. As for my family… we simply do not accept humans at all."
"Why?" Henry asked.
"Because we are fighters," Arthur answered. "Look if I used only a fraction of my power, I could cause an entire massacre without feeling guilt. That is why we created laws and systems. Influential sects and powerful families cannot maintain authority if they fail to preserve order in their territories."
"Everyone has influence. I know people capable of rivaling the king himself. But humans are incredibly dangerous. What makes them dangerous is curiosity. There were operations involving the dissection of many spiritual-core users, and a scientist named William helped them. He's Adam's friend and connected to those sects. But William himself possesses a spiritual core… perhaps the purest spiritual core I have ever seen."
Silence followed.
Not long after, Isabel suddenly broke it with a mischievous smile.
"Do you all want me to tell you how Arthur got married?"
Everyone immediately lifted their heads as though awakening from a shared trance. Excitement instantly appeared in their eyes, except for Adele, who sighed quietly, and George, who remained calm as always. They already knew enough for surprises to lose their effect.
"Arthur, start telling the story!"
Isabel interrupted quickly, waving her hand. "Didn't you go to Fiona asking to borrow her power?"
Kayden raised an eyebrow and asked, as though he had caught a strange word in the middle of an unfamiliar conversation, "Borrowing?"
Arthur sighed, as if reaching back into a distant era, then spoke in a tone balanced between explanation and confession.
"For years, I possessed a secondary ability… called Borrowing. It allowed me to borrow one skill from another person and use it only once before it disappeared from my body as though it had never existed."
"At first… it was useful. Especially when I was still a beginner. No style, no experience, no real skill… just a sword and the desire to survive. But I received it directly from my lord, Edmenial himself. It was a reward… the only thing I truly had left."
His eyes drifted away for a moment.
Unlike Fiona, who controlled words and emotions, Arthur had walked a different path… a path paved only with blood.
"At that time…" Arthur began narrating in a faint voice, his tone carrying a buried exhaustion, as though he were dragging the memory out of an old wound.
The moment he spoke, it felt as if the scene around them changed. The room's light dimmed, and the air thickened with the smell of ash, iron, and blood.
They had returned to war.
— During the War —
It was one of the bloodiest wars ever fought — a war between followers themselves, so catastrophic that even the Immortals personally descended onto the battlefield.
Everyone lost something in that war.
No one emerged untouched… neither physically nor spiritually.
Arthur, who had never been the kind of man to seek rest, found himself chasing a single moment of silence… a moment that never came.
Under the darkness of night, Arthur swung his sword amidst the slaughter, his body drenched in blood he could no longer tell belonged to him or his enemies.
After a long battle, he sat atop a smooth rock near piles of corpses, watching soldiers run across the battlefield to clean away the remains of the massacre. Their eyes were dead, their movements mechanical…
War had devoured their souls.
A young soldier approached him, his voice carrying the rare sound of hope.
"Sir… they say Lord Edmenial has sent supplies."
Arthur slowly lifted his head, surprise flickering faintly in his eyes. This region had not received supplies for weeks.
"Lord Edmenial? Personally?" Arthur asked quietly.
"Yes. They'll arrive by morning," the soldier replied with a hesitant smile.
Arthur nodded before standing.
He looked toward the silent horizon, then vanished into the shadows as though he belonged to them.
The following morning—
What appeared to be the dawn of peace was, in truth, the dawn of destruction.
The battle erupted once again, but this time… the attack was different. Among the enemy forces stood someone who had nearly reached the Stage of Soul Convergence.
Arthur stood atop a small elevation overlooking the battlefield, disgust clearly visible across his face.
"They brought someone on the verge of Soul Reflection… just to kill me?" he muttered to himself with a bitter laugh.
He had never expected his reputation to rise to such a level.
He drew his sword once more—
Then charged.
He moved too quickly for the naked eye to follow. Wherever Arthur passed, limbs scattered, flesh tore apart, and souls collapsed.
He was not killing. He was uprooting existence itself.
Shock spread among the soldiers. Some stopped fighting entirely, frozen only to witness what looked like a human catastrophe tearing through the battlefield.
But then A sudden strike powerful enough to hurl Arthur several meters backward sent blood bursting from his mouth.
Arthur rose slowly, smiling.
His eyes burned with challenge.
"For you to come personally just to kill me… that is an honor."
A tall man stepped out from the smoke, his body as solid as stone itself, a calm smile resting on his face.
"You are strong. Why do you follow Edmenial? Become one of our great master's followers instead."
Arthur looked away mockingly.
"I would rather become a bald monk than follow your master."
Arthur stepped forward and pulled his battle spirit from the depths of his body.
His foot slammed against the ground—
But the strike was not aimed at Jasper.
It was aimed at the earth itself.
Cracks spread violently across the battlefield, as though the land itself responded to Arthur's rage.
He sprinted forward, leaped, and attacked But Jasper's arm hardened instantly.
Arthur's sword shattered like glass.
Arthur stepped back, but his body was unprepared for the next strike.
A monstrous punch tore through his defenses, sending him flying like a ragdoll before crashing violently into the ground.
Arthur rose from the dust, a cold half-smile stretching across his face not satisfaction, not anger, but deadly certainty.
"You're durable?" he said with contempt while brushing dirt from his shoulder. "You're nothing more than a rock."
Then he gestured toward the fractured earth surrounding them.
"And rocks… break apart and crumble."
"Just like you will."
The moment he finished speaking, he vanished.
An overwhelming exchange of blows erupted between him and Jasper. Every strike shook the battlefield, every step ripped apart what little remained of the land around them.
This was no longer a battlefield.
It was a field of annihilation.
With his long years of experience, Arthur did not approach the fight as a contest of endurance or brute strength.
He treated it like a precise dance of death.
He waited only for a single moment—
A flaw.
A crack within Jasper's stone defenses.
Because Arthur understood perfectly that he could never outlast an opponent of this type in a battle of attrition.
And eventually ,The moment appeared.
Jasper retreated rapidly, energy surging around his body as his right shoulder briefly returned to human form in an attempt to restore its hardened state.
But he never expected Arthur to attack at a speed beyond perception itself, as though the devil had personally lunged to slaughter him.
Jasper tried to evade , Too late.
Arthur's hand pierced through Jasper's shoulder like a claw.
A muffled scream escaped his lips , But what came after was far worse.
The pain did not come from the shattered shoulder itself.
It came from what followed.
Bones erupted from Jasper's shoulder, but they were no ordinary bones. They twisted and extended into a long serrated blade, resembling a weapon dragged straight from a nightmare.
Jasper froze in place.
He stared at his monstrous arm, now a horrifying fusion of stone, flesh, and weaponry.
He inhaled sharply and suddenly lunged forward, killing a nearby soldier without hesitation before snatching the man's massive sword.
Then—
Right before Arthur's eyes
Jasper severed his own infected arm, cutting away the grotesque blade that had grown from it…
Before hardening his body once again with terrifying speed.