Lucius woke because someone intended to hurt him.
The certainty arrived before sound, light, or any alarm. His body remained still beneath the covers while his mind spread out from the bedroom in widening waves. It crossed the corridor, passed through sleeping Sebastien and stationed guards, filled the mansion, then moved over the grounds and beyond the walls.
Unfamiliar minds waited in the dark.
He counted twelve on the first sweep. The sensation at the back of his skull remained, so he narrowed the search and found a thirteenth presence moving close behind another. Whatever hid them from the estate's equipment did nothing useful against Telepathy once he knew where to look.
The warning had not come from Telepathy. Thena had spent millennia recognising the instant before violence committed itself, while Gilgamesh understood how a body gathered force even before it moved. Their experience had settled into Lucius with the rest of what the two Eternals left behind.
It was useful, but it also brought back the foul taste that had followed him from Australia.
Sacrificing Gilgamesh had been unpleasantly wasteful. Thena had been worse. Lucius had considered the feeling with appropriate scientific distance and concluded that it might be guilt, which was unreasonable.
He was a refined, remorseless bastard. A professional, even. At least that was the conclusion he preferred.
Lucius sighed, got out of bed, and dressed. The intruders were Wakandan; their purpose sat plainly enough on the surface of their thoughts, and the disciplined mind at the centre belonged to a king who had crossed an ocean to accuse him of theft.
Meeting royalty in his underwear would have been discourteous. Meeting thirteen Wakandans naked might create expectations he had no intention of satisfying before breakfast.
He reached through the Nexus. Four squads changed position without sounding an alarm.
Rifles covered the roof, the rear lawn, both wings of the estate, and the approach to the front doors. Electronic targeting returned empty ground wherever the intruders moved. Lucius supplied the missing coordinates directly, one mind at a time, until every soldier knew where to aim, then went downstairs and waited at the entrance.
-
T'Chaka led the central team towards the mansion while two teams moved around its flanks.
The estate's cameras had accepted false images. Motion sensors reported empty grounds, and the patrols continued along the routes the War Dogs had recorded. Wakandan concealment had defeated more advanced systems than anything Noctis had placed around a foriby donated mansion, but that did not make the operation safe.
T'Chaka had listened when his agents warned him. He had reduced the time inside the estate, forbidden weapon use beyond its walls unless concealment had already failed, and divided the approach so no single position could contain the entire team.
Their objective remained extraction. Killing Noctis would leave the potion method buried with him.
The wall rose ahead of them. One War Dog reached the top, checked the grounds, and signalled the others forward. T'Chaka followed, the Vibranium weave of the Panther habit making no sound when he landed on the other side.
His feet had barely touched the grass when suppressed shots came from both wings.
Eight shots.
The channel remained silent. Neither team answered his command.
Red points appeared on the foreheads and chests of the four War Dogs around him. Another settled between the eyes of the Panther mask.
The mansion doors opened, and Noctis walked out wearing dark trousers, a black shirt, and no armour. He was smiling, which T'Chaka already disliked.
"War Dogs," Noctis called. His attention passed over the agents and stopped on T'Chaka. "And the big dog leading them. To what do I owe the honour of finding a royal hound on my perch in the dead of night?"
T'Chaka rose slowly. The War Dogs followed without lowering their weapons.
"Where are the other teams, thief?"
"Dead. They entered private property and discovered that camouflage is not the same thing as permission." Noctis opened his hands. Pale-gold Cosmic Energy lengthened into two short swords. "I would leave the remains alone. Disturbing them would be disrespectful, and you will be joining them shortly enough."
He spread his arms in welcome. "Come, doggy."
No king needed to answer that. T'Chaka attacked.
Two War Dogs raised their Sonic Spears. Neither completed the aim. The shots struck through their eyes, and two bodies fell behind the king before the weapons discharged.
The remaining pair moved with him.
-
The first War Dog came from Lucius's right while T'Chaka held the centre and the second agent circled left. It was the correct arrangement against an armed opponent. One threat occupied the blades, one restricted retreat, and the strongest body forced the opening.
Against Thena, it might even have been interesting.
Lucius stepped inside the first spear. His right sword shortened as he moved, passed between the weapon and the hand, and removed three fingers at the middle joints.
The agent recoiled without releasing the shaft. Lucius approved of the discipline and cut off the rest of the hand.
T'Chaka reached him before the blood touched the ground.
Vibranium claws crossed where Lucius's throat had been. He leaned beneath them, caught the king's elbow against his shoulder, and let Gilgamesh's mastery choose the turn. T'Chaka left the ground and struck the second War Dog hard enough to spoil the man's attack.
Lucius could have killed all three in that exchange. That seemed wasteful after they had travelled so far to entertain him.
The wounded War Dog changed his grip and drove the spear one-handed towards Lucius's chest. The pale-gold sword widened into a shield, turned the point aside, then narrowed around the man's forearm before the next thrust began.
A twist opened flesh from wrist to elbow.
Lucius left the artery intact. The man would last longer that way.
T'Chaka recovered before his agent did. He came low, claws angled for the abdomen, and changed direction when Lucius offered his left side. The adjustment was quick and properly trained. Lucius met it with a knee under the ribs.
The Panther habit spread the impact across the torso. It absorbed enough to protect skin and failed to protect everything beneath it. The first crack came from the king's lower ribs.
T'Chaka landed on his feet.
"Good suit."
The king struck him across the mouth.
Lucius's head moved less than an inch.
"Poor purchasing decision."
His forehead struck the Panther mask over the nose. Vibranium preserved the shape. The man inside it staggered.
The second War Dog seized the opening. A short Vibranium blade came for Lucius's kidney while the first tried to trap his sword arm with the shaft of the spear. They had watched their king create the chance and used it without hesitation.
Both weapons passed through Lucius's intangible body. He became solid between the agents.
Four fingers fell from the second man's hand as Lucius's other sword opened the first man's inner arm where he had spared the artery moments earlier. Blood ran down both sides of the spear, and the remaining hand could no longer control its weight. The second agent reached with his intact hand, and a return cut took that one off at the wrist. When the mutilated hand followed, Lucius removed it as well.
T'Chaka's roar came from behind Lucius. Both claws drove at his back.
Lucius turned. The swords joined into a round shield, and T'Chaka's claws struck its pale-gold face. Cosmic Energy met Vibranium with a hard note that travelled across the lawn. The Panther habit absorbed and distributed a fraction of the force.
It was a very small fraction. Lucius drove the shield forward, breaking another rib, and the next bash lifted T'Chaka from his feet and sent him through a stone planter.
The two War Dogs were still moving. Lucius appreciated commitment when it belonged to people conditioned by someone else. His own soldiers had expensive reasons for obedience. These men had brought theirs from home.
The first attempted to raise the Sonic Spear from the grass with his remaining hand. Lucius stepped on the shaft and drew a narrow construct across the man's upper arm. The cut was shallow, almost delicate, but it opened another vessel.
The agent collapsed to one knee as blood darkened his clothes.
His companion charged without hands, trying to use his shoulder and body weight. Lucius moved half a step.
A curved edge passed behind the man's knee, opened it, and let his own momentum take him down. One more cut went beneath the arm as he fell. Neither wound killed immediately, which was the point.
T'Chaka saw both men bleeding and changed his objective. He stopped trying to reach Lucius's body and went for the nearest War Dog instead.
The shield caught T'Chaka in the side. He crossed the lawn, hit the outer wall, and fell beneath the broken stone capping, but rose again before Lucius reached him. One leg dragged as the claws came up and his body settled into a guarded stance.
The Panther was hurt, and the king remained responsible for everyone dying around him. Lucius gave him time to look.
One War Dog had fallen on his side, breath shortening as blood spread beneath him. The other tried to crawl towards the dropped spear, leaving two separate trails across the grass.
The men shot through the eyes had not moved. Beyond them, the estate soldiers maintained their aim and waited for Lucius to finish enjoying himself.
T'Chaka attacked again. His damaged leg made the first step difficult. Lucius let him complete the second, turned around the claws, and drove a heel through the side of the knee. The joint broke with a wet snap, dropping the king into Lucius's waiting hand.
The captured wrist turned until the right arm broke above the elbow. The suit concealed swelling, blood, and most of the bruising. It could not conceal the sounds.
Only T'Chaka's left arm answered. Its blow passed Lucius's cheek as two counters landed beneath the ribs and across the jaw. The second snapped the king's head sideways and lifted him into a kick that drove him back into the wall.
Stone fractured around the black figure. T'Chaka slid down and remained seated against it, one knee bent in the wrong direction, his right arm useless, and his breathing too shallow for the number of ribs still trying to move.
His mask stayed fixed on Lucius as the two short blades dissolved.
Lucius reached for the familiar answer bound to his essence. Uru arrived in his hands, black and immense. Duskreaver's crescent head rose above him, its runes catching crimson light as telekinetic force settled along the full length of the weapon.
The axe felt heavy. It felt right.
Both Uru and Cosmic energy were superior to Vibranium-based arms and armour, so Lucius couldn't be happier about it.
Lucius walked towards the fallen Black Panther with a happy grin on his face.