Luke strode ahead through the park. There was actually a remarkable amount of zombies around, but Eve dealt with all of them.
She was eager to get back to being the group's monster exterminator after witnessing Kane's display.
Luke had to admit, after watching that, he was not at all impressed.
What had happened to Kane's power? He had heard of, and met, a mighty beast whose comparability far surpassed even his own. Someone who could deal with hundreds of armed, armored, and conscious warriors at once. Even advanced swords did nothing to him.
So why was he so weak? Surely the associate families wouldn't consider it wise to practically kill such a powerful weapon?
And if not, then how could it be such a struggle for him to deal with such simple, mindless opponents? It didn't make sense.
Luke knew of a procedure to reduce the power of those with high comparability, and he himself had narrowly avoided it happening to him numerous times. It was mostly used as a punishment for people who misused the power they had been granted, and Luke had had to defend his own honor multiple times and prove that he hadn't misused anything.
And it was true. Mostly.
So far he had been able to convince everyone that even those accusations that were rooted in fact had come from someone jealous of his success inside the associate families, who was simply attacking him in order to push themselves up on the ruins of his broken pride.
But Luke would not bend so easily. Even with your power locked, there was always a key.
At best it would be a massive setback within the family, at worst he would be cut off from them forever.
But either way, he would be able to recover, contrary to their beliefs.
Losing the power you had didn't have to break you. Luke was proud to the end.
And for anyone who dared to take even a letter from his name, they would soon discover what
happened to those that opposed him.
Not a single one of them knew his true abilities.
Four letters was a start. And even though he had seen the tremendous power that he had to surmount, he was not fazed.
Because Luke was going to find his checkmate. No matter what it took.
Luke smirked, and gave a small nod to Eve when she smashed through two heads in one swing. She immediately brightened, and resumed her humming. Of course, she had been looking to him for approval. She nearly always did after she did something impressive.
To others, her humming sounded vicious, evoking the feeling of a jagged, broken piece of glass cutting into their skin.
But to Luke, it was perfection.
Just because something was broken didn't mean that it needed to be fixed. And that was one bit of knowledge that he would take to his grave. That very knowledge was what gave him his edge on everyone else. He was the mastermind because he understood that.
Luke had often cursed the world for being unfair. After he had met Eve, he had cursed it all the harder.
Not even the associate families were fair.
But he understood now. True power came from only one place.
Oneself.
Here, in the woods, Luke's genius would be unleashed. Here, he would reign. He was the ruler of chaos, the painter whose medium was curiosity, and the apocalypse was the perfect canvas.
He would be closer during this time than any other point in his life. And there was no going backwards, not for him. There never had been. Luke was set in his path.
Onward, until he got his checkmate. And get it he would, no matter what.
Eve was just the first and final step in his plan. Through the associate families, he had built up connections, like the twins who called themselves Pride and Arrogance. The names were an obvious marker of his organization, though Zoe was the only one here who might know that.
They were slowly being unearthed from the shadows, even as they were growing.
Luke was the head of a hydra. But this hydra was a tad different than a normal one.
The senators would think that they had just discovered a venomous snake in their garden.
But if the head was cut off, they would discover its true form.
And even the gods would tremble in fear.
Because if Luke died, there was no one who was safe.
Not one single person. No matter who they knew, what relationships they had, how much power they had, where they hid, how unbreakable their defense was.
Cut off one head, and seven more shall grow in its place.