A few days had passed since the tragic incident at the Wyndham family estate. The atmosphere inside the mansion was tense, almost suffocating.
Security personnel patrolled the halls, joined by a handful of Paragons, all stationed to guard the house against another attack.
Alex remained within the estate, rarely leaving his room. He refused to see anyone, not even his mother. Anna had tried more than once to coax him out, but her efforts always ended in failure.
To outsiders, it seemed as if Alex was doing nothing, wasting away in silence. But he wasn't idle.
At this very moment, he sat cross-legged on the floor of his room, his Death Axe lying close by, its blade catching faint streaks of light from the window.
The room itself was plain, almost bare. Alex had never considered it his own space—he had simply chosen one of the many empty rooms in the mansion and settled there without care for decoration or comfort.
Still, there was one feature he appreciated: the balcony. It reminded him of his mother's, and from there he could overlook the mansion grounds.
Every so often, Alex would step out and gaze beyond the railings, scanning the sprawling estate and watching the constant movement of guards below.
Alex still sat cross-legged, but he wasn't cultivating. Instead, his mind wandered, tangled in a storm of thoughts.
'Things have been dying down lately. The house is still on high alert because of what happened, but it's not as tense as before,' he told himself.
Five days had crawled by since the incident. For Alex, it felt longer than a week. To the Paragons, however, recovery seemed swifter. They had their own way of shaking off trauma, healing faster than ordinary people.
'Speaking of the house, even the Triple J's and their kids aren't always around these days,' he noted.
'I believe this is the right time for me to act.'
His eyes snapped open. In one swift motion, Alex leapt from the bed and landed a short distance away. With a sharp snap of his fingers, the Death Axe shot into his hand as if pulled by an invisible chain.
The weapon landed with a heavy thud of force against his palm, and Alex's grip tightened around the handle. He studied the blade, its surface catching the dim light.
Though he had refused to step beyond the walls of the mansion, Alex still found himself drawn to his weapon. From time to time, he checked it, as though the Axe itself whispered for his attention.
Because he had used it to kill the wild pig, the Death Axe had evolved into another stage. From time to time, Alex tested its new capabilities.
Yet the room gave him little space to experiment, and from what he could tell, the changes were subtle—almost too subtle.
'I have made my decision. Today, I take down my target,' Alex thought with firm resolve.
—
In the Wyndham family house, the evening was already beginning to darken. A door creaked open, and from within stepped someone who had been unseen for days.
It was none other than Alex. Since the incident, this was the first time he had left his room.
'I can't wait to get out of this place. But before that, I have something I must handle,' he told himself.
He started moving through the halls, his steps deliberate as he wandered across the mansion. It didn't take long before the guards noticed him.
Their eyes followed his movements, and though they didn't interfere, Alex saw them speak quickly into their walkie-talkies, reporting his every move.
'Yeah, go on, tell them the culprit is out again,' Alex thought, a faint smug smile tugging at his lips.
It didn't take long before he noticed his mother moving through the mansion, clearly searching for him. She soon spotted him in the hallway and hurried over.
"I can't believe you locked yourself away for that long," Anna said, pulling him into a tight hug.
"And you never cared to take care of yourself. You stink," she added, wrinkling her nose.
Alex didn't answer right away. His voice finally broke through the silence, flat and edged with frustration.
"I hate it here. I don't even know why that old man called us in the first place. I thought we should've left by now."
"Yeah, we should have—if someone hadn't locked themselves in their room for a week," Anna shot back.
Alex scratched his head, his nerves showing.
The truth was, he hadn't simply been wasting away in isolation. He had spent most of those days meditating, buried in thought, his mind chasing endless possibilities.
Eating had been an afterthought; he only touched the food quietly dropped at his door when hunger clawed too deeply.
Meanwhile, as Alex and Anna spoke in the hallway, another figure watched from elsewhere in the mansion.
Eddie sat in a dim room filled with glowing screens—the CCTV hub of the house. His attention was fixed on one monitor in particular, the one showing Alex.
"Keep the sights on him," Eddie ordered the operator coldly. "Any strange movement—report it immediately."
With that, he turned and left the room.
Not long after, Alex learned that his mother was planning their return to the city. The news came as a relief to him, but there was still something he needed to accomplish before they left.
Fortunately, the departure wasn't immediate. That gave him just enough time.
For now, Alex wandered the mansion aimlessly, his footsteps carrying him down corridor after corridor. He moved as though searching for something unseen, passing the same places more than once.
Of course, every step was tracked. Eddie received reports of Alex's movements, and soon he was the only one left watching the live feed.
On the screens, Alex's figure drifted across the halls like a shadow in motion, stirring questions Eddie couldn't yet answer.
'The more I watch him, the more I feel he's up to something,' Eddie thought, narrowing his eyes at the screen.
"They might think you're innocent, but I know you're shady," he muttered under his breath.
As he flipped through the footage, his hand suddenly froze on the controls. A slow smile crept across his face, the kind that comes with a dangerous idea.
'Maybe… just maybe, this is my chance to teach you a lesson. I'm sure the others won't mind,' he told himself.
His fingers began clicking again, more purposeful this time.
'But just in case, I'll make sure they never find any evidence of what happens,' Eddie decided.
Moments later, the glow of the monitors faded. One by one, every screen went black. He had deactivated the entire mansion's CCTV system.
Meanwhile, Alex continued his aimless patrol. Eventually, he reached a long hallway, richly decorated with deep red carpets, golden walls that gleamed under the lights, and large ornamental flowers standing on each side like silent guards.
'From what I've seen so far, none of the Triple J's or their siblings are around,' Alex thought, a flicker of relief washing over him.
'That means it's all clear. Now, all I need to do is find where they keep their cultivation arts. Perhaps I might learn a few things from them,' Alex thought.
He stepped deeper into the hallway. Along the walls, one door after another came into view, each marked with the name of its owner.
There was Zephyr. Then Lennox. Then Isla.
Further down, the doors of the Triple J's stood in quiet authority.
At last, Alex stopped before the door of John, head of the family. The entrance was massive, towering above him, its frame carved with intricate patterns. It looked less like a bedroom door and more like the gateway to a castle hall.
Alex drew a deep breath. His hand pressed against the cold surface, and with steady force, he pushed the great door open.
"You are not meant to be here!" a voice barked.
Startled, Alex spun around. At the far end of the hallway stood Eddie, a smug smile painted across his face.
"Looking for someone new to kill again?" Eddie asked, his tone cutting through the silence.