The night sky above the estate was bathed in the pale, tranquil glow of a crescent moon, casting long, silver shadows across the peaceful household.
Inside the quietest bedroom, eight-year-old Null slept soundly. Beside him lay his younger brother, seven-year-old Haruto his messy, golden-yellow hair tipped with distinct black streaks at the ends. The two brothers breathed in a synchronized rhythm, completely unaware of the heavy burdens already woven into their bloodlines.
Across the hallway, in a dimly lit study, the atmosphere was far from peaceful.
Asuka Asura a hardened, middle-aged man in his early thirties with sharp black hair and a piercing, solitary blue eye sat at his wooden desk, staring blankly at his calloused hands. Opposite him stood his wife, Rin Enatsu, a twenty-nine-year-old elf woman whose vibrant yellow hair framed a striking face. Her eyes were a deep, mesmerizing purple, save for her right eye, which bore a pristine, white cross-shaped mark within the iris.
Asuka leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples with a heavy sigh.
"Bae, I feel like we're chasing an impossible task," Asuka murmured, his voice laced with exhaustion. "I get that both of our boys carry Prime Stones now... but their awakening conditions are insane. Null carries Umbros, which literally requires another stone to be absorbed before it even wakes up. And Haruto carries Asura, which requires a pure, uncorrupted heart which sounds simple on paper, but is almost impossible in a world like ours."
He looked up at Rin, his single blue eye darkening. "And you know as well as I do... the only way to take a stone from someone else is by killing them. I know damn well you don't want us going down that road."
Rin crossed her arms, her right eye flickering with subtle spatial energy. "Yeah, but why not just go to the military high command? We could ask for the stone of a fallen soldier instead of hunting down random people."
"You're not getting it, Rin," Asuka replied, shaking his head bitterly. "The army is completely rotten from the top down. The high leaders are corrupted. If I walk back into that base and request a dead officer's stone, they'll trap me. They'll capture me and drag me right back into those damn cages just like they did years ago when I still held Umbros."
Rin stared at him, her chest tightening. "...Yeah. You're right."
Both parents let out a long, heavy sign.
CRASH!
The sudden, sharp sound of shattering glass echoed from the ground-floor kitchen, instantly cutting through the quiet house.
Asuka immediately stood up, his posture shifting from relaxed fatigue to absolute combat readiness in a split second. "Are those kids up raiding the pantry again?" he muttered under his breath, stepping toward the door.
He quietly descended the wooden staircase, his footsteps making no sound. But as he reached the kitchen threshold, the scent of ozone and iron hit his nostrils.
Standing in the dark kitchen were eight shadowy figures dressed in identical, crimson-red tactical cloaks. The darkness of the room veiled their faces entirely, but the cold, systematic way they surrounded the exits proved they were professionals.
Asuka halted, taking in the scene. A heavy chuckle escaped his throat.
"...Oh, shit," Asuka said softly, scratching the back of his neck. "You guys finally tracked me down, huh? Took y'all long enough. I already told your bosses years ago I lost my Umbros."
The operative in the center stepped forward, his red cloak rustling. He pulled out a pair of heavy, anti-divine suppressive cuffs, the metal glowing with a faint blue sealing array.
"Sir Asuka Asura," the lead operative spoke in a flat, synthesized voice. "Please come with us peacefully. We can discuss the details further back at the laboratory."
Asuka looked at the glowing cuffs, then back at the eight red-cloaked intruders. A slow, dangerous smile spread across his face.
"I'm sorry, but respectfully? No," Asuka said, his voice dropping an octave. "I am *never* going back to that hellhole. I lost everything over there... and like I said, I don't have Umbros anymore."
Asuka raised his bare hands, cracking his knuckles one by one as a thin, razor-sharp aura of compressed wind began to wrap around his wrists and shins like swirling, invisible blades.
"But I still got these hands for y'all. Let's get active."
BOOM!
Asuka didn't wait. Pushing off the tile floor with explosive Taekwondo footwork, he breached the gap in a millisecond, appearing directly in front of the lead operative.
Before the leader could raise his suppressive cuffs, Asuka pivoted on his left heel and whipped out a brutal, wind-infused spinning hook kick straight into the operative's helmet!
CRACK!
The wind pressure detonated on impact, shattering the operative's visor and sending him crashing through the kitchen island, taking down two other red-cloaked soldiers behind him!
"Target is engaging! Use lethal force!" one of the remaining operatives barked, drawing a high-frequency energy blade.
Three operatives lunged at Asuka simultaneously from his left, right, and rear.
Asuka didn't panic. Drawing upon his old military Judo training, he caught the incoming blade mid-swing with his wind-wrapped palms, redirected the momentum, and stepped inside the attacker's guard. Grabbing the operative's tactical vest, Asuka executed a flawless hip-throw, slamming the soldier headfirst into the concrete floor with enough force to crack the foundation!
Without breaking momentum, Asuka ducked under a horizontal slash from the second soldier. He swept his leg in a low Taekwondo breakdance kick, taking the soldier's legs out from under him, before springing upward with a knee strike directly into the third operative's chin!
THWACK!
The third soldier was launched upward, embedding into the kitchen ceiling before crashing down motionless.
"He doesn't have a Prime Stone, but his physical martial arts are off the charts!" another operative yelled, backing away while drawing a long-range suppressor pistol. "Suppress him!"
Asuka's single blue eye flared in the dark.
He breathed in deeply, recalling the ancient muscle memory from his days when he carried Umbros. Even without the stone, the phantom mechanics of the technique remained etched into his very soul.
He dropped into a low, shadowy stance. His movement pattern suddenly became erratic, shifting fluidly like a flickering flame.
[TECHNIQUE: IMPERFECT SHADOW DANCE]
Asuka vanished from sight.
"Where is he?!" the gunman panicked, aiming his pistol wildly around the dark kitchen.
"Behind you," a cold voice whispered in his ear.
Before the gunman could pull the trigger, Asuka's hand shot forward like a striking viper. He caught the soldier's wrist, twisted it back until the bone snapped, and slammed a palm strike infused with dense wind pressure directly into the soldier's sternum!
The kinetic shockwave burst out the back of the soldier's red cloak, blasting him straight out the kitchen window and onto the lawn outside!
The remaining two red-cloaked operatives stood frozen, their weapons trembling as Asuka slowly straightened his posture, wiping a drop of sweat from his forehead.
"Is that all the army's got nowadays?" Asuka taunted, stepping over the unconscious bodies littering his kitchen floor. "You guys got sloppy."
END OF CHAPTER 105
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