Chapter 119: Provoking Someone You Shouldn’t Have Provoked

Chapter 119: Provoking Someone You Shouldn’t Have Provoked

"What the hell! What is that thing!"

Miguel's eyes nearly popped out of his head. The whiskey glass he'd been holding slipped from his fingers and shattered on the carpet.

The Stinger missile was streaking straight toward the floor-to-ceiling window where he stood, trailing a long plume of fire.

"Run! Get out of here!"

Miguel scrambled toward the study door in a panic, half-crawling, half-stumbling.

The black-robed figure who'd been lurking in the shadows somehow moved even faster than Miguel, running and shouting back at him over his shoulder.

"You absolute idiot! Didn't you say your defense system was perfect? You call this perfect?"

The two of them had barely made it through the doorway — hadn't even reached the stairs yet.

The explosion hit like a thunderclap behind them. The entire bulletproof glass wall burst into a storm of shards, and the blast wave slammed into their backs like a battering ram.

Miguel felt a sharp pain in his eardrums, then his body crashed hard onto the first-floor lobby and everything went black.

He wasn't sure how long he was out. Maybe a few minutes. Maybe only seconds.

Miguel came to in a daze, his head soaked in blood.

He pushed himself up, shook his heavy head, and spotted the black-robed figure not far away, also struggling to his feet.

The hood that had covered him completely was torn open, revealing half of a deathly pale face.

Miguel looked toward the front door, gasping for breath.

The lawn outside had been blasted into a massive crater. Through the rolling black smoke, Ethan was walking steadily toward the manor's main hall.

"Stop him! Get him, now!"

Miguel lurched to his feet, roaring at the bodyguards who were just pulling themselves off the ground nearby.

At Miguel's order, more than a dozen bodyguards charged out from behind cover.

These men were the Winston family's elite — hired killers who had been given low-grade gene serums and turned into something beyond ordinary humans.

Seeing them standing between him and Ethan, Miguel felt his nerves settle.

He spat a mouthful of bloody saliva and jabbed a finger at Ethan, laughing.

"Ethan, you bastard — what, you kick one missile back and think you're some kind of god? That was luck! Pure dumb luck!"

The more Miguel talked, the more smug he felt. It all made perfect sense to him.

"So what if you're strong? Look at the people around me! Every single one of them has been enhanced with gene serums! And behind me stands The Aeterna Causality!"

Miguel glared at Ethan through gritted teeth. "You're not walking out of here alive today. Tear him apart!"

More than a dozen bodyguards drew the tactical blades from their backs. Their muscles swelled as they surged toward Ethan.

Ethan didn't even break his stride.

He raised one hand and gave a casual flick of his wrist. The three bodyguards at the front never saw it coming — they only felt a sudden coldness at their throats.

Three sharp cracks rang out in quick succession. Three heads left their bodies, blood spraying in thick arcs before they thudded to the ground at Miguel's feet.

The remaining bodyguards hadn't even had time to react. Ethan was already a blur tearing through the group.

He drove his fist straight through one mutant's chest, bursting the heart clean open.

Another bodyguard tried to come at him from behind — Ethan grabbed the man's arm and ripped it clean off at the shoulder. Blood painted the wall in one thick streak.

Less than ten seconds.

More than a dozen gene-enhanced soldiers — men Miguel had considered unstoppable — were now scattered across the floor in pieces.

The laugh died in Miguel's throat.

His mouth fell open. His legs shook uncontrollably.

How was this possible?

How was this possible?

These were men whose muscles could stop bullets. How was Ethan cutting through them like they were nothing?

Pure terror flooded through him, and in that moment Miguel understood exactly how badly he'd miscalculated.

Then it hit him — The Aeterna Causality's envoy was still here.

A real heavy hitter, with genuinely terrifying power. As long as that man was by his side, Ethan couldn't touch him.

"Envoy! Now! Kill him!"

Miguel spun around, clutching at that lifeline.

But the black-robed figure was gone.

Miguel froze. Through the shattered window beside him, he caught a glimpse — the envoy was sprinting hard toward the trees behind the manor, running for his life and not looking back once.

"He... how..."

Miguel's legs gave out. He dropped to his knees.

He knew better than anyone what an Aeterna Causality envoy was capable of. These were people who could wipe out an entire family without breaking a sweat. The Winston family had built everything they had with that man's backing.

And now this envoy — untouchable, all-powerful — couldn't even bring himself to face Ethan. He'd just run, leaving Miguel behind to die.

What kind of person could frighten an Aeterna Causality envoy into running like that?

Only now did Miguel truly understand what he had gotten himself into. But it was far too late.

The few guards still standing raised their assault rifles — and before any of them could pull a trigger, Ethan had already killed every last one of them where they stood.

Then, in an instant.

Miguel's vision blurred, and without any warning, Ethan was right in front of him — less than ten inches away.

Ethan looked down at Miguel sprawled on the floor, reached out, and wrapped one hand around his throat, lifting him off the ground.

"You said..." Ethan watched Miguel's face turn a deep, oxygen-starved purple, the corner of his mouth curling slightly. "That I wouldn't make it out of here alive?"

Miguel kicked his legs frantically, clawing at Ethan's arm with both hands, forcing out broken sounds from his crushed throat.

"No..."

Then Ethan's gaze shifted past Miguel's shoulder, toward the trees where the black-robed figure had fled.

He snapped his attention back to the man in his grip.

Miguel's skin had gone an unnatural flushed red. Cracks were spreading across the surface — like something was about to tear its way out from inside him.

Ethan recognized this immediately.

The last time he'd encountered someone from The Aeterna Causality, he'd seen something just like it.

The difference was, this time they'd turned Miguel into a bomb.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ethan hurled Miguel through the window and sprinted in the opposite direction.

A second later.

The explosion ripped through the air. In a blinding flash of light, the Winston Villa was blown into rubble.