A Shattered Heart

Zerana moved faster than Kayn could track. The next thing he noticed, she was behind him blocking a dagger blade that was aiming for his neck.

"Ah, so the General's wife isn't just all show after all." The assailant spoke as he jumped away and began to twirl his blade around his fingers.

Zerana didn't speak, she only assumed a protective position in front of her son and daughter. However, when she noticed another three people arriving in the room from the doors and windows, she couldn't help but frown.

One or two at this level which was definitely peak 5th tier was doable for her, but more than that and she would probably lose miserably. She only had one trump card, but that would put both her family in more danger and possibly use up the rest of her remaining years.

Kayn turned his rucksack around and wore it backwards to provide his sister with an extra layer of protection. He then drew his sword out of its sheath belatedly. He didn't think there was much he could do in this situation, but he would be damned if he didn't try. His job was to protect his sister and he would do the best he could.

"Ha! Look at this brat thinking he can fight us. Whatever, just kill the bitch first and the kids after. We gotta be quick about it if for some crazy reason Team One fails." One of the new comer assailants spoke as he walked in. Kayn recognized this one, he was the guard that disappeared during his coming-of-age celebration.

This could only mean that either the aide was behind it, or more than likely, the Emperor was. And the Emperor had sent his personal forces to take care of the situation. But why? His father mentioned that he had apparently investigated too deeply into something, and that something ended with Lydia's death.

This fact alone disheartened Kayn to a great extent, but now was not the time to break down and cry. He needed to remain strong in order to help his mother and protect his little sister even if in the end he wasn't strong enough, the least he could do was stay out of his mother's way.

While his brain was occupied trying to figure a way out of this situation, Zerana had already reengaged with the enemy. She was currently fighting off four people simultaneously. Two were casting spells at her while a dagger wielder and a sword wielder were keeping her busy up close.

Somehow, she was fighting them all off on even ground. When a spell would come at her she would punch it, when a sword would come at her she would punch it. No matter what threatened her, a fist was always there to defend and counter.

As the fight continued for several minutes, Kayn was focused on always keeping his mother between himself and the assailants. Though, he didn't really have to adjust much as his mother was a professional at keeping her children at her back.

The assailants were starting to get mad as it was just turning into a battle of attrition and they didn't know when or if General Ezekiel was going to show up soon. They had to finish the battle before he did though.

At this point, one of the casting mages in the back veered around to the side slightly and was able to launch a giant wave of fire towards Kayn and Lara without Zerana being able to block the spell fully. Part of it flew past her even with her fists cancelling most of the spell and continued heading straight towards Kayn and Lara.

Kayn saw this and put all of his concentration into taking over the fire. He needed to control the wave of fire to turn it into his own using his mastery over fire as a descendant of a progenitor. The problem with this was that the spell was cast by a peak 5th stage core mage while Kayn only had a 3rd stage core somewhere in the middle of the stage.

Kayn stealthily mixed his own fire spell in to the mix and utilized every bit of his focus to will the fire to stop. Just before it engulfed his sister and himself, the flames began to swirl around him like a sphere. Zerana was only slightly nervous about the result, but had faith in her son to withstand what was left of the spell.

The assailants were preemptively happy and figured that the battle would be much easier now since the mother might just give up with her children dying, but unfortunately for them, Zerana took this momentary distraction and exploded the swordsman's head with her fist.

Just as they were realizing what had happened to one of their team members, the sphere of fire flew back towards the one who cast it at an even faster speed than it was launched at, slowly getting smaller as it approached him.

The caster noticed it before it could get close to him, but since it was originally his own mana, he ignored it as it shouldn't be able to hurt him. By the time the sphere of fire arrived before him, it had slowed down drastically and was only about the size of a fist. The mage just laughed at it and looked away and started casting his next spell as he found it ignorable.

It was only when one of his team yelled at him, did he try and stop or dodge the ball of fire. "You idiot! He's Ezekiel's son! Think about it!"

However, by then it was too late. The small ball of fire reached his chest, and a massive explosion occurred on impact. Normally the mage would have been able to deal with a spell of this tier with ease if he had prepared defenses, but since he hadn't, the explosion ended up causing his entire chest area to disappear as if it never existed in the first place.

In just a few quick moments, the tide of battle had turned overwhelmingly in Kayn's and Zerana's favor.

"What the hell! Didn't he say that the kid only had a 1st stage core? How the fuck did he do that? Even if he has Ezekiel's bloodline, the difference in power is just too much to overcome something like that!" The last of the casters yelled out to the dagger wielder.

"It doesn't matter our goal is still the same, keep attacking. The kid seems to be exhausted now, so if you see an opportunity, just open fire at him. Since you're an earth magician he won't be able to reproduce the same result!"

The fight continued on for another few minutes before Kayn visibly started showing signs of collapsing from exhaustion trying to support his mother. He had his senses focused to the maximum without activating Sense Extension. And the amount of mana he used to stop the fire earlier was enormous.

Even worse for them, more attackers were arriving through the windows and hallways and joining the fight. Zerana hadn't been able to take out another of the group before the rest arrived and was beginning to feel the pressure mounting up.

A man in a bloody suit of armor walked in at that point, holding a bloodied sack in his hand. "How about we pause this here?"

The attackers all backed off and surrounded Zerana who had gathered back with Kayn in the middle of the destroyed room. Zerana warily glanced around the containment circle they had found themselves in while keeping herself ready to attack or defend at any moment.

The man with the armor took off his helmet and revealed himself to be Arlan, the personal aide of the Emperor. He tossed the sack he was carrying towards the defending family, and as it opened two roundish objects rolled out towards Zerana's feet.

Looking down, Kayn fell to his knees in despair. The objects were his father's and sister's heads. Clementines face was stuck in an expression of fear, while Ezekiel's looked resigned to his fate.

"As you can see, the results are clear. The second we captured your daughter and threatened Ezekiel to either watch her suffer a cruel fate as he continued to struggle or submit to death after ensuring his daughter's painless death, he gave up." Arlan sneered as he looked around the room.

"Damn bastard took out nine of our 6th stage mages and 54 of our 5th stage. How in the damned hells did he do that with only a peak 5th stage core? I can't believe. Now, I arrive here and somehow a woman who gives off no mana and a child that I thought for sure was a 1st stage defeated two more of my 5th stage members. Just dealing with your family has killed 65 out of the 75 members of the Emperor's task force. Maybe we have indeed made a mistake, but since we started this, we will finish it."

The 10 people surrounding Kayn and Zerana, excluding Arlan, began to close in slowly but surely. Kayn looked up as his mother glanced up and back at him and he saw the sorrow in her eyes, the tears streaming down her face.

She and Ezekiel had been together for hundreds of years and through countless tribulations. Just when they thought they found a good place and started to make connections and a family, those connections turned out to be ruinous.

"Kayn, I'll take care of them. Please take your sister and run, run far away and don't turn back. Remember that family will always come first and raise your sister well in our place."

What she was about to do would give her the strength to get her children out of this situation, but would cost her life without a doubt. If it didn't burn her life force during the fight, the fact that the gods who came down to hunt them would be able to sense her unique energy was undoubtable.

Zerana stepped forward and grabbed the choker around her neck and ripped it off. Immediately a massive surge of energy erupted from her body. Unfortunately, her decision came a moment too late.

Eight of the ten remaining attackers cast simultaneous restrictions spells right before they had felt her power surging. Four chains of differing elements launched from the ground and bound one of her limbs each. Just as she was breaking the chains to continue pushing forward, the dagger wielding attacker cast a movement spell and appeared behind her back.

Kayn watched in horror as two daggers stabbed into his mother's neck. They weren't able to penetrate all the way through, but each made it about halfway, at which point the attacker sliced outward. Zerana's head fell to the floor right next to Ezekiel's and shortly after, her body followed.

Kayn was kneeling and bawling with his eyes opened wide in horror. He had dropped his sword long ago and was tightly wrapping his arms around his screaming sister on his chest over his bag.

His head drooped down suddenly as he became motionless still sitting on his knees. The dagger wielder approached behind Kayn as he spoke, "Sorry kid, but you killed my friend just now too. I'll make this quick for you and your sister."

Right as he stopped behind Kayn and raised one of his daggers to stab down into his spine, he paused. After he remained like that for 10 seconds without any motion, Arlan couldn't help but feel something was off.

"Hey Strider, what's wrong? Why are you not finishing the job?" Arlan spout out towards the dagger wielding attacker known as Strider.

Strider could barely glance up, and through gritted teeth he spoke, "I…can't…move…help!"

However, before the rest of the room could act, two black spiked wings shot out of Kayn's back ripping apart his new shirt and jerkin, and stabbed through Strider. The wings promptly flung to each side, ripping Strider in half and throwing each half to a different part of the room while unfolding. The wings then wrapped around Kayn who still holding onto Lara in a protective embrace.

"Quickly kill him!" Arlan shouted out in a startle.

"AAAHHHHHHHH"

Then an ear shattering, rage, sorrow and pain filled scream erupted in the area just before everything went black.