The sweltering heat of Everbrook City's summer pressed down on me like a suffocating blanket as I emerged from the crowded high-speed railway station. Five years. Five long years since I'd last breathed this city's air, and it still tasted of betrayal and blood.
I adjusted the cap pulled low over my eyes and shifted the worn sling bag on my shoulder. To anyone watching, I looked like just another ordinary young man in a faded t-shirt. Nobody would guess that the thin figure weaving through the crowd was once the heir to one of Everbrook City's most powerful families.
My name is Aiden Knight, though few would remember that name now.
The moment I stepped onto the familiar streets, my gaze was drawn inexorably upward to the gleaming tower that dominated the skyline. The sight of it stopped me cold, and suddenly I was seventeen again, watching my world burn.
"Everbrook City," I whispered, my voice barely audible over the traffic. "I'm finally back."
But this wasn't a homecoming. This was a reckoning.
My hands clenched into fists as the memories crashed over me like a tidal wave. That night at Cloud Lake Manor. The sound of my father's last breath. The cold laughter of the men who destroyed everything I'd ever loved.
Alistair Webb. Master Drake. Their faces were burned into my memory with crystal clarity.
"Five years ago, you thought you'd wiped out the Knight family completely," I muttered, feeling the familiar rage kindle in my chest. "You have no idea that I survived. That I've been training. That I've become something far more dangerous than you could ever imagine."
The air around me seemed to thicken with an invisible pressure. Several passersby suddenly stumbled, gasping as if the oxygen had been sucked from their lungs. A businessman clutched his throat, his eyes wide with inexplicable terror.
I forced myself to relax before I accidentally killed someone. Not yet. My revenge would be calculated, precise, and absolutely devastating.
Flagging down a taxi, I slid into the backseat and gave the driver an address. As we pulled into traffic, I allowed myself to remember that terrible night one more time.
My father had been a good man. Too good, perhaps. When he'd stepped in to protect a child from one of Master Drake's men, he'd signed his own death warrant. I could still hear Drake's voice, cold and mocking: "The Knight family? You think your little dynasty means anything to me? I can erase you with a snap of my fingers."
And he had.
My father died with his dignity intact, refusing to beg. My mother... she'd been the one to save me, using her last breath to push me into the dark waters of East Coin Lake. She'd known she was going to die. They both had.
But their sacrifice hadn't been in vain.
The old master who'd pulled me from those waters had shown me power beyond imagination. Five years in that hidden realm, learning the Nine Heaven Dark Sun Technique, mastering alchemy and cultivation until I'd become something the martial world whispered about in terrified tones.
The Bloodthirsty Berserk Dragon.
"Sir? We're here."
The taxi driver's nervous voice snapped me back to the present. I paid him and stepped out in front of the Magnificent Group's imposing headquarters. The building stretched toward the sky like a monument to modern power, all glass and steel and corporate ambition.
But I wasn't here for business. I was here because my master had given me a second mission, one that had seemed far less important than my burning need for revenge.
Find Clara Vance. Protect her.
According to the old man's prophecy, she was destined to face a catastrophic threat within the next hundred days. Something that would destroy her unless I intervened. My master had been cryptic about the details, as always, telling me only to trust my instincts.
I studied the slip of paper in my hand one more time, confirming the address, then approached the gleaming entrance.
"Hold it right there!"
Two massive security guards stepped into my path, their bulk blocking the doorway like a pair of mountains. Both were easily over six feet tall, their uniforms straining against muscles that spoke of serious gym time. Their faces wore the kind of arrogant sneer I remembered all too well from my youth.
"I'm looking for Clara Vance," I said simply.
The first guard, a man with a shaved head and arms like tree trunks, laughed harshly. "You want to see President Vance? Got an appointment?"
"No."
"Employee ID?"
"No."
His sneer widened. "Then get lost, kid. The door's behind you. Use it."
I glanced past them to see several men in expensive suits sitting in the lobby's waiting area. They'd clearly been turned away too, but somehow they'd been allowed to stay.
"Why can they wait but I can't?" I asked, nodding toward the suited men.
The second guard looked me up and down with obvious disdain. "Look at yourself, country boy. You think someone like President Vance has time for street trash? Go find a mirror and take a long look, then crawl back to whatever hole you came from."
The familiar burn of humiliation mixed with rage in my chest. Five years away, and Everbrook City's elite were still the same shallow, cruel parasites they'd always been. They judged everything by appearances, never realizing that real power often came in unassuming packages.
"What if I don't want to leave?" My voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.
"Then maybe you want to die," the first guard snarled, reaching out to grab my shoulder.
His massive hand clamped down on me with enough force to send most men sprawling. I could see the cruel anticipation in his eyes as he prepared to throw me bodily from the building.
But I didn't move.
The guard's expression slowly shifted from confidence to confusion to dawning horror as he realized his strength was having no effect. It was like trying to move a mountain. Sweat began beading on his forehead as he strained against my immovable form.
"Stone, what's wrong with you?" the second guard asked with a laugh. "Did your wife wear you out last night? Here, let me handle this punk."
He reached for me as well, but I'd had enough.
"Scram," I said quietly, my voice carrying the weight of absolute authority. "I don't want to kill you."
The words hit them like a physical blow. Both guards stumbled backward, suddenly sensing the predator they'd mistaken for prey.
Then I lifted my left foot and brought it down in a gentle stomp.
The wave of energy that erupted from that simple motion was invisible but devastating. It slammed into both guards like a truck, lifting their massive frames off the ground and hurling them backward through the air.
They crashed through the floor-to-ceiling window behind them in an explosion of shattering glass. The tempered panel, designed to withstand hurricane-force winds, exploded into a million glittering fragments.
The lobby fell silent except for the tinkling sound of falling glass.
I stepped through the ruined entrance, glass crunching under my feet, and looked down at the two groaning guards sprawled among the debris. Blood trickled from their mouths, but they were alive. Barely.
"I tried to warn you," I said softly.
Then I turned toward the elevator bank, ignoring the shocked stares of everyone in the lobby. My unassuming disguise was blown, but that was fine.
It was time Everbrook City remembered the name Aiden Knight.