As the waves of violent red energy kept rising, Walter didn't flinch. He simply watched, hands behind his back, as if a child tearing open space itself was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
BOOM!!
The wall directly in front of Seth split open with a deafening crack. Stone shattered outward, dust exploding into the air as a gaping hole tore itself into the room. The force shook the floor beneath them.
Something on the other side was coming. Something huge.
That was the moment Walter finally moved.
In a split second, his calm posture vanished and he blitzed forward with speed no ordinary man could track. Before whatever was pushing through that breach could fully enter the room, Walter snatched Seth up by the torso, lifting him out of the exploding wave of debris.
The red energy still radiated wildly off the boy's body, but Walter held him firm, eyes fixed on the broken wall.
His expression didn't show fear.
It showed irritation.
"Weren't you warned about doing such things, Ms Sophie?"
Then the figure stepped into view.
A woman — tall, curved like an hourglass, moving with a predator's ease. In her hand dangled a whip studded with metal spikes, each one glinting under the fractured light. The air around her felt…heavy. Familiar in the worst possible way.
"I'm afraid," she said, her tone almost bored, "that I'll have to take the boy before the effects wear out."
Effects?
Walter's eyes narrowed. Effects? Was she referring to the eruption tearing Seth apart from the inside? To this strange, chaotic awakening that even Titans didn't undergo?
Seth screamed again, the red energy climbing and thrashing. His small body shook as if something ancient was trying to claw its way out of him.
Walter looked down at the child. One second was enough for him to make his decision.
He straightened, placing Seth gently behind him.
If Sophie got the boy now, Seth was dead. Or worse.
Walter exhaled once, calm and cold.
He determined that to save Seth, he would have to kill Sophie.
And judging by the faint smile curling her lips…
She was hoping he'd try.
Then—
BAM!!
A violent thud shook the manor. The floor trembled. Voices shouted somewhere outside. Something big was happening beyond the shattered wall, but Walter didn't dare glance away.
Seth's energy kept rising, roaring like a storm trapped in a child's body.
And then Sophie vanished.
No warning. No sound. Just air collapsing where she stood.
In the same instant she reappeared behind Walter, fingers already reaching for Seth's collar.
Walter was ready.
He spun with supernatural precision, a dagger flashing into his hand from nowhere — thin, obsidian black, humming with his ether. He slashed upward, aiming straight for Sophie's throat.
Her eyes widened, just barely.
Walter wasn't just a butler.
He was a Ragnar butler.
So underestimating him was a mistake.
Sophie jerked her head aside just in time. Walter's blade sliced past her neck by a hair. She snapped her wrist, sending her spiked whip cracking toward his ribs.
WHIP–CRACK!
But Walter slid back, almost lazily. His footwork was too clean, too sharp. Compared to his speed, Sophie looked like she was moving through water.
Walter lifted his eyes.
Then he leapt.
A clean, effortless rise into the air, robe fluttering.
"Ms Sophie," he said, voice calm but carrying that razor edge. "This world is not so soft it would forgive such treachery. I truly sympathize with your mother."
Sophie froze. A tiny gasp. Her composure shattered in an instant.
"You…" she hissed, and then she lunged forward swinging wildly.
Left. Right. Up. Down.
The whip screeched through the air, the spikes carving lines into the marble floor.
None of it touched Walter.
He weaved through everything like he was reading her movements before she even made them. His shoes barely tapped the ground.
Then he stopped dodging.
Walter was about seven meters away when he moved. It wasn't a dash. It wasn't even speed. It was like he simply vanished from where he'd been.
And in the blink of an eye he stood at Sophie's left side.
His dagger rested lightly against her neck.
"It's over, Ms Sophie."
His tone held no anger. Just certainty.
"Surrender."
"I mean… what can an A rank Titan like you do against an S rank like me," Walter said.
It didn't sound like boasting. It was just the truth.
In this world Titans weren't all equal. They were graded into tiers the same way fantasy novels did it.
F rank.
E.
D.
C.
B.
A.
S rank.
And above even that…
There existed World Class Titans.
Only fifty were classified as World Class. Fifty beings who stood so far above the masses that even S ranks treated them with reverence.
But even then, rumors whispered of something higher.
Beings of higher power, that they were called gods.
People called them Global Zeros.
"Nonetheless, you're weak."
Walter's eyes didn't leave Sophie as he said it. His dagger pressed a little deeper against her skin, a warning more than a threat.
"Think carefully," Walter murmured. "You're out of your depth."
Sophie was clearly scared for her life, she began sweating profusely.
She then dropped her whip.
"Let me cure Seth then or else what's inside will kill him", she said.
Walter thought for a while then permitted her to go.
Sophie then knelt beside Seth amidst the energy rising. She put her hand on Seth's chest and said, "Altria!!"
Seth's body began shining with a brilliant green light, and the violent crimson energy subsided, dissolving into harmless sparks that faded into the air.
Elsewhere… within Seth's consciousness, he floated in darkness. No light, no shapes—only an endless void.
Then, small purple lights appeared. They formed the rough shape of a human, but it was chaotic, scribbled, as if someone had violently crossed lines over it with purple crayons. The figure was jagged and unstable—but one feature was unmistakable: a mouth. And that mouth bore a wide, unnerving grin, teeth gleaming in the darkness.
"Hello," the figure said, its voice reverberating like a whisper in a cave, yet somehow echoing in every corner of the void. "So it seems we meet at last, Master."
Seth blinked, a shiver running down his spine. Something about that grin… it wasn't friendly. It radiated intelligence, malice, and power all at once.