Captain Reeves was a Gold-rank enforcer. He stood at the center of the formation his team had created, his runed blade pointed at Ethan's throat.
"Unregistered cultivator practicing illegal medicine," Reeves said angrily."Surrender now and we might let you keep all your limbs."
Behind Reeves's cold professional mask, Victor Blackwood's words echoed like a mantra.
"Kill him if he resists".
The briefcase full of cash Victor had delivered that morning sat in Reeves's apartment, already mentally spent on the beach house he had been eyeing for years. This was just another job, another criminal who needed to be removed from the board.
Except something about the way this man smiled made Reeves's instincts scream warnings his pride refused to hear.
"He saved me." Claire's voice cut through the tension like a blade. She stepped between Ethan and the enforcers. "You have no right to arrest him for healing someone. That's not illegal."
Reeves barely glanced at her. His hand moved with brutality, the backhand strike catching Claire across the face with enough force to snap her head sideways. She flew backward toward the shelves filled with glass jars and ceramic containers.
Ethan moved. His hand caught Claire mid-flight, qi manipulation cushioning her momentum until he set her down gently on her feet.
"You shouldn't have done that," Ethan said softly.
Reeves felt something cold slide down his spine. He shoved the feeling aside and signaled his team with a gesture. The five other enforcers moved into attack formation, their cultivation flaring in synchronized precision as they channeled power into a combination spell.
Light erupted from six points around Ethan, weaving together into a cage of interlocking qi threads. The formation was Council-grade work, designed by master cultivators and powered by Gold-rank enforcement magic. Nothing below Platinum rank could break it.
Reeves smiled as the cage solidified. "Celestial rank? Go ahead and prove it."
Ethan raised one finger. Just one. The gesture was almost lazy, like a teacher correcting a student's stupid mistake. A pulse of celestial qi rippled outward from that single point, and Reeves watched in disbelief as his team's formation shattered like glass struck by a hammer.
The five other enforcers flew backward, their bodies ragdolling through the air before they crashed into walls. Unconscious or dead, Reeves could not tell from where he stood, and the distinction suddenly seemed less important than the fact that he was now alone against something that had just casually destroyed a coordinated assault from six Gold-rank cultivators.
"That was a warning," Ethan said."Leave now and you live."
Reeves's hand went to the medallion hanging around his neck beneath his armor. His trump card, the tool that had won him fights against different stubborn cultivators. It suppressed enemy cultivation within a ten-meter radius, reducing even mighty cultivators to baseline human abilities.
He crushed the medallion in his fist, activating the seal with a surge of his own qi. Power flooded outward, and Reeves felt Ethan's celestial aura suddenly compress and vanish as the suppression took hold.
"Now you're just a man," Reeves said, his confidence returning like a flood. He lunged forward with his runed blade, putting all his Gold-rank physical enhancement into a strike designed to take Ethan's head from his shoulders. "Just a man who made the wrong enemy."
Ethan caught the blade barehanded.
The weapon stopped cold, its edge pressed against Ethan's palm. Ethan's skin did not even dimple. Reeves pushed harder, channeling more power into the strike, and achieved exactly nothing.
"Victor Blackwood sent you," Ethan said. His fingers closed around the blade, and the metal screamed as the weapon shattered into pieces. "Tell him something for me."
Ethan's hand moved to Reeves's chest, and he began to write. Celestial qi burned through the Council Authority Seal's suppression like it was a tissue paper, carving words into Reeves's armor.
"Tell Victor Blackwood," Ethan said, finishing the message, "that the debt comes due."
The kick came so fast Reeves did not see it. He hit the street outside, bounced once, and slid to a stop against a parked car with his ribs screaming agony and his vision swimming with stars.
The message burned on his chest armor in letters that would not fade. THE DEBT COMES DUE.
Inside the ruined apothecary, Claire stood frozen among the wreckage. Glass crunched under her feet as she moved toward Ethan, her mind struggling to process what she had just witnessed. Her shop was destroyed and six Council Enforcers had been defeated in less than a minute.
"Who are you really?" Claire asked.
"Someone who should have been here sooner."
Claire reached out slowly, her hand trembling as it approached his face. When her fingers touched his cheek, the contact sent recognition flooding through her nervous system like electricity. "Your eyes. I knew someone with eyes like these".
Ethan gently removed her hand from his face, holding it for just a moment before releasing it. "You need to save your mother first. The rest can wait."
"The rest?" Claire's laugh was half hysterical. "You just destroyed six Council Enforcers and you're talking about the rest like we're discussing the weather."
"Your mother is dying." Ethan repeated."The Council will send more enforcers, but that will take hours. Let's go now"
Night had fallen by the time they reached Saint Mercy Hospital. Ethan and Claire entered through the main entrance, and immediately nurses began giving them suspicious looks. .
Ethan produced an ID card that Margaret had provided, the laminated rectangle identifying him as Dr. William, specialist in rare disorders.
"Room 304," Claire said.
Inside the room, Mrs Clara's skin has turned gray and her breathing came out in shallow gasps.
Dr. Harrison stood beside the bed, reviewing charts. "We've done everything possible. It's a miracle she's lasted this long, honestly. At this point, we're just keeping her comfortable until the inevitable."
Ethan moved to the bedside, his hands hovering over Mrs Clara's chest.
"She's been poisoned. Slow-acting toxin designed to mimic natural organ failure. Whoever did this wanted it to look like she died from natural causes."
"Poisoned?" Claire's voice climbed an octave. "Who would poison my mother? She's just a retired herbalist. She doesn't have enemies."
"The toxin signature matches Blackwood family alchemy." Ethan's eyes met Claire's.
Claire's face went white as memory crashed over her like a wave. "Tyler's been sending her vitamins for months. He said they were special blends from his family's private alchemist, that they would help with her joint pain and fatigue. She's been taking them every day."
"He's been poisoning her every day," Ethan corrected. "Building up the toxin slowly so nobody would suspect".
The horror of it made Claire's knees buckle. She caught herself on the bedrail, her knuckles turning white with the force of her grip.
"Can you save her?" The question came out barely above a whisper.
"Yes." Ethan placed both hands on Mrs Clara's chest, and golden light began to pour from his palms like liquid sunshine. "This might frighten you. Don't interfere no matter what you see."
The light intensified until it was almost blinding, flooding Mrs Clara's body with celestial qi that sought out the poison in her system like antibodies hunting infection. Claire watched in awe as her mother's body began to convulse, black mist pouring from her mouth in streams.
Ethan's hand moved in a complex gesture, and the mist ignited. It burned with flames that consumed the poison completely, leaving nothing but clean air and the smell of ozone.
Within minutes, Mrs Clara's body color began to return. Her breathing deepened and steadied until the machines stopped struggling to support her and simply monitored her natural rhythms.
Nurses rushed into the room, summoned by the sudden change in their patient's status. They stared at the monitors, then at Mrs Clara, then at Ethan.
Dr. Hammond pushed through the crowd, his eyes wide in disbelief. His hand moved to his pocket, bringing out his phone. He raised it, framing Ethan in the camera as he prepared to photograph the celestial healing technique still glowing faintly around the physician's hands.
Ethan's gaze shifted to Hammond without his head turning. His qi lashed out across the room, and the phone exploded in Hammond's hand. Plastic and circuit boards scattered across the floor, and Hammond yelped in pain from the sudden heat.
"How dare you!"
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Dr Harrison pleaded, knelling down on the floor.
When done, Ethan and Claire left the hospital with Mrs Clara sleeping peacefully. Claire walked beside Ethan in silence, her mind too full of questions she doesn't know which one to ask first.
The hospital entrance was dominated by a massive television screen showing local news. As they passed beneath it, the screen shifted to an announcement that made Claire's blood turn to ice.
"Breaking news. The Autumn Gala will take place in forty-eight hours, bringing together the city's elite for an evening of celebration and announcements." The anchor's voice was bright. "Among the highlights, Tyler Blackwood of the prominent Blackwood family will be announcing his engagement to an unnamed local businesswoman. Sources close to the family suggest it will be quite the surprise."
Tyler's face filled the screen, his smile perfect and predatory. Claire's phone buzzed in her pocket with a new message. She pulled it out, and what she saw made her vision narrow to a pinpoint.
The photo showed her mother unconscious in a hospital bed, clearly taken weeks ago when the poison had first begun to take serious effect on her. Beneath it, Tyler's message read. "Gala. Tomorrow night. 7 PM. Announce our engagement or this goes viral with a story about how you poisoned your own mother for the inheritance. Nobody will believe you didn't do it. Your choice, my love."
Claire stared at the screen until the words blurred together. Tyler had planned everything. The poison. The timing. The public announcement. He had built a trap so perfect that even with her mother saved, Claire will still be caught in his web.
Unless she was willing to let him destroy her reputation and everything she had built on a lie the world would believe.
"What do I do?" she whispered.
Ethan took the phone from her trembling fingers and read the message. When he handed it back to her, his eyes were burning with golden fire.
"Go to the Gala," Ethan said. "And I'll be there to make sure Tyler Blackwood regrets every choice that brought him to this moment."