Dawn Walker

"Young master, we found the family trying to escape through the sewerage route."

Sekhmet asked, "How many?"

"Close to one hundred so far. Mostly women and children. Several of Dickoff’s wives and concubines are here. His head wife is also here. She is Dickon’s mother."

There was a short silence from the other side.

Raka waited.

Sekhmet’s answer came without hesitation.

"Capture all of them."

Raka looked toward the children.

"Even the children?"

"Yes. Do not hurt them. Keep the family together and separate the guards or armed servants from them. Take them to the biggest warehouse of the iron house."

Raka replied, "Understood."

The communication ended.

Raka placed the stone away. He looked toward the crowd.

"You heard enough."

Several of the women had been close enough to hear Sekhmet’s voice from the communication stone.

Fear moved through them again.

Dickoff’s head wife stepped forward.

"What happened to my husband?"

Raka studied her for a moment.

"I do not know if I am allowed to tell you."

That was technically true.

The woman’s face tightened.

"Take us to him."

Raka almost laughed.

"I don’t serve you. Don’t demand something like I am your servant. That request may bring you a beating."

She did not understand what he meant.

Raka did not explain. He raised one hand toward the lesser vampires.

"Bind the adults who can fight. Do not bind small children unless someone tries something stupid. Search every bag. Take every storage ring and weapon."

The lesser vampires moved forward.

The women protested immediately.

Several children began crying when strangers approached their mothers. One young boy tried to kick a lesser vampire who reached for the sword hidden beneath his coat. The lesser vampire caught his ankle easily, took the weapon, and placed the boy back beside his mother without hurting him.

Raka watched everything.

"No unnecessary injuries."

The order spread through the group.

Sekhmet wanted prisoners. Dead family members were much less useful.

Back inside Iron House, Sekhmet lowered the communication stone.

Almost one hundred family members had tried to escape from one hidden passage alone.

That meant there could easily be more.

Mira and the others would find them.

For now, Sekhmet finally turned his attention back toward the Void Land. He wanted to know how much damage Dickoff’s self-destruction had caused.

The explosion had been powerful enough that even Sofia and Natasha had considered it dangerous despite their Half-God bodies. Sekhmet had deliberately sent Dickoff into an empty region, but the Void Land was still his territory. He did not want the explosion damaging something beyond the area he had expected.

He asked inside his mind. "System, how much damage did the explosion cause?"

The answer appeared immediately.

[Ding! Void Land inspection complete.

No important structures or lifeforms were damaged.

Void lands: Safe.

Future City Construction Area: Safe.

Prisoner Area: Safe.

Auri Residence: Safe.

Sanguifey Trinity Territory: Safe.]

Damage detected only within an unoccupied barren region.]

Sekhmet relaxed slightly. "Only land. That could be dealt with later."

The Void Land contained more empty territory than he currently knew what to do with. Losing one section of rock was not a serious problem.

Then another System message appeared.

[An unusual object has been detected within the damaged area.]

Sekhmet’s attention immediately returned to the System. He asked the system, "What object?"

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then several lines appeared.

[Identification complete.

Item: Chaos Tree Seed

Classification: Origin Class Artifact Seed

Current Awakening: 0.01%

Origin: Upper domain of Null]

Sekhmet’s expression changed.

More information appeared.

[Chaos Tree Seed: The seed originates from the only Chaos Tree of Null.

The Chaos Tree is the mother of all World Trees throughout the universe.

The original Chaos Tree existed within Null before countless worlds formed their own World Trees.

This seed was sealed for billions of years.

The enormous quantity of chaos energy absorbed from the recent host has partially awakened the seed.

Current Awakening Level: 0.01%.

The seed remains alive. The host may cultivate the Chaos Tree Seed.

The host may plant the Chaos Tree Seed within the Void Land.]

Sekhmet stared at the notification. The black thing Dickoff had used was not an artifact in the way he believed.

It was a seed. A real seed. An Origin Class artifact seed from the upper domain of Null.

Not only that. It came from the one and only Chaos Tree. The mother of all World Trees.

Sekhmet read the description again.

[Billions of years.]

The seed had remained sealed for billions of years and had only awakened by one hundredth of one percent after consuming the entire remaining fortune of Iron House.

That changed the way he understood what had happened.

The one hundred million low-grade chaos stones had not truly powered some ordinary artifact.

Dickoff had been pouring chaos energy into a living seed powerful enough that even a tiny fraction of its awakening had temporarily pushed his strength to Half-God level.

Sekhmet’s eyes sharpened. "Can it actually grow here?"

The System responded.

[Yes.

The Void Land is compatible with Chaos Tree cultivation.

The current environment is insufficient for rapid growth.

The host may plant the seed and cultivate it gradually.

Further awakening requires extremely large quantities of pure chaos energy and fertilizer.]

Sekhmet almost forgot about the ruined Iron House around him. He was thinking about the same thing again and again.

A Chaos Tree.

He had already been thinking about finding plants capable of surviving inside the Void Land. Leaf had changed part of the barren territory, and her Trinity was spreading life around the Void lands. But this was something completely different.

A tree from the upper domain.

The mother line from which the World Trees of countless worlds had descended.

Even at only 0.01 percent awakening, it had turned Dickoff into something capable of temporarily fighting at Half-God level.

What would happen at one percent? Ten percent? What would happen if it actually germinated?

Sekhmet wanted to enter the Void Land immediately. He wanted to see the crater. He wanted to see the seed.

He wanted the System to tell him how it should be planted, what it required, how much space it needed, and whether Leaf could help cultivate something of that level.

Then the air above Iron House changed.

Sofia reacted first. Her head snapped upward.

Natasha turned at almost the same moment.

Both Half-Gods looked toward the broken ceiling.

Sekhmet felt it a heartbeat later.

Something powerful was approaching at very high speed. It was not from inside the mansion. But from above.

The sound came next.

BOOM!

The ground shook.

A violent impact struck the courtyard outside the receiving hall. Dust burst upward beyond the broken entrance. Several already damaged windows shattered from the pressure, and loose stone fell from the mansion walls.

Sekhmet moved toward the opening.

Sofia and Natasha immediately stepped beside him.

A figure stood in the newly formed crater outside. It was butler Stephen.

The butler had landed hard enough to crack the courtyard stone in a wide circle.

One arm was wrapped securely around Mihos Dawn.

He had carried Mihos through the air all the way from the camp outside the city.

Stephen slowly released him.

Mihos stepped onto the broken courtyard stones and looked directly toward Sekhmet.

"Where is it?"

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