After the explosion that sent Lucius flying away, everything went silent for a while. The elevator kept moving slowly, carrying Alex upward toward the cliff.
Meanwhile, Tamsin was staring at Merrick, who had just fallen from the pole. He lay flat on the ground, gasping for air.
"What did you do, Merrick?" Tamsin asked quietly, his voice steady but cold.
Merrick turned his head weakly. "I swear, I don't know what happened... I didn't activate—"
He stopped halfway, his eyes widening as he looked at Tamsin. "Wait... your eyes..."
The strange glow in Tamsin's eyes faded after a brief second. His expression shifted, realizing something was off. He raised a hand to his face.
The swelling from Lucius's earlier attack was shrinking fast. His skin and muscles were healing right before his eyes.
'This speed... no ordinary recovery could do this,' Tamsin thought. 'It can only mean one thing—my Bloodline power has been triggered.'
He clenched his fist, trying to stay calm as he looked at Merrick again. "How did this happen? We didn't even try to activate it."
Merrick looked just as lost. "I don't know, man. I felt something inside me move... like it was calling out on its own."
Tamsin frowned. "This isn't normal. Something's wrong here."
The wind howled across the cliffside. Neither of them said another word.
Just now, without planning it, their Bloodline powers flared on their own. It was the same for Merrick.
"Quick — we have to pull out. Abort the mission," Tamsin snapped, shaking off the daze and lunging to his feet, staggering a little as he moved.
The Bloodline effect lasted less than ten seconds. It wasn't enough to fix everything, but it stopped him from collapsing. Wounds knit a little faster. Pain dulled. It bought him breath.
Merrick reached him and put an arm around his shoulders, steadying him. They stayed low, eyes scanning.
Tamsin tapped his comm.
"Everyone, fall back. We're aborting the mission," he transmitted through the Pendragon link. His voice was clipped; there was no arguing.
No reply from Alex.
"Gwen — go get Alex. Bring him back. Now," Tamsin ordered.
Gwen had just hauled herself free of rubble. She heard the command and didn't hesitate.
From the cliff edge she looked up. The elevator had reached the top. Alex stepped out onto the snowy ledge, axe in hand, scanning the battlefield below.
'Come on...' Gwen muttered, then moved.
She cracked her whip twice, timing it. The whip unfurled, long and bright, and Gwen sent it upward. It hooked the elevator's metal rod with a sharp clack. The rope-like length began to retract, pulling Gwen up toward the lift.
Meanwhile, when Alex reached the top of the cliff, his eyes widened. The mansion stood right in front of him — massive, cold, and silent. Its wide compound stretched far, dotted with multiple helipads. A few choppers sat idle, their blades still and glinting faintly in the dim light.
But what struck Alex the most was the eerie emptiness. Not a single guard. Not even a shadow moving around.
'Where is everyone?' he thought, tightening his grip on the axe.
He stepped forward cautiously. Each crunch of snow under his boots echoed across the compound.
Then—snap!
A whip cracked through the air and coiled tight around his leg. Before Alex could react, it yanked him hard, throwing him off balance. He hit the ground with a heavy thud, snow spraying around him.
He looked back. Gwen was there — standing a few feet away, her whip sizzling faintly with residual qi sparks.
"You're not supposed to be here, Alex," she said, walking toward him. Her tone was calm, but her eyes carried that same urgency he'd only heard in Tamsin's voice during bad missions.
"What are you doing?" Alex hissed, struggling to untangle the whip from his leg.
"I'm sorry, Alex," Gwen said, coming closer, "but we have to leave now. Things have changed."
He stopped struggling for a moment, confusion hardening into anger.
"What do you mean, leave?" Alex's voice rose. "After everything? After all the ground we covered — we're just going to walk away?"
He pushed himself up slightly, glaring at her. "We didn't even rescue the captives! You think we can just call it quits like this?"
Gwen didn't answer right away. The wind howled between them, carrying the faint echo of far-off explosions.
Finally, she muttered, "I'm sorry. You won't understand right now."
She stepped forward, grabbed his shoulder, and the whip moved again — tightening around his body, wrapping around his torso and arms like a serpent.
Alex gritted his teeth as the coils locked him in place. His axe dropped to the snow with a dull clank.
'Damn it, Gwen,' he thought, glaring up at her. 'Don't make me fight you.'
However, just as Gwen was about to strike, a sudden blast slammed into her side—hard. The impact threw both her and Alex off their feet, crashing them into the dirt.
The whip snapped from her grip, unraveling. Alex didn't waste the chance—he yanked free from the energy binds that had held him down.
Gwen groaned, already pushing herself back up. Her eyes darted toward the source of the attack.
Marching out from the mansion's shadow were soldiers—each one radiating power. Paragon-class warriors. At least twenty of them.
Then came a man walking right through their ranks, every step slow, deliberate. His long auburn hair shimmered under the torchlight, and his frame was lean but coiled tight like a blade ready to strike.
"Ravlen Markovitch," Gwen muttered under her breath.
A smirk curved his lips. "I'm glad you know me. Saves me the introductions. Since you do, you also know what comes next—you're about to die."
Another leader of the Vornshade Clan.
Gwen's jaw tightened. She turned to Alex.
"You've got as long as it takes me to clean up this mess," she said, voice steady. "If I finish before you, I'm coming to drag you out myself."
Alex gave a sharp nod.
The whip coiled through the air, alive once more, latching back into Gwen's hand. Lightning danced along its length, crackling with violent energy.
Then she swung.
The weapon cut through the air like a thunderclap—but before it could land, several of the soldiers raised their hands in unison. The whip froze mid-flight, locked in place by an unseen force.
'Telekinesis,' Gwen thought grimly.
'Then stop this,' Gwen thought as she yanked her qi cannon free.
She didn't hesitate.
She fired.
BOOM!
The blast ripped through the line. Soldiers nearest the muzzle were thrown back like ragdolls. A few never stood up again. Snow and debris sprayed into the air. The shock made Gwen's ears ring for a second.
The whip, still frozen mid-air, continued sliding forward on its own arc toward Ravlen. It moved like a living thing—swift, inevitable.
Ravlen reacted in time. He launched himself sideways, vanishing out of the whip's path and smashing through the mansion entrance. A chunk of marble pillar came down with him.
"Go now," Gwen yelled, voice low and urgent.
Alex didn't wait. He sprinted straight into the wreckage, weaving between fallen soldiers and broken beams. He kept low, every step measured. Men lunged at him; he pushed past them and dove inside.
Ravlen twisted in the air and came back out, angling for Gwen. He thrust his hands forward. Several dead bodies on the ground jerked up as if yanked by strings and lunged toward her.
Gwen let the whip sing. It flashed, an electric arc, and cut through the crawled corpses in a clean, hard line. Limbs and armor clattered. She didn't waste a second.
By the time the last of the bodies fell, Alex had disappeared into the mansion.
Gwen spun, looked up the entryway, then turned back toward the battlefield, ready to finish the job.