Fortunately, before the first rocket exploded in his face, Michael had already donned a matte-black suit of heavy armor.
It protected him from the worst of the impact.
The armor was nothing special. It was made of mystical steel, but like all Awakened items, it was exceptionally durable.
Most mundane weapons couldn’t pierce it, and so, he was left mostly unscathed by the explosions.
Since he kept the visor of his helmet down, his peripheral vision was slightly blocked. Other than that — and his rapidly draining Essence pool — he had no major issues.
As soon as the explosions ceased, he darted forward through the settling dust.
The guards didn’t even notice him until it was too late.
Closing in on the nearest enemy, he used the flat side of his longsword to swat at the man’s head, knocking him cold.
Without missing a beat, he thrust his leg into the chest of another who charged him, flinging the man backward like a paper doll.
One guard tried to shoot him in the head at point-blank range, but the bullet simply ricocheted off, not even leaving a dent.
Michael reached out, grabbed the rifle, and exerted enough strength in his grip to bend the barrel inward before headbutting his shooter, rendering him unconscious.
Meanwhile, Alexia joined the fray.
She was clad in a full set of armor that gleamed like polished copper under the moonlight — a look truly befitting her noble status.
Her gauntlets were spiked, a long brown cape draped over her shoulders, and white plumes adorned the top of her Corinthian-style helmet.
A guard rushed at her with an enchanted dagger. Without hesitation, she sidestepped, grabbed his wrist, and delivered a sharp chop to the back of his neck.
As he fell unconscious, she caught the falling dagger, spun around, and plunged the short blade into the shoulder of another guard who dared to sneak up on her.
In the next moment, he was casually tossed aside like he weighed nothing by a girl much shorter than him.
But Alexia didn’t stop there.
In one single motion, she spun around and slammed her heel into the chin of another guard who had gotten too close.
Without wasting a second, she moved on to target a group of guards who were reloading their bazookas.
As that was happening, Kang leaped over the gates and landed in the courtyard, while Lily entered through the breach as the two of them finally decided to join the fight.
Kang was already partially transformed. His nails had elongated into sharp claws, his canines had grown, and his eyes were glowing red in the dark.
Lily, on the other hand, moved with the precision of someone who could see the future.
She was always exactly where she needed to be to avoid being shot and had knocked several foes unconscious using her bō staff in under a minute after joining the battle.
And just like that, it was over soon.
They had to put down around fifty more guards before the onslaught finally stopped.
As the last of the guards fell, a heavy silence settled over the courtyard.
The once-pristine stone pavement was now cracked and full of bodies. Some were merely unconscious, but most of them were dead.
Ironically, they had killed no one.
The acrid scent of gunpowder still hung in the air, mixing with the metallic tang of blood.
Michael let out a sharp breath and rolled his shoulders to shake off the lingering tension.
There wasn’t a single dent in his lustreless black armor, though his Essence was now starting to run a little low.
He turned his head slightly. “Everyone still breathing?”
“More or less,” Alexia replied. As her helmet dissolved into particles of light, her face was revealed while the rest of her body remained clad.
Her orange hair, damp with sweat, clung to her forehead. She looked battered but unfazed.
Kang cracked his knuckles, his claws slowly retracting as his transformation waned.
His movements looked a little pained as he was shot in his right shoulder and left thigh.
Michael frowned at him. “Will you be okay?”
Kang gave him a slightly offended look and scoffed, “Of course.”
As if on cue, the bullet lodged in his shoulder fell out, and the wound it left behind began to fill up with flesh.
Michael’s eyes shot wide. “Wait! Do you have a regenerative healing factor?!”
“Haha! Yes, I do.” Kang looked overly proud. Then he coughed awkwardly. “B-But only on moonlit nights.”
“That’s… still amazing,” Michael said while taking off his own helmet, genuinely impressed. “You really are like a werewolf. Don’t mind if I copy your powers.”
“What? Hey!” Kang tried protesting, but it was already too late as Michael deployed his Origin Card. “Y-You thief!”
Lily, still holding her bō staff, glanced around at the fallen enemies, completely ignoring the two boys.
Looking at the corpses and burned remains of all those people, she felt sick. “These guards were prepared. More than they should have been.”
Alexia grunted. “Yeah, no kidding.”
Something about this whole fight didn’t sit right with any of them.
The sheer number of guards, their immediate mobilization, and their willingness to fire heavy weaponry in their own courtyard — it all screamed of forewarning.
“So? Should we proceed?” Lily asked aloud. “There could be a trap for us.”
Alexia walked next to her and patted Lily on the back. “That’s why you are here with us, Sugar. Tell us if we’re about to die in advance.”
“Hey! Just because I can see a few seconds into the future doesn’t mean I can always change it!” Lily retorted.
Alexia was about to say something, but Michael beat her to it. “Well, we don’t have a choice. If the Overlord really is onto us, then it’s more of a reason we can’t walk away now. Because if we do, he’ll find a way to escape.”
“For the first time, I’m also inclined to agree with you,” Alexia nodded. “The fact that the Overlord threw this many guards at us and deployed heavy artillery weapons means that he’s desperate. He’s trying to stall us.”
“Stall us for what?” Lily scowled.
Michael took a deep breath, then turned towards the mansion. The grand double doors of the entrance were slightly ajar.
“Only one way likend out,” he said. “Let’s go.”
•••
Michael pushed open the doors and stepped inside.
Alexia followed closely behind, with Kang beside her, while Lily walked at the far back — exactly where she needed to be.
After all, if there was a trap waiting, she’d be the first to see it coming. In situations like this, a seer’s life was worth more than theirs.
The entrance hall was silent.
It was not the still and peaceful kind of silence, but the unnatural kind — like something was about to happen, and no one had any idea what.
The mansion’s interior was just as they remembered from their last visit when they officially met the Overlord.
The floors were made of polished marble, and moonlight streamed in through tall windows.
Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and oil paintings of stern-faced ancestors decorated the walls.
There were also modern art pieces, luxury furniture, and other high-end touches that looked slightly out of place against the mansion’s old-world elegance.
A sleek glass coffee table sat in front of a vintage leather couch, and a wall-mounted smart display was installed between two classical oil paintings.
A state-of-the-art security panel blinked red near the grand staircase. Its interface was seamlessly built into the carved wooden banister.
In the far corner was a minibar full of expensive bottles arranged beside a digital temperature regulator.
Further down the hall stood a massive grandfather clock beside a biometric scanner.
The entire place was a fusion of old money and new power.
But right now, it felt more like a mausoleum than a home.
“Fancy,” Alexia muttered casually, her copper armor clinking as she walked.
“Stay sharp,” Lily said, gripping her bō staff tightly.
“Any idea where we should be looking?” Michael asked.
“Underground,” Kang answered immediately. “All the tunnels under the city lead back to the Overlord’s mansion, so that’s where we should search. Underground.”
“Fair,” Michael nodded. “Basement. We need to find stairs or a hidden lift that could take us down.”
And it didn’t take long.
Behind a painting of the Everan family crest, they found a reinforced metal door.
The door was locked, and a numeric keypad was mounted on the wall next to it.
Alexia snorted. “Subtle. Does anyone have the password for this thing?”
Michael was about to slam his armored fist into the keypad when Lily stopped him and quietly stepped forward.
She placed her hand gently on the cool surface of the keypad and started staring at it intently.
Alexia exchanged a confused glance with Michael before frowning. “Uh, what exactly are you doing?”
Lily didn’t take her eyes off the keypad. “I’m looking at my future self trying to type in the right combination to unlock the door.”
Alexia blinked. “Wait, so you’re essentially doing trial and error… but in time?”
Lily nodded hesitantly. “Yeah, something like that.”
Alexia raised an eyebrow. “But can’t you skip all that and just see the future where you get it right, instead of going through every possible combination?”
Lily clicked her tongue, clearly frustrated. “That’s not how it works. Now, let me focus.”
“Okay, girl, chill,” Alexia said, throwing her hands up dramatically and stepping back with a playful smirk. “I’m not trying to rush you.”
Finally, after a few more seconds, Lily moved her fingers and typed in the number combination.
The door hissed open, revealing a dimly lit staircase spiraling down.
Once again, Michael took the lead and started descending the stairs, with the others following closely behind him.
The descent felt endless. They kept walking, but there was no end to the stairs.
With each step down, the air grew colder, and the walls smelled of damp stone and something metallic.
Finally, the bottom floor came into view.
It was a corridor lined with reinforced steel. And it seemed to be illuminated by ceiling lights.
After reaching the foot of the stairs, Michael took a cautious step forward.
This place was too quiet. He had expected more enemies or even the Overlord himself to attack them, but there was no one here — not even any traps.
Were they wrong to suspect the Overlord—
Just as Michael began to doubt himself, he stepped into the corridor and saw it…
The corridor opened up to a vast underground lab.
Yes, under the Overlord’s mansion was a research laboratory.