Night of Revenge

The sun set, and the cold darkness of night descended upon the forest as scheduled. Only the lights spilling from within the manor dispelled the night like a faint halo of their own.

After returning to the manor, Kyle sat in the chair in the master’s office on the second floor. Yutong stood obediently beside him, using her mind to suspend a bottle of red wine above the desk and tilt it to pour. The wine flowed into the goblet without spilling a single drop.

"What’s the situation outside?" Kyle asked, taking a light sip of wine as he stroked Yutong’s smooth black hair.

"Within a hundred meters of the manor, there are already nearly thirty people hiding in the forest. There should be even more beyond that," Yutong answered softly, narrowing her eyes comfortably like a cat.

"They probably won’t be able to hold back much longer." Kyle chuckled, placing his fingers on the desk and tapping them slowly in a steady rhythm.

Thud, thud, thud…

Like the ticking pendulum of a countdown, the tapping suddenly stopped. Yutong’s bright, watery eyes widened slightly as she raised her voice. "They’re here!"

The moment she finished speaking, a chain of explosions erupted outside the manor. More than a dozen rockets trailing shrill tails smashed through the balcony windows. Just as they entered the room and were about to explode, they abruptly froze.

Sizzle!

Still spewing fire and smoke from their tails, the rockets that had burst into the office came to a complete stop, trembling as they hovered in midair as though some mysterious force had blocked them out of thin air.

"Give them back." Silver light flashed in Yutong’s eyes. She waved her little hand, and the shells all spun around, swiftly flying back along their original trajectories and vanishing into the darkness beyond the manor.

Immediately afterward, thunderous explosions rang out outside. The blast waves whipped up the curtains, accompanied by the faint screams of many people.

This was like the opening act of tonight’s war. The assault was about to begin!

Knowing they had been exposed, the combined force planning to kill Kyle rushed out of the forest. Armed personnel surged forward in dense waves, breaking into the manor’s main building.

Bang!

The manor’s first line of defense, its flimsy front gate, was blown apart by a single high-explosive grenade. Smoke Bombs were thrown inside as cover, and dozens of armed men in black Combat Suits, some wielding swords and others holding firearms, stormed in forcefully.

Hearing the tremendous commotion from downstairs, Kyle remained unmoved. He leaned back in his chair calmly, raised his goblet, and leisurely savored the red wine.

Yutong showed no intention of going downstairs either. With her eyes closed, she used her mind to search for and remain alert against enemies attacking from the second floor.

The second floor was her battlefield. As for the first floor—

"Aaaahhh!!"

"What kind of monster is that?!"

"Kill him, quickly…"

The explosions of grenades, dense gunfire, and incomparably miserable screams had barely begun before they showed no sign of stopping. They traveled from the first-floor hall through the floorboards and office door to Kyle’s ears.

"Logan only had Adamantium implanted into his body recently. This is just the right time for him to sharpen his claws." Kyle gently swirled his goblet, his expression indifferent. Like a demon accustomed to battle and death, he continued tasting wine as red as blood amid the gruesome atmosphere of slaughter raging downstairs.

At that moment, in the manor’s first-floor hall.

The luxurious glass chandelier swayed constantly, making the smoke-filled interior even more hazy and distorted. More than a dozen dismembered corpses lay scattered in pools of blood.

Most of the fatal wounds were on their necks and chests—simple and direct, nearly all one-hit kills.

Amid the fierce gunfire and screams, more members of the invading combined force fell one after another onto the red carpeted floor.

"What the hell is going on? Did that man make his move?" Beads of sweat the size of soybeans flowed into his eyes, yet the tall white man did not dare blink. He gripped his dark metallic assault rifle tightly.

As the squad captain for this attack on Kyle, he was one of Hydra’s members and the leader of the force breaking through the manor’s defenses head-on.

The target of this impromptu assault was the Symbol of Peace. The remnants of Hydra formed the core of the operation, while elite agents from the Soviet Red Room, along with samurai and ninjas from the Japanese Ninja Organization, had also joined this secret combined mission.

Every one of them was an expert at offensive raids! Yet they had only just entered the manor’s first floor when they were subjected to a one-sided massacre by a single enemy…

"Symbol of Peace, is that you? Come out here!" The squad captain snarled as he slowly backed toward the group near the manor’s front entrance.

"You pieces of trash think you’re worthy of making the Patriarch act?"

With a cold snort, a weathered, short-haired middle-aged man burst from the smoke. His body moved at high speed, stirring up a fierce gust that scattered the smoke. Ignoring everyone else, he steadily closed in on the squad captain alone.

"He’s out! Open fire!" Instead of being alarmed, the squad captain was delighted. He let out a savage laugh and viciously pulled the trigger, flames continuously bursting from the rifle’s muzzle.

The dozen or so armed men around him reacted swiftly and fired at Logan as well, instantly creating a storm of bullets.

With a sneer, Logan had no intention of retreating. Like a reckless brute unafraid of death, he lunged directly into the bullet storm. While still in midair, three sharp, snow-white metal claws extended from each of his bloodstained fists.

Taking countless bullets to the chest, Logan charged before the squad captain. The captain’s savage grin had only begun to turn into shock when the claws flashed like blades and swept down smoothly. The scorching rifle barrel and the squad captain’s neck were both cut clean through, split into two in a bloody, brutal instant.

Gritting his teeth, Logan let out a beastlike growl. Under his control of his muscles, the bullets that had entered his body were quickly forced out, clattering onto the floor. The bullet holes in his body healed before they could even bleed.

"Another monster… one that isn’t afraid of bullets…"

No one knew who said it with a sharp intake of breath, but the combined force in the first-floor hall was filled with despair.

Meanwhile, in the office on the manor’s second floor.

Yutong sensed something and opened her eyes. Three ninjas dressed entirely in black, each carrying a Japanese sword on his back, ghosted in through the shattered balcony window with blinding speed.

The man leading the ninja squad had long sleeves fluttering at his side. He was clearly missing an arm.

"Demon Kyle! I’ve finally seen you again." His voice was hoarse, like a vicious ghost crawling out of hell. Using his one arm, the man pulled down his face mask, his vicious eyes fixed on Kyle in the chair.

"Isn’t this Hojo Maru? An old acquaintance." Kyle, who had been uninterested all this time, finally raised his head. Looking at the one-armed ninja standing in the room, he smiled. "You actually didn’t die. Have you come to deliver another sword to me?"

"Bastard!" Hojo Maru could not help blurting out a curse in his native language, so frustrated he wanted to cough up blood.

During the battle at the Hojo Dojo, Kyle had severed one of his arms with Muramasa, a sword made of Sodium-Carbon Steel. The pain had nearly killed him. He had only managed to stop the bleeding by cauterizing the wound and pouring in a nerve-numbing poison before fleeing to seek treatment.

Unexpectedly, after he had only gotten about a hundred meters away, the area where the Hojo Dojo stood turned into a massive bottomless pit, like a sinkhole, swallowing the ninja squad and an army of tens of thousands of soldiers.

A new arc begins tomorrow, which means the second volume is coming to an end.

The second volume covered the period from the end of World War II to the protagonist leaving Earth. Some readers have asked why he still has not left Earth, saying it is being dragged out.

Should the family setup be discarded, then? Should Black Panther, Howard, S.H.I.E.L.D., Carter, and everyone else simply be glossed over? Should the Earth storyline just be skipped without a thought?

The second volume was indeed much calmer than the first, with far more setup and transition. But that was necessary if this story was meant to go far. If this novel had over a thousand chapters, you would not think these mere twenty or thirty chapters were so long.

This book strives for completeness. As long as a major character has appeared, they will basically be given an arrangement. Otherwise, the setting will not be changed casually.

That’s all for now. Tomorrow begins the Starry Sky arc. If my condition improves, I’ll return to three updates a day.