Chapter 188: The Real Ant II

Rubious’s Aura flared defensively as understanding crystallized.

’A Domain! I’m inside someone’s Domain!

But who? Which awakener would dare attack Kestrel property without warning?!’

He stood and walked quickly to his door, opening it, stepping into the main courtyard.

And... stopped completely, his blood running cold.

Hundreds of people stood perfectly still throughout the compound.

Adults from his branch family. Guards, administrators and awakeners of various ranks.

All frozen in place like statues, their eyes open but unseeing, their bodies unmoving.

Rubious’s expertise in mind manipulation let him recognize what he was witnessing immediately.

’Hypnosis! Every single one of them is under hypnotic control. But the scale... the precision... this is beyond anything I’ve seen.

Who has this level of mental power?!’

Before he could activate his own defensive techniques, his consciousness was yanked forcibly from his body.

The sensation was disorienting with the reality shifting and the physical world replaced by something else entirely.

A mental Domain! Someone else’s mindscape made manifest.

****

[Lyandra’s Domain - The Throne of Chains]

Rubious found himself standing in a vast space that defied normal physics.

The ground beneath his feet was smooth obsidian, reflecting distorted images like a dark mirror.

Above, chains hung suspended in the endless sky, each one wrapped around ghostly figures that struggled without success.

At the center, elevated on a dais of black stone, sat a throne constructed entirely from interwoven chains that pulsed with purple energy.

And on that throne sat a woman.

She had black hair that fell past her shoulders and black eyes that stared at him with absolute zero warmth.

She wore dark combat armor that looked ceremonial and functional simultaneously, a long coat flowing behind her like a cape.

Her presence dominated the entire Domain, her will made physical and her power radiating from every chain, every reflection, every shadow.

Behind the throne stood a man with silver hair and silver eyes, wearing matching armor, his hand resting casually on a katana’s hilt.

Rubious opened his mouth to demand explanations, to threaten consequences and to assert the authority his S rank and Noble status should provide.

But... Lyandra spoke first, her voice carrying throughout the Domain with absolute clarity.

"You know... my son never calls me in the middle of the night without reason."

Her tone was conversational, almost pleasant, which made it more terrifying than shouting would have been.

"But tonight, he called and he told me he loved me. He’s not one to express emotions easily, so hearing him say that out loud was... unusual."

Rubious tried to speak, tried to activate his own Domain to counter hers.

Whoosh

But... A katana appeared at his throat, the blade’s edge resting against his skin with enough pressure to draw a single drop of blood.

Alaric stood beside him now, having moved faster than Rubious’s S rank perception could track.

The silver-haired man raised one finger to his lips.

"Shhhhh. I don’t like when people interrupt my wife."

Whoosh

Then... Alaric was gone, standing behind the throne again as though he’d never moved.

Rubious froze completely, cold sweat breaking out across his entire body.

’Impossible! I’m S rank as well! I should be able to track his movements! But I couldn’t even see him!

Just... Who the fuck are these people?!’

Lyandra continued as though nothing had happened.

"So I contacted my connections in the military. Called in favors from people who owe me. And look what I found."

Her black eyes fixed on him with intensity that made his mental defenses want to collapse.

"Ever since my baby left our house, you’ve been targeting his organization. First, you went after his Mafia students’ families. And made it a game.

Forced him to run desperately trying to save them while you hunted them for sport."

Crackle Crackle

Pressure began building in the Domain, the chains above rattling, the obsidian ground cracking.

"And when he saved two of them, when he thought he’d won your sick game... you had something special prepared for Zavier Wells’s family."

Lyandra waved her hand, and a projection appeared in the air.

Rubious’s own face, laughing and holding a recording device.

Forcing a husband to eat his own wife and daughter while mentally controlled.

The projection showed every horrific detail, complete with Rubious’s commentary about teaching commoners their place.

"You created a video to remember your cruelty. How thoughtful."

Lyandra’s voice had dropped to something quiet and deadly.

"You made that man consume his wife while fully conscious. Made them suffer the worst psychological torture imaginable. Then... you left a note threatening my son. Calling him an ant who needed to know his place."

Crack Crack

The pressure intensified, Rubious feeling his own mental defenses beginning to crack.

His mind was screaming in panic.

’The information we had said his father was just a military trainer! His mother a housewife! Low-level connections! Nothing to worry about!

But this... this power... these Domains... I’m S rank and I feel like I’m facing something beyond my understanding!

Who are these monsters?!’

"First you torture my son through psychological warfare."

Crackle Crackle

Lyandra stood from her throne, the chains in the Domain beginning to move actively, wrapping around Marcus’s limbs, holding him suspended.

"Then you had the audacity to send people to kill him tonight. Four A rank operatives to eliminate a sixteen-year-old boy...

I don’t even know how he managed to survive, all his information is suddenly classified as well. But I guess someone must have saved him. And you... you almost deprived me of my baby."

She tilted her head, and the Domain’s power focused entirely on Rubious, trying to overwhelm his mental defenses, to hypnotize him the way she’d hypnotized everyone else.

Rubious fought desperately, activating every defensive technique he knew.

Will Reinforcement! Mental Barriers! Counter-hypnosis! Domain Fighting principles!

His own considerable skill in mental manipulation gave him tools to resist that most wouldn’t have.

But then Lyandra’s voice echoed inside his head, bypassing all external defenses, speaking directly to his consciousness.

"You’re a mind manipulator? How pathetic! Did you really think you could resist me?"

His defenses collapsed like wet paper.

One moment he was fighting with everything he had. The next, his mind was no longer his own.

His body remained conscious with his awareness intact. But control was gone, surrendered to Lyandra’s absolute dominance.

She walked forward slowly, her hand reaching out to touch his forehead.

Then she read his memories directly, experiencing everything he’d done, every cruel decision and every calculated cruelty.

"So in that letter, you showed off your intelligence? Bragged about predicting my son’s movements? How smart you must have felt."

Her smile was cold.

"Quite impressive for someone who never even identified the background of his enemies. My son was right – the Kestrel Family really is filled with stupid brains."

She released his memories and stepped back.

"And... you threatened my family. Told my child that Nobles were his betters. That commoners needed to learn their place."

Lyandra waved her hand, and the hypnosis on everyone else in the Domain released.

"WHO?"

"WHAT’S GOING ON?!"

"IT’S AN ENEMY ATTACK!"

"RUN! THEY ARE TOO STRONG!"

Hundreds of Kestrel family members suddenly regained awareness, finding themselves trapped in a mental mindscape they didn’t understand.

They tried to move, tried to flee and tried to activate their own powers.

But Alaric’s spatial Domain overlapped with Lyandra’s mental one, holding everyone perfectly still through spatial manipulation.

Only one person was pulled forward through the frozen crowd.

Rubious’s wife – Elena Kestrel. Crying and begging for mercy.

"Please! Whatever he did, I wasn’t involved! I didn’t know! Please don’t hurt me!"

Lyandra ignored her completely, addressing Rubious instead.

"You will face the same sickness before your death that you made Zavier’s father endure. But I’m not quite the monster you are."

Her voice was clinical, almost like stating facts.

"So we’ll make this efficient."

Rubious’s mind screamed desperately.

’NO! NO! NOT THIS! ANYTHING BUT THIS!’

But his body wasn’t his anymore. Lyandra’s hypnotic control was absolute.

His hand moved on its own, reaching out, grabbing Elena.

"Rubious?! What are you doing?! RUBIOUS!"

His wife’s screams echoed through the Domain as his hand plunged into her chest.

Tore out her beating heart and brought it to his mouth.

’NOOOOO!’

The internal scream was soundless, trapped inside his own mind as he was forced to bite down, to chew and to swallow.

All while fully aware and fully conscious. Unable to stop.

His family members watching began screaming, their voices creating a chorus of horror.

Some tried threatening.

"The main branch will destroy you for this! Our connection will have you executed! You’ll die screaming! You’ll–"

Alaric unsheathed his katana.

Tck

The movement was almost too fast to see, the blade leaving and returning to its scabbard in the space of a heartbeat.

Every person who’d been speaking went suddenly silent and still.

Not unconscious or hypnotized.

Just... stopped. Like puppets with cut strings.

Rubious finished consuming the heart, his eyes completely dead inside, his mind shattered beyond any recovery.

Lyandra summoned her weapon – a chained blade that appeared in her hand with comfortable familiarity.

She threw it, the chain extending, wrapping around Rubious’s body.

"The ant who needed to know his place wasn’t my son."

Her voice carried absolute conviction.

"It was the Kestrel Family... And now you do."

And then she pulled.