Despite everything, Arthur laughed—a genuine sound that carried both affection and dark amusent. "Ethical advisor for my revenge campaign. That’s certainly a unique role."
"I contain multitudes," Charlotte said with a small smile, wiping away her tears. "I can create exploding Hello Kitties and provide moral guidance. Very versatile."
Aether, who had been watching the emotional exchange with unusual solemnity, finally spoke up. "Aether will help too! If bad humans hurt Master and Master’s sister, Aether will make them go boom with singularity collapse!"
Both siblings smiled at the void dragon’s fierce loyalty.
"Thank you, Aether," Charlotte said warmly, reaching out to scratch behind his horns. "We’re lucky to have you."
Arthur looked out over Detroit one final ti, his expression hardening with cold resolve. "The military leaders responsible are scattered across various bases and command centers. It’ll take coordination to reach them all efficiently."
"Then we coordinate," Charlotte said simply. "When you’re ready to move, I’m ready to follow."
Arthur nodded slowly, that tactical part of his mind already beginning to plan. Nas, locations, security asures—all the variables that would need managing when he finally enacted his long-delayed retribution.
But for now, standing on this mountain with his sister and his loyal companion, Arthur felt sothing settle inside him. A sense of rightness, of having the support he needed to do what ca next.
The United States military had made a catastrophic mistake when they’d tried to use Charlotte Fate as leverage against her brother.
And soon, very soon, they would understand exactly how terrible that mistake had been.
"Co on," Arthur finally said, gesturing toward Aether. "Let’s go back to the guild. You’ve had enough heavy emotions for one day. Ti to show you the lighter side of what I’ve built."
Charlotte nodded with gratitude, clearly ready to leave the painful mories and dark planning behind for the mont. "Lead the way, big brother. Show this legendary Power Guild everyone keeps talking about."
As they climbed onto Aether’s back and prepared to leave Detroit behind, Arthur allowed himself a small smile.
His sister was awake, healed, and standing beside him with a full understanding of what he’d beco and what he planned to do.
That was all he’d really wanted.
Now? Now it was ti to get back at every single person who had ever wronged him.
"Aether," Arthur’s voice carried cold finality. "Take us to the White House. Washington D.C. The heart of the United States governnt."
Charlotte’s eyes widened slightly, but she didn’t question or protest. She’d promised to stand beside him, and she ant it.
Aether’s cheerful deanour faded, replaced by solemn understanding. "Yes, Master. Going to the bad humans place."
Whoosh!
Reality folded as Aether executed a long-range teleportation across continents. When the world reford, they hovered in the air above the iconic white building—the operational center of United States power, where the most influential person in Arica resided.
Arthur didn’t fear any weapon they might deploy. Not their awakened military forces, not their strategic defenses, not even nuclear weapons if they were desperate enough to try. He was too strong now, having reached second-order and awakened his domain. Conventional human resistance ant nothing to soone operating at his level.
Charlotte gripped her staff tightly, sensing the shift in Arthur’s deanor. This wasn’t training or demon hunting. This was sothing else entirely.
Without hesitation or warning, Arthur activated his domain.
Origin Sanctuary
Power erupted from Arthur’s core with overwhelming force, the domain expanding in a perfect sphere that encompassed the entire White House complex. Reality itself bent to accommodate his territorial authority as the domain asserted complete control over the local space.
Inside the White House, people experienced a mont of absolute confusion as their surroundings vanished.
The Oval Office dissolved. Conference rooms disappeared. Hallways ceased to exist. Security stations, living quarters, communications centers—all of it stripped away as Arthur’s domain replaced conventional reality with his own constructed space.
Suddenly, everyone inside the White House—whether guards, staff mbers, the president himself, his wife, advisors, or anyone else who happened to be present—found themselves sucked into a dark void that Arthur had imposed upon them.
No furniture. No walls. No floor or ceiling in the conventional sense. Just darkness and the presence of dozens of confused, frightened people floating in a space that defied normal physics.
And standing before them, perfectly visible despite the void, was Arthur Fate.
His expression carried no rage or dramatic emotion.
The Secret Service agents reacted instantly, their training overriding their shock. Weapons materialized—both conventional firearms and magical abilities granted by their awakened talents.
"FREEZE!"
"PROTECT THE PRESIDENT!"
"WEAPONS FREE! TAKE HIM DOWN!"
The close-range warriors activated movent skills, attempting to rush Arthur’s position. Their bodies glowed with mana reinforcent as they closed the distance.
Simultaneously, the long-range specialists began channeling spells. Fireballs, ice spears, lightning bolts—a dozen different magical attacks converged on Arthur’s location from multiple angles.
Arthur simply clicked his fingers.
Snap!
The sound echoed through the void with supernatural clarity, and imdiately dozens of beasts manifested from Arthur’s domain ability. Creatures he’d personally killed—wolves, demons, goblins, serpents—materialized as temporary summons sustained by his territorial authority.
The rushing warriors found themselves engulfed by snarling beasts that tackled them mid-charge, overwhelming them through sheer numbers. The magical attacks were intercepted by summoned creatures that threw themselves into the projectiles’ paths, absorbing damage ant for their master.
Within seconds, every single guard and agent lay unconscious, subdued by Arthur’s overwhelming nurical advantage without him needing to move or cast a single spell himself.
The President of the United States watched with a shocked expression, his face pale as he witnessed the complete neutralization of his personal security detail in the span of heartbeats.
He knew exactly who stood before him. Arthur Fate—the player he’d declared the most wanted terrorist in existence. The one the military had tried to kill with a MOAB strike in that desert base, the attack they’d assured others had succeeded.
Clearly, their assurances had been catastrophically wrong.
The President’s wife clung to his arm, terror written across her features. Other staff mbers cowered in the darkness, not understanding what was happening.
But the President... the President took a slow, shuddering breath as understanding settled over him. His shoulders sagged slightly, the weight of consequences finally arriving.
"Sigh." The sound escaped him with weary resignation.
"It’s ti, huh?"
His voice carried no false bravado, no demands or threats. Just acknowledgnt that the reckoning he’d perhaps always known would co had finally arrived.
The President’s eyes t Arthur’s directly, and in that mont, politician and victim faced each other without pretense.
"I suppose," the President continued quietly, his voice carrying across the void, "there’s no point in denying what we did. No point pretending we didn’t use your sister’s illness to control you. No point claiming it was all ’necessary for national security’ or whatever justification we told ourselves."
He glanced at the unconscious Secret Service agents scattered throughout the darkness. "They can’t save . Nothing can save from you now. You’ve beco exactly what we feared you would—powerful enough that our leverage ans nothing, our weapons are irrelevant, and our authority is a joke."
The President looked back at Arthur, sothing approaching resignation in his expression. "So I’m asking—is this execution? Revenge? A ssage to whoever takes my place? What exactly am I about to experience, Mr. Fate?"
Arthur stood silently, his cold gaze fixed on the man before him.
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