'I will kill you,' Edward's widened emerald eyes, holding red veins, glared at the floor, his lips bitten harder, as he made his decision to shred that man at all costs. "I will kill you, RYUK DEVEREAUX!"
"EDWARD!" The man shouted the moment his ears caught his son's declaration, revealing his hidden intentions out loud without thinking about consequences.
"Huh?" Edward exclaimed blankly.
Suddenly, a momentary feeling of everything slowing down, like a serene wave hitting his mind, caused it to become numb and slow enough to not process things at its usual pace.
'What is he doing?' His mind was numb with only his eyes capturing the image of his father's hands stretching while his body reaching towards him.
SWISH
"Lady Drishti! Please, he has a reason!" The man instantly came in front of Edward, blocking him from the sight of the approaching woman, whose sharp amber eyes were gazing towards the young man.
"What is it?" Without any trace of emotion on her face, Drishti slightly tilted her head, her eyes glaring at the man whose body instantly got hit by an unknown force, shrinking down every bit of his being yet withstanding it due to his ZENITH Rank.
"Y-yes," the man maintained his posture amidst the bombardment of energy, hearing those words repeated, feeling the force on his body weakening as if the woman withdrew it.
"Give me a valid reason, or prepare to collect his pieces, just like you did with the previous head of the Abernathy Family."
'!?!'
It was a clear threat.
thump thump
Both the man and Edward's heartbeats accelerated due to the situation only experienced by themselves.
There was an unknown concentrated energy field around their bodies, somehow suppressing their own energy to their soul level—a feeling known only to them.
One was a LEGENDARY Ranker, and the other was ZENITH, yet both of their strengths seemed to fade away in front of the woman who arrived.
Making them go as far as to use the Quadappeal, something which was given to all four major families to use a single time to put forth any request which had to be followed by the other three.
This was made by mutual consideration of all four founding ancestors, where this single request was valued more than any asset a family held.
Due to being passed down from the foundation, all four major families never used it, since it was what created the balance of power.
Meaning, if a major family used Quadappeal and asked for the land and all assets of another family, then they had to provide it, no matter what.
Sounding ridiculous, but this was made for even more valuable things held by all the major families—their pride.
So, of course, no one used it until now, because if one major family asked for the assets of another, then that family could also use their own Quadappeal to cancel it, making both of their Quadappeals nullify.
And once both families lost their Quadappeal, the other two could use theirs to claim or put forth any proposal they had, which can't be rejected.
A simple word, Quadappeal, made by the founders to always keep each other in check, was one of several factors keeping all four major families from engaging with each other on the land of Ardoros.
Of course, there were many more reasons, but the smallest among them was this one-time request one.
Drishti couldn't help but once again realize the stupidity of the Abernathy family to use such a valuable thing as if it were nothing, only to propose a single request:
Edward Abernathy should be provided guardian protection from all the major seat holders of the four major families and be exempted to enter any of the family's territories as he sees fit.
These were just mere words, but the weight behind them was heavy enough to make all the strongest ones agree to provide protection to this young man, who became the most special individual on the whole Bluestar with just those words.
It may seem that the appeal could be broken, but in truth, the ones who break it would have to face the fury of existing monsters inside the four families who followed the traditions passed down by their founder as if etched inside their soul.
Even though one of the founders laid lazily on the chair, looking at the young man who was special because of his luck.
'It will be an interesting battle,' a smile formed on Drishti's face, already anticipating watching a battle worth enough.
A battle between a special one blessed by luck and an interesting one whom she found appreciable.