Quite late in the evening that same day, the butler opened the door and Isolde, wearing a hoodie, walked in with a tall golden haired man two steps behind.
The butlerâs hand on the door trembled when Godfrey glanced at him. Those eyes... it shook the core of the butler.
Christine, who sat on the sofa drinking a cup of coffee in anxiety while waiting for her daughter, looked at Isolde as she removed the hood, revealing her face.
Christineâs eyes moistened. She held back her tears as Isolde fell into her arms. Her fingers trailed Isoldeâs crimson hair, trembling softly.
After caressing Isolde for a while, Christine looked up and saw Godfrey. Her eyes slowly widened as she gazed at the man who sat on the sofa adjacent to hers.
He crossed one leg above the other. There was a soft smile on his face but she could sense something had changed about him.
The same impression she got from that painting was what she felt from Godfrey right now.
Arthur walked into the sitting room, his expression softening as he saw Isolde. Then, he looked at Godfrey and frowned.
When their eyes met, Godfrey stood up, waited for Isolde to have her reunion with her father before approaching him.
"What happened?" Arthur asked as they left the sitting room and went to a balcony. Leaning against the railing, Godfrey looked at the forests with a placid expression.
"Cain has four bodies. He killed Isolde, he watches over paradise, he controls the authorities from the shadows, heâs a god to the Fanatics. Every single place there is order, heâs involved and at the height of it."
Arthurâs eyebrows came together. "What about the last one?" He asked deeply.
"I donât know but my whole life has been a plot. If Iâm supposed to believe what you said and what Gabriel said, then heâs indeed after the golden order. I havenât seen anyone forcefully take anotherâs summon but you canât be too sure when it comes to Cain." Godfrey responded calmly.
"What about your family? Do you need somewhere safe for your mother?"
"Safe? Thereâs no safe place. Your butler might be a clone who has no knowledge he can be used at any time. These people around you can turn against you on Cainâs whims. Safety for a place is a misconception in this world."
Godfreyâs reply made Arthur frown. "Godfrey. If you see everyone as Cainâs clones your life will be a miserable one."
"Then I guess youâll have to lose your wife first before your eyes open." Godfreyâs reply made Arthurâs eyes sharpen.
Godfrey glanced at him, his golden irises gleaming softly as it showed no readable expression.
"I was once the youngest widower on earth and I was the cause of her death. I keep running to places to feel safe, I wonât do that anymore." He told Arthur.
His eyes turned away. "The only leverage I have now is that he has no idea Isolde is alive and that I know his secret. Barging into paradise to demand his head will make him deactivate his ability in paradise and send hordes of agents and fanatics after them. Cain wonât kill me but every other person he kills will only make me want to kill him even more, furthering my quest for strength which would give him what he desires. Iâm in a cage of a world and the only source of escape is to be bigger than the cage. To be uncontainable."
"Cain is obsessed with control. He loves watching as the world acts as he wants. Thatâs what heâs been doing with you and everyone else. Heâll hate when things go contrary to his plans and that one of those is if the world is against him." Arthur walked over and wrapped one hand around the railing.
"He discovered brute force will eventually cause him to fail. His old route is his weakness and if we can push him back there, killing him is possible. If that happens, the clones are free and earth will also be free of this plague of a man."
"Turn the world against Cain? Turn what he controls against him?" Godfrey smirked as he turned to face Arthur. "I think you meant to control what he controls and turn it against him."
He looked away.
***
Four agents walked into a subway station. Everyone looked with different expressions as the armed men went straight to a woman and a little twelve year-old boy who were about to enter the train.
"Stop." One of the agents bellowed. Seeing them, the mother froze, her face paled. Her next reaction was to toss her child into the subway.
An agent raised his pistol and shot at her leg while the other summoned a huge bear that held the door that was about to close.
It bent the thick metal and successfully ripped it out with a roar. The other two swiftly aimed their pistols at the twelve years old (year-old) boy.
"We know youâre a humanoid summoner. Come slowly and we wonât hurt you."
People who were shocked at the cruelty shown to the woman had a change of expression when they heard the term âhumanoid summoner.â
"Still... Whatâs wrong with it? Humanoid summoners saved Athens." A girl in her early twenties whispered to her mother.
"Those ones can defect at any time. Itâs best if they go through the program like Axe General. Didnât you see his valiant sacrifice in South Korea? That boyâs mother just wants her son to take the worst path which would eventually end with him feeding other summons to whatever dreadful thing he awakened." Her mother replied.
Suddenly, a portal opened and a truck drove into the scene. Isaac shot web strings and stuck two agents to the ceiling while Lucy slammed the ground and it cracked with extreme heat billowing off the broken slabs and the cracks below.
It displaced the other two.
Arden looked out of the driverâs window.
"Bring them in."
Lucy rushed toward the boy while Isaac lifted up the boyâs mother.
While everyone was shocked by the Vagabondsâ arrival, someone walked out of their midst, heading straight for Lucy and Isaac.
Arden brought out a pistol, her eyes gleaming behind the golden round glasses she wore as she pressed the trigger.
She felt threatened by him and that was a rare King Tier bullet but this man raised a hand that looked completely made out of gold and caught it.
He smiled. "Iâm not here to fight. Iâm Ronald Daniels, Godfreyâs father and I want to see my family."
A man who was recording the whole thing gasped. âThe world isnât going to believe this. Is that really Ronald Daniels?!â