BOOM!!!!
The alarms in West City had not yet ceased when towering flames rose once more from the Kiramman residence in the east.
Amid the searing glow of the blaze, Sevika stood at the manor gates, her expression exceptionally grim.
"I just blew up someone else's home and killed everyone inside, and now you're telling me our place got robbed?"
The burly man under Silco responsible for relaying information shrank his neck and stammered.
"We didn't know the Kiramman family's eldest daughter would go to the Undercity."
"Hmph, she wouldn't have gone on her own, but with that woman around, who knows?" Sevika spat, her face filled with displeasure. "The councilor isn't there, and neither are our two targets. What rotten luck!"
"But at least we killed the councilor's husband, the targets' father," another burly man said weakly.
Sevika glared at her subordinate, her heart filled with irritation as she wondered how she would explain this to Silco.
"It seems you have encountered a problem."
At that moment, a leisurely figure emerged from the darkness. He wore a hood, but the mechanical claw on his shoulder revealed his identity.
"Mr. Butler, we've run into trouble. Councilor Kiramman went to the Grand Theater, while their daughter went to the Undercity. We need to return now," Sevika said respectfully.
The mechanical arm he had helped repair was extraordinarily useful. With a single punch, it had smashed through the Kiramman family's iron gate. Not to mention that the mechanical claw on his shoulder was no mere decoration. She had every reason to show him respect.
"I think you have done enough. Leave the rest to me."
Viktor spoke calmly as he walked past Sevika and her men. His mechanical claw aimed at the burning manor, and the Hex Gemstone in its palm lit up with blue radiance.
Sizzle!!!
An orange-yellow beam shot straight out, sweeping across the manor and slicing through everything it touched.
The century-old Kiramman ancestral home collapsed at once. The stone walls at the entrance, the vegetation in the courtyard—anything taller than one meter was severed.
In less than a few minutes, the once-prosperous estate had become a barren patch amid ruins.
Sevika looked at Viktor's back with awe, then turned and left with her terrified subordinates.
She did not know what Mr. Butler intended to do, but she knew it was time for her to leave. The beam had no eyes.
As Sevika and the others disappeared into the distance, Viktor did not move. He stood quietly amid the ruins, as though waiting for something.
Before long, a series of footsteps rang out. A large group of Enforcers raised their guns and surrounded the manor.
At their head was Councilor Kiramman. Looking at the manor reduced to ruins, her face was already consumed by fury and grief.
She shouted sharply at the figure standing amid the wreckage.
"Kill him! Show no mercy!"
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
A barrage of gunfire erupted as dozens of bullets poured toward Viktor in the ruins.
"I believe we need to talk, Councilor Kiramman."
A hoarse voice came from beneath Viktor's hood.
Just as the bullets were about to strike him, blue light suddenly enveloped everything around him.
All things froze within the blue glow. No one could move, and even the advancing bullets lost their momentum and fell one after another.
Sizzle!!!
A surging beam burst from Viktor's mechanical claw, passing over every Enforcer and piercing a large tree in the distance.
With a thunderous crash, the tree, more than ten meters tall, fell and smashed a wide section of white stone paving, throwing up a cloud of dust.
"Magic? Who are you?"
Councilor Kiramman was both shocked and enraged, but with her body unable to move, she could only glare furiously at him.
Her husband was still buried beneath the ruins behind him. Even if he possessed the power to erase her in a single strike, she would never yield.
"That is not magic, Councilor Kiramman. I am Vis, from Zaun."
Viktor's hoarse voice reached everyone present. He stood high beneath the moonlight, the center of attention for all.
"People from the Undercity? What exactly are you trying to do? Start a war between the Upper and Lower Cities? You should know you have no chance of winning," Councilor Kiramman said coldly.
"Arrogant as ever. Was that how you spoke to Vander back then?" Viktor asked calmly.
"Vander? What an old name." Councilor Kiramman gradually calmed down as well. "Were you one of those who stormed the bridge? Is this all for revenge?"
Faced with this power that could restrain people, they could not even move.
Yet she had always believed that every power had its limits. At the very least, if he did not kill them immediately, they still had hope.
"I was not present at the bridge assault, but I heard that three councilors agreed to Zaun's independence then. I think there will be four this time. No, I forgot—there are eight councilors now. It seems Zaun's independence requires the approval of five councilors."
Hearing his words, Kiramman stared at him in disbelief. Her chest heaved violently as she struggled to steady her emotions.
"You won't succeed. Even if I agree, the Medarda Family and Heimerdinger will not. And—"
Councilor Kiramman trailed off.
"And?"
"And your force field is about to fail!"
As Councilor Kiramman finished speaking sharply, fireballs rose from the direction of Piltover's outskirts. The enormous fireballs resembled four blazing suns suspended in the night sky as they hurtled toward Kiramman Manor.
"Piltover's H-28Q advanced turrets, personally designed by Professor Heimerdinger. A single bombardment can leave nothing growing within a hundred meters."
Viktor was not anxious in the slightest. He even leisurely raised his head to watch the four flame-wreathed shells close in.
"No one can withstand the bombardment of advanced turrets. You are worth dying alongside me and all of Kiramman Manor."
"Councilor Kiramman, do you know? I once had thoughts similar to yours. But after witnessing someone far greater, I suddenly realized that both Piltover and Zaun are far too insignificant in this world."
After speaking leisurely, Viktor flicked a small blue sphere upward with his mechanical claw. It was another Hex Gemstone.
After tossing out the Hex Gemstone, the three prongs of the mechanical claw opened. A surging beam struck the Hex Gemstone, and the kinetic energy supplied by the beam carried it into the sky against gravity.
Under the beam's relentless impact, the nearly indestructible Hex Gemstone suddenly shattered.
The fragments carried blue light, interweaving with blue lightning in midair, dazzling and resplendent.
At that moment, the four shells fired by the advanced turrets neared Kiramman Manor, about to fall to the ground.
But the lightning produced by the shattered Hex Gemstone intertwined in the sky, generating a magnetic field in midair. The shells' downward momentum weakened more and more before an upward magnetic force pulled them slowly into the sky.