The Elder Comes for the Younger

Ian gripped Layton by the head and smashed him into the ground.

The force of the impact was unimaginable. The ground rippled outward in waves like the surface of water. Soil, rocks, and dust were hurled into the air by the tremendous shockwave, forming a mushroom cloud that shot toward the sky. Cracks spread from the point of impact in every direction, one after another, growing wider and deeper.

Like a giant mouth opening.

The ground shook, trembled, screamed. Those cracks stretched hundreds of meters, tearing the entire plain to pieces.

In some places, the fissures were several meters wide and bottomless, like newborn canyons. Bushes were ripped up by the roots, flung into the air along with dirt and rubble, then fell back down like rain.

The dust slowly dispersed.

Ian stood at the center of the impact, beneath his feet a huge pit nearly a hundred meters across. He was still gripping Layton by the throat, pinning the man's head against the rock at the bottom of the crater. Layton's body was embedded in shattered stone, his limbs splayed out like a butterfly pinned inside a specimen box.

His hair was covered in dust and gravel. Several cuts marred his face where the rocks had sliced him open, and blood ran down his cheeks, dripping onto the fractured stone. His blue eyes were filled with rage, but beneath that rage hid fear—the kind of fear he had never experienced before, the fear of being completely suppressed, utterly helpless to fight back.

"Let go of me!" he roared, his voice hoarse but still hard. "Do you know who I am?! Do you know who my father is?! Do you know the Jupiter Family—" "I don't care." Ian cut him off, his voice as calm as if he were commenting