The Sovereign Veil Chapter 24: Chapter 24: The Ancestral Warden

Read chapter 24 of The Sovereign Veil by GodEmperor on NovelPedia.

"How do I get in?" Lucian stood in the deep shadows outside the massive, heavily fortified gate of the Vane Dynasty compound. He felt a rare flicker of annoyance. If it were not for the brutal ticking clock of the multiversal mandate, Lucian would have loved to play this strategically. He could have easily infiltrated the estate as a low ranking servant, mapped Darius Vane's daily routine, and slipped a lethal synthetic neurotoxin into his rations. It would have been clean, efficient, and entirely risk free. The problem was that Lucian did not have the luxury of time. Every single minute he delayed, the five hundred year old reincarnator was actively digesting his temporal knowledge, refining his biological vessel, and scaling his kinetic output. Waiting for the perfect assassination window only decreased Lucian's chances of survival. "I will just breach the perimeter tonight." After weighing his tactical options, Lucian made his decision. He did not dare attempt a daylight assault. The ambient martial density of this secondary dimension was terrifyingly high. It was clearly a high tier kinetic world. The mandate parameters explicitly stated that Darius Vane was an ancient, undying monster who had lived for five centuries before reversing time. That alone proved the local power scaling was ridiculous. Lucian spent the remaining daylight hours blending into the civilian crowds and mentally mapping the architectural layout of the Vane estate. At exactly midnight, he moved. Lucian scaled the rear perimeter wall from a heavily shadowed blind spot, dropping silently into the compound. As an Aether Forged operating at Peak Tier 1, his physical agility and spatial perception were superhuman. He effortlessly bypassed the interior guard patrols and the vicious bio engineered hounds roaming the gardens. He intended to simply snap a lone guard's neck and interrogate him for Darius Vane's coordinates. Just then, an arrogant, sneering voice drifted from a secluded, run down courtyard in the southwest sector of the estate. "Darius! You useless, degenerate bastard! How dare you obstruct this young master?!" a young man draped in an opulent, azure silk robe spat, snapping a gilded folding fan closed. Inside the dilapidated courtyard, the young man named Darius Vane possessed an entirely unremarkable, generic appearance. However, his eyes were abyssal, radiating an ancient, suppressed lethality. "Lian is the maidservant assigned to me by my late mother. You will not take her from this courtyard." Darius stated, his voice completely flat, devoid of any panic or urgency. "Young Master..." A stunningly beautiful, pale young girl cowered behind him, trembling like a cornered deer. It was a tragic, pathetic sight designed to elicit absolute sympathy. Lucian silently crept into a dense thicket just outside the courtyard wall, analyzing the tactical layout. "Break his legs!" the azure robed aristocrat sneered. Four burly enforcers, moving with the synchronized aggression of hungry wolves, lunged at Darius. Lucian instantly gauged the kinetic fluctuations rolling off the enforcers. They were operating at a level roughly equivalent to a Mid Tier 1 Aether Forged. Darius Vane shifted his stance. The True Qi signature radiating from his biological vessel was incredibly weak. To Lucian's refined senses, Darius was barely registering as a newly advanced Tier 1 operative. Statistically, he was vastly inferior to the four charging enforcers. The outcome of the skirmish was mathematically absurd. Darius did not even break a sweat. Moving with terrifyingly precise, almost leisurely footwork, he crippled all four enforcers with three strikes and a single sweeping kick. There was not a single wasted motion in his execution. Every micro adjustment was flawless, utilizing the absolute minimum required kinetic force to achieve maximum devastation. He effortlessly shattered the joints of four Mid Tier 1 combatants while operating at a lower evolutionary tier. "How is