MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

"Brother, you will stay home and take care of our family, while I will go and bring back Venedikt," Alex said, breaking the suffocating silence inside the car.

"You are not going anywhere. Just tell Zero to handle it, and everything will be fine," Andrei replied, repeating the same answer he had given every time he shared his decision.

It would be an understatement to say that he was surprised to hear that Sir Slavik was alive, but after some thought, he realized that his knowledge of Sir Slavik's death came from Venedikt, who had received the information from a government officer after his father's name was cleared of all charges.

Alex had talked with Zero to learn about Sir Slavik's situation, but he was unable to learn anything of value because of certain restrictions in place that prevented Zero from exposing any sensitive intel.

Alex wanted to save both Venedikt and Sir Slavik since he was their father, but knowing that the man allowed his family to suffer for more than a decade, living a life of physical and mental abuse and doing nothing, made him want to let him deal with his problems on his own.

But after some thought, he decided he would try his best to save both since he could not have Zero get involved in this situation, and once they were out of this mess, he would leave the decision of what to do with him to his brothers.

"My father died for me many years ago. He died when he allowed my mother to suffer in the icy mountain. He died for me the day I saw her drenched in tears in his memories."

"I do not wish to know what his circumstances were, nor I do not wish to even remember how he looked, let alone meet him,"

"That man died for me," Andrei said in a rough voice as he caught Alex's collar with both hands that shook uncontrollably.

"He has already taken happiness from my mother and destroyed our life once and I will not allow it to happen again."

"You are not going anywhere. Do you understand?" Andrei said, roaring at this point, his shaking hands tearing Alex's shirt to pieces.

"You call me brother, but do you see me as one?" Alex asked calmly, knowing what Andrei was going through at the moment.

"So let me handle this, and I promise you no one will take away the happiness of our family, not until this brother of yours is alive," Alex said, seeing Andrei nod his head at his question.

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In a room that was dimly lit, cloaked in long shadows that danced along the walls, stood a long table made of blood-red ivory wood, its polished surface reflecting the little light from the few points of light in the corner of the ceiling.

Two sets of high-backed chairs flanked each side of the table, their dark leather upholstery matching the somber tone of the room. The floor was covered in a thick, dark carpet that muffled any sound, enhancing the room's atmosphere of quiet tension.

In this setting, three men and one woman occupied the chairs, their features partially obscured by the dim light, each figure casting a long shadow on the wall behind them.

After minutes of silence, a man in his forties entered the room. He stood over six feet tall, with a square jaw and a light, low-hanging beard that adorned his face, notably lacking a mustache.

"We have lost another ring of power, and we have yet to find who is the culprit; he could be any of our rival families, the Vinogradov, the Kuzmin, or some power from outside of Russia."

"We are left with only six rings of power. Each of us present today holds one, so it will not be long before one of us is targeted, so if we wish to live, we need to find whoever is behind this."

"Now that normal means have failed, I will be overseeing this operation and erasing the enemy from existence, and until I do, you all need to follow my orders," The man said, but his words were cut short by the tapping on the table echoing through the room.

The one responsible for the disturbance was someone who appeared to be in his thirties, with white hair and a light beard, an eye patch over his right eye, and the finger he used to tap on the table was made of iron, just like his entire right arm.

"Master Viktor, do you wish to say something?" The man asked calmly.

"Slavik Makarov," Viktor replied with a calm smile.

"A great man who was my superior, not born of any noble blood, but an orphan trained to be a murderer for Russian secret forces."

"Slavik was in a league of his own in any skill he touched, whether it was a combat skill, infiltration, information gathering, learning any language, or straight-up killing, they were all his to perfect and become better at them than anyone in record time."

"He was a once-in-a-lifetime genius, a man with no emotions because even though he called us his comrades, as people closest to him, we all knew that if the day ever came, he would kill us without hesitation."

"Still, even a ruthless weapon like him had something he cared for more than anything. It was his family, his wife, the beautiful and gentle Sister Irina, and his two little boys, Venedikt and Andrei." Viktor's words were cut short by the man.

"Master Viktor, do you wish to say something important?" The man asked in a deep, almost low growl, showing his dissatisfaction.

"Do you guys remember how I received these gifts?" Viktor said, pointing with his prosthetic arm to his patched eye.

"These gifts were given to me by Slavik in a mission we did eleven years ago."

"The mission required us to kill the chairman of Solovev Enterprise, and we successfully completed the mission, but from that old bastard, we discovered two rings of power."

"One ring carried the legacy of the Monarch of Iron, while the other carried a technique named the Sin Overlord."

"What my comrades did not know was that my higher-ups had given me the task to eliminate my team if we discovered the ring of power with the Sin Overlord technique."

"My reward was that I got to live with a new identity, and if I refused, I would be dead and buried along with my entire team by someone else," Viktor said and this time it was the female who cut him off.

"We know that you killed everyone with the poison, but Slavik survived long enough to use a grenade launcher that nearly took your life."

"But what are you trying to convey?" The female questioned, showing much more respect than the man but still appearing bothered by the fact he was talking about a completely unnecessary thing of the past.

"Slavik Makarov could be alive," Viktor said with a wide smile, and instantly the eyes of everyone went wide with shock.

"It is impossible because the SOG found clear genetic samples of Slavik from the burned-out building, and the only reason you got away was because of those people."

"While it may appear that your unit was killed to keep everything about the technique a secret, in reality, it is clear that it was just an excuse to kill the monster they had created," The female said, dismissing his claim just like all others.

"Slavik knew too much. He was too good, and in his last days, he wanted to retire and live with his family. But people like him are tools who are bred for a purpose, and when they can no longer serve that purpose, they are erased."

"So unless the SOG wanted to keep him alive or he somehow deceived them, that man is dead," The man with glasses seated across from him said.

"If he is dead, then kidnapping his son should not affect us," Viktor replied, and as the sentence ended, all three seated individuals stood up, their faces turning a shade paler as if they had seen a ghost.

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