"Old man—after all this time, why are you still the same?"
Rocks' voice was lazy, almost playful.
That teasing tone landed like a spark dropped into a pile of dry hay.
"And what kind of 'same' I am—isn't for an unfilial son like you to judge!"
The elder—Rocks' father, Davie D. Axe—trembled with rage.
His face, still pale from the evil corruption he'd suffered, flushed red in an instant as blood rushed back into it.
The finger pointing at Rocks shook violently, like it was about to jab straight into his nostrils.
"You still know how to come back?! Do you even have us clan members in your eyes anymore?! What did you say when you left?!"
Axe's voice was hoarse and sharp, every word forced out as if scraped from his throat.
"You said the Davie name was your shackles! You said this land buried your ambitions! So what now?! Why are you back?! To laugh at us?!"
The accusations came crashing down on Rocks in a relentless barrage.
Around them, the newly awakened clan members instinctively retreated half a step.
No one dared interfere in a fight between father and son.
The tension was suffocating.
When they looked at Rocks, their eyes held distance, fear… and resentment.
This man was their pride.
And also their taboo.
"A joke?"
Rocks' wild arrogance didn't soften in the slightest.
If anything, his father's rage only fueled him—his smile widening.
But it was a smile sharp enough to cut.
"Isn't this plenty hilarious already? Raised like pigs and dogs by the World Government—turned into half-human monsters by that thing called Im—and in the end you still had to rely on this unfilial son to come back and clean up your mess!"
"You—!"
Axe's vision darkened. His body swayed.
He glared at Rocks, lips trembling, unable to force out even a single word.
Because… it was true.
Every word Rocks said was a fact.
Bloody. Humiliating. Impossible to refute.
And that humiliation hurt more than being hunted down by the God's Knights ever did.
"What? Nothing to say now?"
Rocks took a step forward.
His towering frame cast a shadow that swallowed his father whole.
He leaned down, those burning, ambitious eyes locking onto Axe's—eyes full of fury and disappointment.
"Old man, put away that pitiful pride of yours. If it weren't for your stubbornness and weakness, would the Davie Clan have fallen this far? You thought clinging to this stupid God Valley would earn you the Celestial Dragons' mercy? Naive."
"Shut your mouth!"
Axe finally erupted, roaring with everything he had.
"Everything I did was to protect the clan! Not like you! Chasing your ridiculous ambition, dragging the entire family to the edge of disaster—you don't understand responsibility!"
"Responsibility?"
Rocks threw his head back and roared with laughter.
"Guhahahaha!"
"My responsibility is to flip this rotten world upside down—drag those so-called gods off their throne! Not hide on this cursed island, wagging my tail and begging for scraps like you!"
Father and son—
One raging like a storm.
One arrogant like a tyrant.
Steel against steel.
Nearby, Lucian watched with delighted interest.
Leaning against the rock, his pure white mask tilted slightly as he enjoyed the show.
He honestly found this argument more entertaining than the earlier one-sided slaughter.
A conservative king.
A rebellious warlord.
Just as the two looked ready to throw hands—
"Enough."
A gentle but firm woman's voice came from behind the crowd.
Not loud.
Yet it instantly extinguished the roaring fury between father and son.
Rocks froze.
Axe froze.
Both men shut their mouths at the same time.
The rage on their faces… and Rocks' swagger… collapsed in an instant.
They both turned toward the voice.
The crowd parted naturally, making a path.
A woman stepped forward slowly.
She wasn't tall.
Time had left its marks on her face.
But her eyes—
They were the same as Rocks'.
Deep. Bright. Unshakable.
Her skin tone, hair, even the sharpness in her brows—she resembled Rocks seven or eight parts.
She simply stood there.
Calmly sweeping her gaze over husband and son.
Yet the pressure she carried made everyone—including Rocks—hold their breath without thinking.
She was the true core of the clan.
The woman who could silence two men at once.
Rocks' mother.
"You two… say less."
Her tone remained even.
Axe let out a heavy snort and turned away, but his tense body visibly loosened.
And Rocks…
The same sea tyrant who had just been acting like the world belonged to him…
Actually reined himself in.
He lowered his head slightly, the blaze gone from his posture.
"Mother."
He murmured the word.
Lucian clicked his tongue in amazement under the mask.
So this is Rocks' weakness.
Wild.
Rocks' mother glanced over the battlefield—
The bisected corpses of the Knights.
Garling Saint, ground into a bloody pulp.
Then her gaze settled on Lucian for a brief moment.
She didn't ask who he was.
She simply looked back at Rocks.
"What… happened here?"
Silence returned.
Rocks' expression hardened into a seriousness rarely seen on his face.
"Mother."
His voice was steady—urgent.
"We can't stay on God Valley anymore."
"This time, the World Government came for the Davie Clan. Their goal is total erasure. Those people earlier were only the vanguard—the God's Knights."
The Davie Clan members visibly panicked.
Rocks paused for a beat.
"Before you woke up, I already sent Alice and Teach away. They're safe now."
Alice.
Teach.
The moment those two names were spoken—
Both Rocks' father and mother changed expression.
That was Rocks' wife.
And their newborn grandson.
"Now you must leave immediately."
Rocks' tone allowed no debate.
This wasn't a request.
It was an order.
"The World Government reinforcements will arrive soon. And next time it won't just be the God's Knights—Admirals… and worse things could show up at any moment!"
That line struck every clan member like a hammer to the chest.
They'd just crawled out of a nightmare—
And now they were being forced to accept the reality of losing their homeland and fleeing.
Axe opened his mouth, wanting to argue.
But when he met Rocks' unyielding eyes—
And then looked around at the sea of blood and corpses—
He swallowed his words.
He knew Rocks was right.
Rocks' mother was calmer.
She nodded, accepting the cruel reality.
"Where… do we go?"
She asked the only question that mattered.
"I've arranged everything."
Rocks answered immediately.
"But there's no time to explain—we move now!"
As he spoke, he stopped paying attention to his father, mother, and clan.
He turned sharply and strode toward Lucian—
And that warlord aura returned to him like a cloak.
He looked at Lucian, and his face softened into a grin that carried both trust and apology.
"Brother."
Rocks' voice was low, powerful.
"I'm gonna need to trouble you one more time."