They all stared at him, weapons trained with cold precision.
One of the men stepped forward, voice muffled behind his red cloth mask.
"Hand over the Bracelet of Anubis… or die."
Daniel tilted his head, unimpressed.
"Hmmm. See, I don't usually welcome guests who kick down my door," he said calmly. "And I especially don't appreciate guns being pointed at me."
His eyes shifted — glowing, slow and dangerous — a deep crimson that washed the hall in an eerie, blood-red glow.
The fifteen armed men in red uniforms stiffened.
Then their leader barked, "KILL HIM!"
The entire hallway exploded in gunfire — a deafening, overlapping RATATATATATAT! Bullets tore forward in a deadly storm.
But Daniel's body dissolved into swirling red mist before the first round even reached him.
"Where—?!"
"What the hell—?!"
"He disappeared!"
Panic cracked through their formation immediately.
A cultist on the far right felt cold breath on his neck.
"Boo."
He turned—too slow.
Daniel materialized and drove a blood-forged blade straight through his chest.
STAB—SHRRK
The cultist gurgled and collapsed.
"LEFT! HE'S ON THE LEFT!"
They fired again, shredding the wall to pieces—
But Daniel's mist reappeared behind three of them.
The mist spiraled upward, forming an arm that grabbed all three by the throats.
CRUNCH—CRUNCH—CRUNCH
Three bodies dropped instantly.
"WHAT IS HE?!"
"SOMEBODY STOP HIM!"
"HE'S A DEMON—!"
Another raised his rifle — Daniel slipped behind him, whispering:
"A demon? Nah. Just annoyed."
He seized the man by the jaw and slammed him into the floor hard enough to shake the chandelier loose.
Five more opened fire, bullets carving lines across the walls — but Daniel burst forward in a streak of red vapor, reforming mid-air.
His hand swiped across the space.
A crescent slash of blood energy shot out, cutting through all five rifles at once — cleanly slicing the weapons in half.
The men froze—
Daniel didn't.
He appeared among them like a flash of lightning.
THWACK! A knee strike snapped one man's spine.
CRACK! A palm strike crushed another's sternum.
BAM! A kick sent a third flying into the staircase railing.
Two tried to run — Daniel's mist shot forward, wrapped around their legs, and yanked them off their feet.
They hit the ground with a unified THUD.
Only two cultists remained.
One trembling.
One frozen in disbelief.
Daniel reformed right between them.
Both men almost fainted.
He lifted his hand slowly, flexing his fingers as crimson energy danced across them.
"You really should've knocked," he said.
BAM—!
Both men flew backward, slammed into opposite walls, and slid down unconscious.
Silence lasted all of two seconds.
Then—
"DANIEL!"
Evy's terrified scream came from the upper floor.
Daniel's eyes widened.
He didn't run.
He vanished—his whole body ripping into red mist that shot upward like a streak of lightning.
He reappeared in the doorway of their bedroom, mist coiling off him like smoke—
And froze.
Evelyn was tied up, struggling.
Three cultists in red uniforms surrounded her, one already reaching for her arm, another covering her mouth, the third raising a gun.
"You.Fucking Bastards."
The cultists turned, startled—
Too late.
THRUM!
The floor cracked as three massive red hands erupted from the wooden planks like demons breaking free from hell.
"What—?!"
"AH—!"
"What is that—?!"
The spectral hands grabbed all three men by the throat, lifting them off the ground in one smooth, merciless pull.
They kicked wildly, choking, struggling—
Daniel didn't blink.
He flicked two fingers.
CRACK—CRACK—CRACK
Three necks snapped in perfect unison. The bodies dropped. The red hands dissolved back into mist.
And the room went silent again.
Evy stared at him, breath shaking, eyes wide with fear and utter relief.
"Daniel…"
He finally exhaled, stepping toward her, his crimson glow fading back to normal.
"You okay?" he asked softly, freeing her wrists.
She threw her arms around him instantly.
It was a good thing he arrived when he did; another minute and those cultists would've dragged Evy out of the mansion. As he looked over the bodies, something nagged at him.
Where was their leader?
He had heard the shouting downstairs, seen armed men everywhere… yet not a single sign of the one giving orders. Either the leader hadn't entered the house at all, or he'd slipped away the moment things went badly. Coward or strategist — Daniel couldn't tell, but it irritated him.
His gaze drifted toward Evelyn's wrist.
The bracelet of Anubis glimmered faintly in the dim light. That alone reminded Daniel of the bigger problem looming over them.
He couldn't stay here dealing with cleanup.
He had a mission — recover the Soul of Scorpion King. The final recovery mission his system showing.