Chapter 364: Sick Joke

Ethan woke from the vision with a violent jolt.

His fist slammed into the desk.

The reinforced surface splintered beneath the impact, cracking and breaking apart with surprising ease. Pieces of wood scattered across the floor as Ethan stood there, breathing heavily, his mind struggling to process everything he had just seen.

He wasn’t sure what he was feeling.

Anger.

Confusion.

Disbelief.

Maybe all of it at once.

"You expect me to believe that’s your life?" Ethan demanded. "You expect me to think that’s real?"

"You know it is," Victor replied calmly.

Ethan stared at him.

The man’s left eye was blue, but his right eye was gone. A patched section of flesh surrounded the empty socket, the damage unmistakably caused by some kind of gunshot wound.

’How does someone even survive that? And more importantly, he’s a Titled with one eye...’

A thought suddenly struck Ethan.

"Are you that Cyclops?!"

He immediately became on edge.

’Partial Assimilation: Storm.’

Electricity surged across Ethan’s body.

His hair stood on end as his appearance shifted, subtle changes spreading across his body. His eyes transformed into compound eyes, while his skin developed a hardened, almost scaly texture that was difficult to notice unless someone looked closely. It resembled the exoskeleton of the beast whose power he was borrowing.

Victor merely watched.

"Impressive," he commented calmly. "You really are a Beast Man."

Ethan was far less impressed.

’If he’s the Cyclops, and I killed one of his subordinates, he must have just made up everything he showed me to play with my head. He brought me here to kill me. He even sent that weird dude to watch me.’

His thoughts raced through every possibility, but despite his growing suspicion, Ethan couldn’t bring himself to attack. Meanwhile, Victor slowly put his sunglasses back on and continued watching him with a detached, almost amused expression.

"Yes, some people call me Cyclops, but that doesn’t mean I am not Victor Crowe. Your father."

There was no deception in his voice.

Ethan clenched his fists.

’There are too many coincidences. Everything he showed me... it can’t all be a lie.’

He remained standing for a moment, trying to make sense of the absurdity of his own life.

Then he did something that baffled his father.

Ethan couldn’t help but laugh.

"So you’re telling me my dad was a pimp who ran brothels, impregnated my mother and abandoned her, then I robbed my own dad without knowing it and shot him in the head. After that, he received a Title and now runs a big company, a criminal organisation in Brooklyn, and the UFC?"

"Pretty much," Victor replied.

The man remained somewhere between stoic and indifferent, making it almost impossible for Ethan to get a proper read on him.

But one thing was certain: Victor Crowe wasn’t normal.

And until Ethan understood exactly what he wanted, he needed to calm down.

’He didn’t even flinch when I transformed. And that vision he showed me, along with Kaela’s warning, means this fucker’s probably very strong.’

Ethan took a slow breath and released Partial Assimilation, allowing Storm’s influence to fade from his body. His eyes returned to normal, the hardened texture disappeared from his skin, and his hair finally fell back over his face.

He pulled another cigarette from his pocket.

With a small spark of Minor Assimilation, he lit it and took a slow drag.

Victor watched the display with quiet interest.

Seeing the young man wield electricity and then fire was certainly intriguing, but the older man remained calmly seated behind his destroyed desk.

Ethan stared at him through the smoke.

"Even if what you showed me is all true, what do you want now?" he asked. "Revenge? I mean, you can try. I’m pretty strong now, and I’ve got some crazy friends."

He paused, then added sarcastically, "Or, don’t tell me, you want us to rekindle our relationship and go to the park together and throw a football?"

For the first time, Victor smiled.

"If I wanted revenge, you’d already be dead."

Ethan returned the smile.

"Well, you should’ve killed me while you had the chance."

The more Ethan thought about it, the more killing the man in front of him actually made sense. Victor had abandoned his mother and wasn’t exactly the best person, regardless of his past.

’That’s rich coming from me.’

Ethan recognised the irony, but Victor was still involved in criminal activities and was clearly powerful enough to be dangerous.

’I already killed him once, so it wouldn’t even count as a kill.’

There would be no extra guilt attached to killing his father, and if anything, the man deserved it. Still, doing so didn’t seem like it was going to be easy, even if he wanted to.

So Ethan decided to hear him out.

"There’s someone I want you to meet," Victor said.

Ethan suddenly turned around as something caught his attention.

His eyes widened.

’Where did she come from?’

A little girl stood behind him.

Even Victor, the Cyclops, seemed slightly caught off guard by the figure that appeared to have come out of nowhere.

She certainly looked like she could have been Ethan’s daughter. She looked around 6 years old, had brown hair, unmistakable blue eyes, and a face that reminded him of his mother.

Ethan didn’t hesitate.

He rushed towards her, but it wasn’t to embrace her as one might think.

Ethan kicked her in the face as hard as he could.

His senses never forgot someone who had left a strong impression on him, and this man was one of those people. More importantly, a normal child shouldn’t have a mana signature, even a faint one.

There were young Titled out there, but they were usually older, at least in their teens. Children likely weren’t considered suitable vessels, their bodies unable to properly handle the power placed inside them.

The girl looked up at him.

"Daddy? You kicked me on our first time meeting."

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" Ethan asked.

He wasn’t falling for it.

That’s when they dropped the act, the little girl suddenly transforming.

Her body shifted and expanded into that of a man slightly shorter than Ethan. Jet-black hair replaced the brown strands, and icy blue eyes stared back at him. They were an unnaturally pale blue, almost the colour of ice.

Ethan didn’t recognise the man’s face, but he recognised him.

"You’re that weirdo stalker."

"Weirdo?" The man dramatically grabbed his chest. "I’m offended."

Ethan wasn’t joking.

’Partial Assimilation: Wolfy.’

The transformation spread across Ethan’s body.

His muscles thickened as coarse fur appeared across parts of his skin, his hands and feet becoming more beastlike. His teeth sharpened into prominent fangs as the traits of the Fenrir flowed through him.

Victor watched the transformation with fascination.

Phantom, meanwhile, raised both hands and pretended to be afraid.

"Oooo, scary! Don’t bite me!"

Ethan snarled, baring his fangs, intending to do exactly that.

The beastly instincts of Wolfy surged through him, and for a moment, Ethan’s restraint began to disappear. But before the two could clash, Victor’s eye beneath his sunglasses suddenly glowed.

An incredible amount of mana surged through the room.

Both Ethan and Phantom froze.

The pressure was overwhelming, and every instinct Ethan possessed screamed at him that moving would be a very bad idea.

Victor’s voice remained calm.

"Brothers shouldn’t fight."

"Brothers?"

Ethan’s eyes flicked between them.

’At this point, I don’t know what to fucking believe...’