A shiver ran down his spine as the old man's gaze locked onto his. He had never felt anything like it. Suddenly, it was as if he had forgotten how to breathe properly, each shallow inhalation coming in ragged, irregular gasps.

There was no animosity in his gaze at all. As a matter of fact, it was actually rather gentle, crow's feet painting his face in warm colors. But what took the Monarch's breath away was not animosity or killing intent emanating from the little old man.

It was the quiet, bottomless reservoir of power Eik could feel. It was the feeling in his gut that this grandpa could snap his fingers and obliterate Forest in an instant.

Well, to be fair, so could Eik, although it would take him a few seconds to build a sufficient amount of condensed Profound Toxin to cause such a huge Accelerant, but this geezer was on a different level entirely.

Eik had only felt this overwhelmed facing an Awakened of higher rank twice before in his life as far as he could remember. The first time was when Atla had emerged on Earth to establish first contact with them, and the other when he had first met Andihar Dayarunar in the garden. None of them had shown him hostility then either.

What frightened him so, just like it had in the past, was how defenseless he would be if this completely unknown variable decided to flex their might. He would be incapable of protecting any of his loved ones.

Swallowing, he pulled Bin close, Goo crouching off to the side looking at some dirt that had fallen from a hanging pot onto the floor. Ever observant, Ihasu immediately noticed his discomfort and beckoned Goo to her. Eik's eyes never left the old man.

For a few seconds they simply stared at each other in silence, until the old man turned back to the counter, so short and crooked that he could barely see over the edge. The server approached him once more, still smiling brightly. "What have we decided on then?"

He sniffed and waddled slowly back to the dessert display case where he tapped a long finger nail against the glass, indicating a large slice of chocolate mousse layered cake. Eik's absolute favorite.

Rags described the old geezers attire pretty well. A long, tattered overcoat hung loosely on his thin shoulders over a stained shirt. His shorts looked like they hadn't been shorts when he'd acquired them, but wear had eaten away everything below mid thigh as if he had been wading through a pool of acid.

His nails were brown but otherwise pristine. However strong he truly was, he would probably not be able to put a scratch on his own body even if he tried. Well, again, Eik was mostly the same, but this was still different.

The moment the server slid the dessert plate across the counter, the slice of cake taking up nearly all of the flat real estate, the geezer snatched it away with by far the quickest movement he had displayed since walking in. With not even a clink against the plate, the little dessert fork laid across the edge didn't move at all despite the speed.

"Excuse me, sir," she called when the old man started a slow shuffle toward Eik's table. "Excuse me, sir, you haven't paid for that yet."

Eik caught the hesitant glance at her boss. "That one's on the house today, Molly. Don't worry about it, all right?" he said with a smile as he collected the documents scattered across his small table.

She nodded and returned to whatever she was doing behind the counter, unable to stop herself from throwing the occasional curious glance.

A couple of paces from Eik's table, the man stopped and slowly turned his gentle smile to Ihasu and Goo. He stared for a few seconds before speaking for the first time. Like rocks grinding against each other inside an old burlap sack, his voice sounded like it hadn't been stored in an attic for the better part of a century.

"Whu…" he tried but stopped and rolled his jaw experimentally, followed by an esoteric vocal exercise. Then he began again. "What… an odd organism." His eyes were glued to Goo, who looked back with wide eyes of alarm, likely able to feel something titanic from the old man just as Eik did. The boy was still ninety percent wild instinct after all.

He took a few steps toward Ihasu and Goo, having seemingly forgotten his original destination. "What are you, little thing?"

Unlike when he snatched the dessert plate, his hand extended slowly this time as he reached out for Goo, both Ihasu and the boy tried to lean away uneasily.

Eik's fingers wrapped around the thin wrist like enchanted steel, moving from his chair in an instant. "Do not lay even a finger on my son," Eik growled quietly, unwilling to spread panic in the café if he could avoid it. "I don't know who you are. All I know is that you are not from Earth. And I would have been told if someone like you came to visit."

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Frail as he appeared, the old man didn't seem bothered in the slightest by the S-rank strength crushing his wrist. He made no move to free himself. In fact, he seemed to be rather enjoying himself, judging by his toothy grin. Flawless pearly whites in those gums.

"Fascinating," he muttered under his breath as he took another step toward Goo, his wrist slipping free of Eik's vise grip almost as if by accident. Something was terribly wrong.

The geezer's fingers were centimeters from Goo's cheek when Tyrant's Pressure suddenly slammed down on the café, the titan Monarch manifesting and taking up the entire space below the ceiling, churning around in agitation like a living vortex. His aura raged, flaring up around his body like a blue flame as True Toxic Harmony triggered and changed his body.

With every personal buff stacking rapidly, Eik's presence alone shook the glass around the café and vibrated the air like the most powerful bass speakers ever. Even with his mind muddled by the fury of a father protecting his son, he still kept the direct impact of his aura from crushing the minds and spirits of the other people present by focusing every mote of pressure on the old man.

However, even though they might not have been directly affected, the residual pressure in the air was enough to put all of the low-ranked customers to sleep. This wasn't a situation in which Eik could afford to hold back. It was simply too dangerous. Anything short of their deaths would have to be risked.

One table of Awakened on the opposite side of the circular space had managed to stay conscious albeit barely. Eik barked a sharp order. "You three! Take every unconscious person here and get them the hell out of here. Now!" They hurried to obey, fully aware of who was speaking to them. Earth's sole S-ranker. The Azure King. Eik the Plague Father. Mr. Mass Murder. "Then go to my offices across the lawn and tell them I sent you. It is very important that you get them to contact Andihar Dayarunar immediately. This is an emergency order!"

He spoke as controlled as he could manage given the situation but the tension in his voice was palpable. In the end the old man had refrained from touching Goo but had now turned to Eik, giggling as if the crushing aura was only tickling him. This fucker was enjoying it. Eik's anger only intensified.

Without taking his eyes off the nonchalant opponent, he spoke softly to Ihasu. "Take the kids and go. Don't go home. Go somewhere else safe. I'm sure you can think of a few places. Don't tell me where. I'll find you later."

"Eik," she began, her face a mask of terror. It didn't seem like she had had a chance to feel the old man's power like Eik and Goo had, but just the fact that Eik's full force aura assault was barely having an effect told her enough about what a formidable individual they were facing. "Eik, what ab—"

"Go, Ihasu," he said firmly but gently, fear evident in his voice. "Please, I'm serious."

She swallowed hard and picked the kids up without another word. A pang of anguish spiked his stomach as she sent him a final, frightened glance. The old man made no attempt to stop her as she left, a dozen snarling Living Manifestations trailing her.

Eik could already hear people gather outside, but his focus never left the scary geezer.

"Who are you?" he finally asked, doing everything he could to suppress any trace of fear in his voice. "Where did you come from?"

The intruder's eyebrows shot up in curious surprise. "Why?"

Taken aback, Eik clenched his teeth in anger, the tempestuous Monarch flaring up again. "Why? Fucker, you show up here like this, threaten my son, and you're asking me why?"

"Like what?" He was still holding the cake.

"You think you can walk around in my city and flex your power without consequences?"

Puzzled, he raised an eyebrow. "You're the one who looked."

He said it so matter-of-factly that Eik didn't know what to say. Had he overreacted? No, fuck that. Whoever this guy was, he was the most powerful S-ranker Eik had ever seen. By far. And normal people didn't just make creepy ass comments about someone's kids out of the blue like that.

More than anything, Eik wished he had done his levels quicker. Foolishly, he had thought it reasonable to take it easy for at least a few days now that many of the cult's upper leadership had perished.

Yes, there was a terrible possibility that the Lord of the Moon had been successfully reawakened, which may well be the biggest threat they had faced whether he was currently in a weakened state or not, but searching for him actively right now would be like looking for a brown turd in an Olympic swimming pool filled with slightly less brown turds.

Not only were there countless worlds he could possibly be on, those worlds would currently be so hazardous to traverse that they would have to send out literally only squads of S-rankers just to have even the slimmest of chances to find the place he last took a piss. It would never happen.

If only he had done his fucking levels the moment he got home instead of taking his kids to a café…

"Where did you come from?" he repeated.

The old man shrugged. "Well, I call it my little veggie garden." His voice seemed to be regaining some of its smoothness.

"That's not a fucking answer!" Eik shouted, encircling the entire café in a massive dome of blue crystal. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Mmmh…" he hummed, scratching his chin as if he couldn't quite recall his own name. "Ah! That's right! It's Chop!"

"Your name is Chop?"

"Kinda. Because when my blade comes down it goes chop chop!" he said cheerfully, waving his hand through the air to illustrate.

"That's a ridiculous name!" Eik raged. "Are you from the Alliance?"

"I… N— Yes…? Wait, yes! I mean, no… I think? Well, what do you think?"

These antics alone were basically forcing Eik's guard do drop if only slightly. It was a surreal situation and it had come about so suddenly that he hadn't had any time to process it. What was going on here?

Who the hell was this god damned, out to lunch, ridiculously overpowered old geezer?

"Do you even realize what you're doing right now, or how fucking confused are you? You can't just come here!" Eik hissed, feeling absolutely helpless. Against this guy, all he could do was wait until more high-rankers showed up. "S-rankers need special permission to visit allied worlds! You're an S-ranker! You should know that!"

For the first time since he had arrived, Chop seemed somewhat offended. "S-ranker?"

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