Ivan chatted with the red-haired man for a bit before getting down to business.

“I haven’t heard from you for more than 18 years, but you suddenly appear right after my fight with the invaders. Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious?” Ivan asked with narrowed eyes.

The red-haired warrior didn’t become offended by his tone as he maintained his casual smile.

“You see, I’ve been away…far away. Looking for ways to keep human civilization safe from foreign and internal threats. You might think that I haven’t been around all these years but the truth is that I’ve been watching, Ivan. Every passing second, I’ve had my eyes on everything” he stated with a smile that reached his eyes.

Ivan became even more suspicious, this meant that the man knew everything that had been happening all these years.

” Who exactly are you? I tried searching for information about you but found nothing other than you being an influential warrior who suddenly went missing, even the higher-ups claimed to know nothing else”

Ivan didn’t hide the fact that he had investigated the man while he was away and directly told him.

“I know this, I was aware”

To Ivan’s surprise, the man was aware!

“Then do you mind telling me yourself?” Ivan raised an eyebrow and sat with his body bent forward.

“Of course, I feel a bit guilty about what has happened…and what’s about to happen, but it’s all for the best, so I don’t mind revealing a bit to you.” The man smiled, but this made Ivan frown.

“Do you know why I warned you not to let anyone know about your 100 percent Ki result? It’s because you would be viewed as a threat by ‘them’ and would be eliminated or controlled, this was something I did not want because…I wanted to be the one to control you” the man said slowly, his smile slowly disappearing and being replaced by a cold face.

Ivan’s eyes narrowed even further, and his frown deepened, but he didn’t say anything and waited for the man to continue.

“All these years, I’ve watched you make great contributions to human civilization but all of these were actually my arrangements. Your wife, Kira…was my arrangement as well”

He stated and paused to wait for Ivan’s reaction.

And as expected.

BOOM!

Ivan’s body exploded with terrifying energy and the chair he was sitting on instantly collapsed into pieces.

” Lies!” He bellowed with unwillingness.

The other party shook his head.

” I won’t bother explaining, you can ask her yourself. As I was saying, everything was my arrangement and I had great plans for you…this was until the invaders arrived and caused a change in my plans.

You see, there’s this small gathering of special species outside our visible universe. In a dark space that crosses between space and time and can’t be reached by ordinary means, there’s a small group of beings who can bring a universe to its knees if they want.

I’m part of that group, so you can imagine how strong I am; you aren’t far from there but that’s not the point now. Everyone in this group is from different universes, and we’re not supposed to interfere with each other’s territories, but someone has defaulted and brought their people here.

They are the invaders” the man ended with a helpless sigh.

” But that doesn’t explain who you are,” Ivan voiced out; his voice was incredibly chilling and wasn’t as friendly as before.

” Oh, right. You might not have found anything with my current identity but I believe you must have heard of this name…Hercules Blaze” the man mumbled with a mysterious grin.

Ivan’s eyes widened upon hearing that name.

” You mean…the father of Ki?!” He exclaimed in uncontrollable shock.

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“Ah, I was indeed called that as well. Just like you, I was the first person to possess a 100 percent score on my awakening examination…that makes just the two of us. I planned on making you the second father of Ki but it seems we won’t have the chance since I’ll be needing something from you to stop the invaders, the person in our group that’s from their universe to be precise”

” And what’s that? How will that prevent me from becoming a second father of Ki?” Ivan questioned.

” Sorry I didn’t specify, the reason you won’t be able to do so I because…you’ll die and the thing I need from you is your daughter”

BOOM!

A more violent wave of Ki surged from Ivan’s body, and the house they were in completely collapsed. It caused a huge commotion that alerted the entire estate, and a lot of people rushed over.

” I know you won’t agree, and that’s why I apologized earlier, but don’t worry, I won’t be sending your daughter to you; I only need her eyes,” The man said as the grin on his face widened.

Ivan’s eyes widened, and his body trembled; he staggered backward.

” Y-you know?” His voice was trembling from disbelief.

No one else knew this, but Ivan had long realized that his daughter’s multicolored eyes were special; they could absorb and store other people’s Ki! Even his daughter wasn’t aware that she had this ability yet because he was still hiding it from her, he didn’t expect this person to know.

“Come on, let’s not act so surprised now. I already told you that I kept my eyes on

everything,

and I meant ‘everything’.

Still, I will keep my promise and not kill her; taking her eyes will only turn her into a vegetable, and she’ll be in a bit…a lot of pain for the rest of her life, but that’s better than dying, right?”

The other party said while shrugging.

Ivan’s eyes widened.

“You bastard!” He cursed in a low tone.

At this moment, a few people arrived at the ruined building. They were Ivan’s wife, daughter, and friends.

“Dad!”

His daughter called out when she saw her father wearing a murderous face and was standing with a strange man.

Ivan and the red-haired man immediately turned in her direction at the same time. Ivan’s eyes widened in horror while the eyes of the red-haired man lit up with pleasant surprise.

“She’s really a beauty even at such a young age, sad that this has to happen to her” He sighed before suddenly stepping toward her.

“Don’t you dare!”

Ivan roared before disappearing and appearing in front of his daughter, shielding her with his body.

Woom!

But the red-haired man didn’t stop; he suddenly vanished and appeared in front of Ivan, his right hand shot out.

Bang!

Ivan moved with speed and brought his palm forward. The man’s hand smashed into his palm, and a thunderous sound rang out.

“This force!”

Ivan’s eyes widened as he stared at the red-haired man with horror; the force just now felt like it could easily crush Ivan; the other person was still holding back!

The red-haired man suddenly lowered his hand and sighed.

“Considering our past relationship and a few things I’m guilty of, I’ll let you have one more month with your daughter before I come back again; be prepared to meet your father by then,” he said before disappearing into thin air, Ivan wasn’t able to sense him at all.

He stared at the space in front of him for a long while, lost in thought. He only came back to his senses when he heard his daughter’s voice.

“Dad, who’s that strange man?” Her gentle voice sounded from behind him, he could sense the nervousness in her words. After all, this was the first time she had seen someone facing her father so arrogantly; he didn’t see the battle with the invaders and only heard of it.

Ivan suddenly turned and hugged her, he hugged her tightly and whispered to her.

“Dad will protect you, always!”

Those words sounded more like Ivan trying to assure himself instead of his daughter.

Later that day, Ivan confronted his wife about what the red-haired man said, but Kira didn’t have any idea of what was going on.

He instantly understood that the red-haired man must have gotten the instructors at the planet where they trained to pull a few strings; he now suddenly remembered how odd it felt when he was always paired up with Kira in almost everything that involved partnering.

In the end, Ivan decided that it didn’t matter anymore as what was done could not be undone; he was sure that he would still do the same thing if faced with the situation again.

As for Hercules Blaze’s one-month period of grace, Ivan didn’t use it to spend quality time with his family as the man had suggested. Instead, he searched for a secular place to hide his family; he was sure that the red-haired man would never find them there.

A month later.

Ivan flew across space with his mecha at full speed, he shot past planets, and the Earth was quickly getting bigger and bigger at a visible rate.

He suddenly came to a stop just when he was a few million kilometers away from Earth; his eyes narrowed coldly as he stared at the person in front of him.

“I’ve always hated his race, though I have to say that you do have some loyal friends; this bastard’s lips were sealed to the end” A playful voice chuckled.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep