The Eternal Family

Before Bamboo could think of anything, his mouth spoke by itself, "I love Grandma Old Flame, I have always loved her from a young age. She had grown old now, but I still love her. Even though I know Granny has had a love affair with the chief."

Bamboo turned pale, Ace chuckled, and the other two\'s eyes widened. Ace didn\'t care about their reveal and pondered...

It was exactly like Rome\'s gift. But this one, it had no hidden drawbacks and it controlled even the mind. Harry couldn\'t help but find his heart pounding. He wanted to find this ungodly End-goal ability\'s limits.

Ace looked at Old Flame and ordered without leaving her a chance to think. "Old Flame, my slave, Always obey my words. Never question."

Old Flame shivered and stayed silent. He had asked that same thing to Bamboo earlier and the moment he accepted, he couldn\'t stay silent anymore. She wasn\'t dumb, she could feel what was amiss.

And Ace noted; so the slave has to agree to a demand for it to take place. Hehe, not too troublesome. "Do that now, or I bring absolute death to this place. You already decided to be a slave! What are you now hesitant about?"

Old Flame looked towards Blueflame and couldn\'t help but heave a sigh. He also had his head lowered. "I accept the prince\'s words." Her thread dimly shined and this time, everyone noticed. Since their attention was on it in the first place.

Ace then looked at Old Man Blueflame, "Blueflame, always act as I say. Never disobey me."

Blueflame hesitantly nodded.

There was no reason to fight back.

His thread also dimly shined.

Ace couldn\'t help but laugh slightly. If he could do this, he wasn\'t too far from World Domination. One day, he might as well have the whole of Mystry as his slave.

But he wondered if 9999 was the limit of how many slaves he can have…

That would be a bummer.

Nevertheless, it was time to make the slavery real.

He began to give orders, "Never go against my benefits.

Never go against the benefit of my Wives.

Protect anyone even remotely related to me with your lives if you ever see them in a pinch.

He said his rules one by one, each harsher than the other and the people listened on with despair written all over their faces. Yet now, they couldn\'t even not accept.

Since his first order they accepted was to never disobey him. They were all trapped.

And finally finished, Ace smiled and said, "Never have any thoughts about doing something to undo this slavery."

Their eyes entirely lost their luster and they nodded reluctantly, they were Slaves. In its purest form.

Ace couldn\'t help but wonder though… can they really not have such thoughts anymore?

"Bamboo, try having thoughts about undoing the slave."

Bamboo sighed, his previous vigor gone as he nodded and thought, \'Can my slavery be removed if I cut off my hand? Will it get removed alongside the thread?\'

His heart constricted for a second and his eyes reddened, he roughly breathed in and out and looked around in fear. Then looking towards Ace, he opened his mouth to speak, but before he did,

He transformed into crumbling ash, and a wind passed by. Leaving only fine dust in the place where he stood. Ace couldn\'t help but be stunned, he clenched his hands as his heart pounded. No… way.

Was the punishment straight out… Death?

Destruction?

The forest clearing, the place where the Settlement enjoyed calm duels of their Uncle Bamboo for the past few decades turned eerily silent. The passing wind seemed like a cold reminder, a silent rumble seemed to be shaking the lands.

Another earthquake was coming, but the walls wouldn\'t let it affect them.

Old Flame couldn\'t help but find her eyes turning moist, as old as she was. To see someone she considered her own child crumbling to ashes, was an experience of Horror.

Blueflame\'s jaws couldn\'t help but shake, they should have never believed in a prince, they should have never had expectations of a slaver. They should have just killed him and run away.

He couldn\'t help but have his eyes redden. But it was of no use. He transformed into flying Dust, Ash. And in the next strong Wind, vanished, just like Bamboo did.

Ace and Old Flame both silently stood there, both stunned. Even Ace hadn\'t known his own Gift could go so wrong. That a life could be taken so easily regardless of the strength difference.

Old Flame looked up at his face, but unlike the other two who died, she didn\'t have any rebellious thoughts. She was just filled with despair.

"Ah! Demonic Prince of Lust, please don\'t burn the children too…" She sighed and looked up at the sky, Son, your mother is finally coming towards you.

She could have self exploded herself at this moment since her Gift was Explosion. And the crumbling time would have still given her a chance to kill Ace, but she didn\'t.

That would just end up being a death sentence for the kids in their small settlement too.

Ace could hear a distant Rumble and in the darkening clearing, another wind passed by; in that unexpected wave, another life transformed to dust. All due to a simple mistake by the Prince of Lust, who did not consider death as the punishment for disobeying his own orders.

A long silence settled on the place, the huts in the village had started burning lamps to light the night, and Ace could see the village starting to brighten.

He clenched his hands and looked at the white clothes Old Flame gave him. At the moment, his thoughts were not here, but on a distant past. The day that the Eye had shown itself on the high heavens, in the Disaster timeline, the same thing had happened there too.

Verma, once his beloved, had died there. Was it death? He hadn\'t known then. But he did now, She had transformed to ash the same as these three people had. So was she someone\'s slave who broke a rule too?

Ace looked up at the night sky, he couldn\'t help but find it growing ever wide. "When will it be that I see the whole picture."

He couldn\'t help but sigh.

Nevertheless, He turned, yawned, stretched, and headed towards where he came from, he should just find Raina and Rome before wrapping the whole thing here and continuing on his journey.

As for the Guilt of killing three innocents?

it was just an honest mistake, who would have thought his Gift was this harsh on rule breakers?

He didn\'t care as long as it wasn\'t his family.

Ashes to ash, dust to dust.

And inside the Royal Castle, Harry\'s dark eyes shined as he looked at the number of threads on Ace\'s Endgoal. It had returned to 9999. The three slaves had died.