Explosion

They weren't allowed to kill because Liam was still too off his highway.

The four people looked at each other and walked toward one person. The Noble suddenly peed his pants as he saw them closing in. His eyes were as wide as they could get.

Liam tossed over the old knife from Earth, a stick, a small rock, and some leaves. Leaves could also be used as weapons, but they broke rather easily. But at this moment, they were effective. So all the enslaved people took the leaves. The other objects were left on the ground.

They cut off his clothes and started.

What struck Liam was that they didn't know what would hurt and what wouldn't. It was weird. How would they not know? Is this place more humane than he thought? Or just those slaves were treated well. They also kept glancing at Liam to see if he would do anything.

Liam just watched at first but got bored of this charade soon after.

He approached the slaves and gave them a drink containing a powerful dose of herbs. They fell one after another.

The others looked on in fright. What will happen now?

They just saw the man placing all the slaves back.

He approached the Noble again.

"Huh! Do you enjoy that? Tell me why?" Liam was interested now.

"I was sent to the woods to test something out. They wouldn't even care if I didn't return. I am the son they want to get rid of." he sobbed, but his voice was clear and firm.

"So, when you got the news that there was a Black Menace in the forest, sleeping, you thought that you'd be accepted?" Liam said the obvious.

"Yes," he sobbed.

"How naïve can you get?" Liam asked, revolted by him.

"W-what?" he was so startled that he looked up.

"You would have been robbed of this treasure the moment you got near the city, by your own family no less," Liam wasn't someone who liked the flowery words. He preferred bluntness.

"Wh-wh…?" He couldn't even say the word as he realized that that was the case.

"You're going to kill me anyway, so what's the point in talking about it?"

"Shut up!" Liam was thinking of something. He wanted to know for sure and touched Noble's stomach. He felt his body and saw something incredible.

A Made Core.

He looked at Noble's body and searched every inch of his body.

'The channels are weak, and the core seems fragile or unstable.'

Liam took his hand off him and fed him regular water.

Liam took his hand away from the Noble and approached all the others. He let them have a small sip of that water and saw them all fall asleep.

"I don't know what to do anymore." He sighed loudly and called for Nio.

"Nio, could you please come closer? I need to speak to someone."

A moment later, the Noble could see trees bend as a sizeable snake-like being with spikes all over its body emerged from the forest. If the Noble had anything in his blather, he'd pee himself again. Again, the Noble was shaken to his core, and this time it was pretty literally.

His core was shaking like a leaf.

Liam noticed something strange at the moment Nio entered the clearing. The energy around the place had started to turn unstable. His eyes narrowed, and he gestured for Nio to stay still.

Nio saw it and focused on the energy around as nothing else seemed wrong. He felt it then. He turned toward the people tied to the posts and focused on a specific individual.

Liam closed in on him, but he smelled a foul stench before he could.

"Shit!" He cussed out loud and ran for the chef. Grabbing him and simultaneously cutting his binds. He ran as fast as he could toward the kids.

Nio had bolted the moment he sensed the unstable energy.

The core had pulled the energy in as it started to charge.

After about ten minutes of pulling in all the available energy, it seemed to have been filled to the brim. It was trembling as the fragile walls couldn't hold all that energy, pulling it inward for a fraction of a second and punching everything outward with a vast soundwave.

BOOM!

The man exploded outward, vaporizing all the people, giving them instant death. An enormous crater formed; debris flew everywhere.

Liam was blown further by the first shock wave, reaching the kids and Haru in no time.

Some distance away, the lady with the twins was making their way toward the next city. Suddenly they heard a loud boom! And looking at where it comes from.

It wasn't far. Maybe an hour's journey. But barely a moment passed when they felt how intense the explosion had been. The first shock wave reached them. It was making them seek some shelter behind a tree. The tree shook in the shock wave. Two others followed soon after.

The Black Menace and the kids were closer than the group with the twins. They had still been sleeping. The first shock wave has woken them up. They couldn't understand what was happening but could only seek shelter near the Black Menace. They pulled the old man closer to them as he was still unconscious. They noticed another body falling near them, and on instinct, they pulled him toward them, protecting the new person.

Liam had focused his internal energy on his legs and his back. He was safeguarding it. Once he reached Haru and the kids, he pushed the sleeping chef near the kids and concentrated.

The energy exploding was harmful to the extent of poisonous to him. But that would only be the case if the chaotic energy could penetrate him.

He was mainly worried about the others. Haru was still unconscious with the old man. The kids seemed fine, but he didn't know what harm the exploding energy could do them.

He had been thinking, and just one thought came to him. Can he do it?

Liam stood facing the explosion and concentrated the energy around him. He was directing the power inside him to form itself into a shield or something of a kind.

He realized it wasn't enough and started to siphon the energy from the Seed above him. He was guiding it through his channels toward the shield. It wasn't easy as the power in the Seed didn't belong to him, but it would follow any command Liam gave it. At some point, he realized that the Seed's energy was strengthening his channels. It was painful, and he had barely recovered from his last excursion, but this felt natural. Painful, but good for his growth. The shield strengthened considerably, and Liam sighed in relief.

The kids looking over the Black Menace silently cheered. They didn't dare disturb Liam at that moment. They knew he was doing something to protect them, even though they didn't understand what he was doing or why he thought them to be this special.

They were just happy that they were rescued from those people. They looked at the newest arrival and recognized him. He had fed them. It wasn't anything good, but he had been good to them.