[Chapter 64: The Best Way to Deal with Lunatics Is to Be Crazier Than Them]
"Bang!"
Daniel kicked the half-chair in front of him, splintering it into a dozen sharp pieces. Without hesitation, he stepped outside.
"Bang!"
Another loud crash echoed as something else got kicked and shattered. Then followed a relentless series of crashes and crashes -- no need to glance back; it was obvious Daniel's fury had claimed numerous victims.
The man with glasses clenched his jaw, cheeks trembling with suppressed anger. Sheriff Ford noticed and quickly said, "I'll step out and check on Mr. Cross. You two can talk inside."
Ford hurried away. Immediately, the noise of breaking things ceased. The glasses-wearing man exhaled a sigh of relief, looking at Douglas, "Now we can talk."
Douglas replied calmly, "I've been ready for a long time."
...
Outside the reception room, Daniel's eyes burned red with rage, an almost violent aura radiating from him. Sheriff Ford stood cautiously nearby, intimidated enough not to get too close.
Suddenly, Daniel spotted the steward who had escorted them earlier. Without warning, he grabbed the man's collar, hoisted him into the air, and demanded, "Where's that big black guy from before? Where did he go?"
The steward's face turned pale at Daniel's overwhelming strength and hostile aura, as if he could flatten the entire manor at any moment. Trembling, he stammered, "I... I don't know. I didn't see him."
"Hmph! Idiot!" Daniel snarled, tossing him to the ground carelessly before storming off again, hunting for that Consecrated Thrall.
Even with Sheriff Ford by his side, trying to calm him down, there were still occasional kicks and crashes echoing from the manor.
"That guy's a lunatic. Truly deranged," the steward muttered, cursing under his breath after Daniel disappeared from view.
...
Twenty minutes later, the Rolls-Royce rolled away from Upton Manor, slowly fading into the distance until it vanished.
As they pulled away from the estate, Daniel's intense aura abruptly diminished. The violent energy melted away. Within moments, he was back to his usual calm self.
Douglas and Sheriff Ford exchanged stunned looks.
Sheriff Ford finally asked, "Mr. Cross, was all that rage just an act?"
Daniel nodded, "Half real, half fake. The power in my body does make me impulsive, hot-headed, prone to anger -- but I can control it."
Douglas, curious, pressed on, "So what was the point before?"
Daniel smiled slightly, "Who says they have the only right to show power? We can too. The best way to handle lunatics is to be crazier than they are -- especially when they have the power to hold you down."
Sheriff Ford considered this, "So, you deliberately acted extremely wild and violent to intimidate them?"
Daniel shook his head, "Not to scare them -- being afraid isn't in their nature. But it makes them cautious. They start calculating the cost of fighting us. If it were just me, they'd still come at me. Now, though, there's you two as well -- an Exorcist who can command lightning, a sheriff, and a billionaire. Together, we force them to seriously think before openly breaking ties."
"I see," Ford said, the pieces finally clicking.
Douglas added thoughtfully, "No wonder they agreed to my request."
...
Back inside, the glasses-wearing man -- named Gordon -- spoke in a low voice to the steward, "What exactly did that exorcist guy do in there?"
The steward hesitated, then answered, "He kept searching for the Thrall but couldn't find him, so he took his anger out on everything he could find. He smashed over a hundred pieces of our furniture and decorations, uprooted more than a dozen rare trees, destroyed three large shrubbery areas, and severely injured twenty-two guards. All of them were hospitalized. He carries lightning energy -- one strike and he can ruin a soldier's entire weapon."
Gordon scowled, "Damn it. You're right, he's incredibly powerful. Especially that lightning he wields. That's a huge threat to us. No wonder he was able to kill the Thrall that Morian and Tanusha spent so much effort preparing."
The steward asked nervously, "So... are we going to take care of him?"
Gordon's eyes went cold, "Do you have any idea what it would cost to get rid of him? It's not just him -- there's also a sheriff and a billionaire involved. With an Exorcist this strong, eliminating the other two quietly will be nearly impossible. Taking out all three at once will be so costly that even the bosses will feel the pain.
If we just give them more time instead, we avoid immediate cost and might even profit. Time works both ways -- we have it, and so do they."
The steward nodded in agreement, "They can use the time to find a way to save their daughter. Meanwhile, we can use it to hunt them down more efficiently. And Tanusha's old body is too worn for a Soul swap. They'll fail. When that happens, not only do we bring Tanusha back, we control Douglas Family's assets through her current body. Maybe we'll even learn the method to wield that Exorcist's lightning."
Eyes gleaming, Gordon said, "That last idea is excellent. Grabbing that power would make us unstoppable. Your reward for this plan will be very generous."
The steward quickly replied, "Thank you, Mr. Gordon."
Gordon smiled darkly, "Even if we gain time, it's just a temporary reprieve. They'll still die soon enough."
...
Back with Douglas and Ford, seeing the other side agree to the delay brought Ford relief.
"How much time did you buy?" he asked eagerly.
"One year," Douglas said calmly. "I paid 20 million dollars for it."
"Twenty million?!" Ford gasped.
Daniel was surprised too. He'd expected Douglas to have to pay, but not that much.
Still, if Daniel hadn't played up the threat today, even 100 million wouldn't have been enough.
Between intimidation and incentive, they'd secured this precious year.
As long as Katherine was safe, Douglas considered 20 million acceptable.
He looked at Daniel and said, "Mr. Cross, it's all up to you now. You have to reverse the Soul swap within a year."
Daniel nodded, "I'll do my best." Though he avoided any absolute promises.
Ford asked, "Mr. Douglas, did they try to get you to join them?"
Douglas hesitated briefly, then admitted, "Mr. Cross was right -- they did, though it was subtle.
I understood their meaning."
Ford pressed, "And?"
"If you hadn't warned me about the cost of joining, I might have said yes," Douglas confessed. "But I couldn't accept having to kill my own family. So I refused."
Ford breathed a sigh of relief hearing that.
Daniel chimed in, voice low but grim, "Remember, I said killing your own relatives is the minimum standard. Tanusha told me one ritual involved killing a child, feeding the corpse to dogs, and filming it all. Another involved murdering a wife, cooking her, eating her, also on camera.
And..."
*****
https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.
https://discord.gg/HjHHhUXPn7.