Chapter 265: Blood debt.

The Cowells were close friends to the family, so the grand elder made his way to the guest lounge the very second, he put down his dinner cutlery. When he pushed the door open, he was met with total misery. Mrs. Cowell was weeping so hard she looked like a broken faucet, her body shaking with big, dramatic sobs.

The grand elder sighed, turning to his head butler. "Alexander, fetch our guests some warm tea to calm their nerves."

"We are not here to enjoy happy terms or drink your tea!" Mrs. Cowell snapped instantly. Her voice was colder than a frozen winter peak, completely cutting through the room.

The grand elder was taken aback by the disrespectful way in which she snapped at him, but he held back from retorting in a similar way. As a grand elder, he had to portray calmness and wisdom at all times.

He gave Alexander a small nod to excuse himself and give them privacy. The guards and maids in the lounge retreated as well. Once the doors shut and left just the three of them, the old man settled into a chair and leaned back. "Why are you at my house at this hour of the night? Why is your wife speaking to me like I am the enemy Cowell?"

Mr. Cowell opened his mouth to explain, but his wife beat him to it, shouting through her tears. "Our son is dead!"

The grand elder’s heart sank a little. Even if he had never liked the young Cowell boy_ he was always arrogant and entitled with no manners just like Elliot, it was still depressing news. A young man’s life had been cut short in the middle of his prime. He cleared his throat politely. "You have my deepest condolences. The Kaelion family will help you handle the funeral costs and provide any other help you need. We are practically family, just say the word."

"The audacity!" Mr. Cowell roared, slamming his fist onto the side table so hard a lamp rattled. "How dare you offer us funeral money after what your grandson did!"

The grand elder remained calm. When people lost a child, their brains usually stopped working properly for a while. Perhaps that was why they were acting like this. Nonetheless, he needed to get to the root of the matter. "And by grandson, I assume you mean Elliot? He is the only grandchild of mine that associates with your son. What did he do and how is it related to the death of your son?"

Mrs. Cowell rubbed her wet cheeks with a soaked handkerchief. "Before our Ashford breathed his last breath, he told us Elliot was the one that beat him into that state! He succumbed to those injuries. Your grandson is a murderer!"

The grand elder’s fists clenched the leather armchair so tightly that his nails transformed into razor-sharp lion claws, shredding the expensive leather into confetti. He let out a low, terrifying growl that vibrated through the walls and scared the Cowells. He reached for his phone and made a call.

"Bring Elliot here. Right now!" He bellowed.

In less than two minutes, Elliot was dragged into the lounge by Maverick. He wasn’t alone; half the family had followed the noise, including Sabrina and Lita.

The grand elder stood tall in the center of the room, looking like a human monster. The blue veins on his temples pulsed wildly. His once thin, old body had swelled into a broad, hulking wall of muscle, and thick golden fur covered his arms and neck. His face was still mostly human, but his eyes were purely predatory.

Sabrina took one look at her beast-fused father and felt her stomach drop. Her father was at his absolute scariest when his beast version surfaced like this, the only reason she still obeyed him was because she wanted him to tell her how he fused with his beast.

She grabbed Elliot by the collar and forced him down onto his knees. "Do whatever he says if you want to stay alive." She whispered to Elliot and shifted her attention to the grand elder.

"Father, please calm down, you are scaring my son." Sabrina pleaded, her voice trembling.

The grand elder ignored her completely. He pointed a claw at the grieving couple. "Repeat what you just told me."

Mrs. Cowell sniveled loudly, her finger shaking as she pointed right at the kneeling boy. "He killed our Ashford!"

Elliot scoffed, rolling his eyes from the floor. "Oh, please! I didn’t kill your son. Do you have any actual evidence, or are you just making things up?"

"Ashford told us himself before he died!" Mrs. Cowell snapped.

Sabrina let out a loud sigh, shaking her head. "So, your entire case rests on the word of a dead man? That’s it?"

"We are not letting this go! If you do not fulfill our demands things will be bad." Mr. Cowell yelled. "We will see to it that Elliot is hanged. We are not some low-borns that will be ignored."

Elliot let out a smug chuckle. "Look, we got into a little brawl. It’s not my fault he was weak! He was no match for me, that’s what happened." He actually started laughing, completely mocking the dead boy’s parents.

A heavy potted plant flew across the room and smashed directly into Elliot’s chest. The impact knocked the wind out of him, sending him flying backward onto the carpet with a pathetic groan.

"Father!" Sabrina screamed, jumping in front of her son. "Are you trying to murder your own grandson?!"

From the side of the room, Alessa smirked, crossing her arms. "Relax, Sabrina. Elliot is clearly still breathing. The Cowell boy, on the other hand, is in the morgue."

The grand elder stepped forward, completely suppressing his beastly aura. He bowed deeply to the grieving parents. "I am ashamed of what has happened. Name your price for justice. Even if it’s prison, I will see to it that he does time."

According to the new laws governing New earth, when a life was taken in a dispute, the victim’s family had the right to demand restitution_ a blood debt paid in heavy treasure and flesh to spare the killer’s life. It was the lenient path which applied only to the first class.

Mrs. Cowell wiped her nose. "We want two hundred million high-grade energy stones."

Gasps echoed through the room.

"Two hundred million?!" Sabrina huffed, her jaw practically hitting the floor. "Are you insane? That’s a whole city’s budget for a year!"

"And that’s not all," Mr. Cowell added coldly. "Elliot must lose a piece of his body. Something important, so that every single day he looks at himself, he remembers the life he stole!"

"What?!" Elliot and Sabrina chorused, their faces turning ghost white. They turned to the grand elder, praying he would laugh off such a brutal request.