Sending him crashing into one of the trucks with a loud:

  KATHOOM!!!

  His body impacted the water tank, causing a geyser of water to shoot out the top and cover the immediate area.

  Seizing this chance, Riven charged forward, his wings materializing for a second to give him a boost in speed, appearing in front of his grandfather in almost the same instant the old man was able to pull himself out of the crater he made in it.

  Landing a gut punch, he followed up with an uppercut, and right as his grandfather was falling back, he stomped on his foot, preventing him from falling back, before leaning to the side, pulling his arm back like a coil, and delivering a devastating liver shot that ended with a punch to the temple that sent the older man crumpling to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

  "How dare you?!" he grimaced as he coughed up blood and held his side, wanting to look up, hell, even stand up so he wouldn't be in this position, but he couldn't; his body wouldn't listen or move—it was too busy trying desperately to return the air to his lungs.

  Looking down at him, Riven was just reminded how lucky he was to have caught him off guard the first time, or he would be the one on the ground right now.

  He thought as the image glazed over his vision.

  Eyes glaring down at the old man crumpled against the shattered firetruck, water still releasing from the ruptured tank in slow, steaming arcs.

  He watched as the old man's chest heaved in ragged, wet gasps, blood canvassing his mouth, painting his lips, and staining the royal blue fabric of his clothes.

  He tried to push himself up with a hand that braced against the twisted metal, but his body betrayed him.

  Looking down at the man who had loved him, raised him, and trained him now staring at him with a mixture of fury and dawning horror.

  "Let... let him go, you foul spirit," Ignatius rasped, voice cracking on every syllable. "It was a mistake to summon you," he muttered under his breath.

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  But the next part he proclaimed aloud.

  "If you kill me... the others will stop at nothing to eviscerate you from this earth!!!"

  Hearing this, Riven paused before tilting his head slightly.

  "Others?" he asked, voice flat but almost curious.

  Instantly his ruby-red eyes widened and his blood chilled, but it was not at his words; it was at the single tear that formed in his eye and traced a slow path down the left side of his cheek, its drip catching the fire's light like a falling star.

  The old man's breath hitched as he said his next words slowly.

  "You're... you're still in there. "Riven..."

  Wiping the tear without a word, he stepped forward and kicked Ignatius onto his back. The royal hit the ground hard, a fresh gush of blood spilling from his mouth.

  Riven planted one slippered foot on his grandfather's chest and pressed down.

  "Who else?" Riven asked again. His face remained utterly expressionless, save for the remains of the single tear still glistening on his cheek.

  "Riven... why are you?" he managed to croak out before Riven pressed down harder, cutting him off.

  "Do I really have to dignify that question with an answer?" he asked, knowing his grandfather knew what this was about.

  "Your family... they betrayed you. That Ryuji boy, that commoner judge, the council, and even your own mother were going to sentence you to that filthy prison—strip you of everything," he tried to explain.

  "I couldn't let them," his voice choked with emotion. "I couldn't let them kill you, not you, so I did what I had to do to keep our bloodline strong."

  "Hard to have a strong bloodline when the majority of them are ready to line a casket," he responded as his foot pressed down harder, causing Ignatius's ribs to begin to crack.

  "It doesn't have to be that way; the spirit I bonded you to is—" But just as he said the name of the spirit, his voice went out, yet he could still see his grandfather's mouth move.

  "What?" he said instinctively as his grandfather's words cut back in, only for them to cut back out when his sentence reached the spirit's name again.

  Confused for a second, he wondered what was going on, but in the next moment it hit him. "So that's how it is," he muttered, realizing that the spirit itself was blocking out its name from him.

  Accepting his new reality for what it was, he pressed on to what he could know.

  "Who. Are. The. Others?" Riven repeated slowly.

  "Did you hear nothing I said?" he shouted, face twisting in anger.

  "This spirit was the only way for me to save you, and it will bring great prosperity to our family. The others are of no concern to you; they are a means to an end.

  "Means to an end?" he repeated as if those were the only words he had heard.

  "Like my father... like my little brother... and my sister," he said as anger flashed across his own face, causing him to press down even harder, enough that he heard a rib snap and the air all but be ripped from his lungs.

  "Yes," he shouted back, pushing up on his foot to allow himself enough reprieve to breathe. "Why do you care about them? They were going to let you get sent away by that bitch of a daughter of mine; they were just...

  collateral damage