Chapter 392: It’s Good To Be Back

The space shuttle touched down with barely a whisper, its blue-white drive light dimming to nothing as the craft settled onto the runway. Heat shimmer rose from the tarmac around it, distorting the air.The boarding platform began its descent, and standing on it was a figure in casual clothes that somehow looked anything but casual.

Liam stepped off the platform before it reached the ground, dropping the last meter with ease that suggested the fall was nothing. The platform reversed direction immediately, ascending back into the shuttle as if eager to return to its proper place.

He looked at the three men waiting for him and smiled with a genuine, warm expression. He raised one hand in a wave and started walking toward them.

Daniel had been grinning widely as the shuttle descended. The sight of that impossible spacecraft landing on Liam’s private runway should have been shocking, but after what he had seen and experienced in the past two months, it barely registered as surprising anymore.

But his smile froze the moment he got a clear look at Liam.

It had only been two months. Less even. That shouldn’t be enough time for someone to change so dramatically, but the person walking toward them wasn’t quite the same teenager who’d left Earth a couple of weeks ago.

The first thing Daniel noticed was the height. Liam had always been tall for his age, but now he stood even taller. Not dramatically so—maybe an inch or two—but enough to be immediately noticeable to someone who’d known him for months.

His hair had changed too. It still fell in the same style, but something about it was different. There was a glossier sheen to it now, like each strand caught and held light in ways that normal hair simply didn’t. It looked almost liquid in certain angles, flowing rather than just hanging.

But those changes were nothing compared to his eyes.

Liam’s eyes had always been striking—sharp and intelligent, the kind that seemed to see more than they should. Now they were something else entirely.

The pupils, instead of blue, appeared to shift colors as Daniel watched, cycling through shades that shouldn’t exist in human irises. And within those changing colors, Daniel could swear he saw movement. Stars. Actual stars swirling in miniature galaxies contained within Liam’s gaze.

It was impossible. Completely, utterly impossible. But Daniel was looking directly at it, and his brain couldn’t process any other explanation.

As of that wasn’t enough, he was also getting a strange aura from Liam.

It wasn’t something Daniel could see or hear or touch. It existed on some level deeper than normal perception, pressing against something fundamental in his being.

The sensation was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. It felt like standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down into an abyss that looked back. Like being in the presence of something vast that had compressed itself into human form but couldn’t quite hide what it truly was.

Fear touched Daniel’s spine. Not the rational fear of danger or threat, but something more primal. Something that existed in the oldest parts of his brain, the evolutionary remnants that had kept his ancestors alive when things with bigger teeth came hunting in the night.

But mixed with that fear was reverence. An instinctive recognition that he was in the presence of something greater, something that demanded acknowledgment of its superiority not through words or actions but simply by existing.

Daniel had felt intimidated by Liam before. The mysteries surrounding the teenager, the impossible technology, the casual display of capabilities that nations would kill to possess—all of it had created a certain awe and respectful distance. But this was different. This wasn’t intimidation born from accomplishment or power or wealth.

This was his very biology screaming at him that he stood before something higher on the hierarchy of existence itself.

Daniel tried to maintain his smile. He tried to keep his composure, to treat this like any other reunion with a friend who’d been traveling, but his body had other ideas.

Despite every conscious effort to stand tall and meet Liam’s eyes, Daniel felt his head lowering. Not a deliberate bow, but an involuntary submission that his conscious mind couldn’t override.

He wasn’t alone. Mason and Nick stood beside him, and both men were experiencing the same phenomenon. These were seasoned professionals, ex-military personnel who’d faced actual combat and life-threatening situations without flinching. They’d been trained to maintain composure under pressure, to never show weakness or submission regardless of circumstances.

None of that training mattered. Their heads lowered just like Daniel’s, their bodies responding to something their minds couldn’t fully comprehend. Mason’s jaw was clenched tight, muscles working as he fought against the instinctive response. Nick’s hands had curled into fists at his sides, knuckles white with the effort of trying to resist something that couldn’t be resisted through willpower alone.

Liam had no idea what pressure the three men were experiencing. He noticed their lowered heads and assumed they were processing the visible changes, especially the eyes. Those galaxy-colored pupils were pretty hard to miss, after all. Probably trying to figure out if they were seeing things or if their boss’s eyes really did look that.

He reached their position and called out Daniel’s name, his tone friendly and casual.

Daniel’s body shivered from the weight that voice seemed to carry. He forced words out, his throat tight.

"Welcome back, Liam," Daniel managed, his voice coming out strained but almost normal despite everything his body was screaming at him. "How... how was the trip?"

But he never raised his head. He couldn’t raise his head. The effort required felt like trying to lift a mountain with his bare hands.

Liam frowned at that. Something was clearly wrong. Daniel wasn’t the type to act subservient like this, even accounting for their professional relationship. Mason and Nick were still looking down too, their postures rigid with tension.

"Raise your heads," Liam said, more curious than commanding.

All three men’s heads snapped up immediately, like puppets whose strings had been pulled. The response was so instant, so automatic, that it made Liam’s frown deepen. That wasn’t normal behavior.

He could see it in their faces now. The strain. The confusion. The fear they were trying to hide behind professional masks. Whatever was happening, they weren’t doing it deliberately.

Fortunately, the system provided an explanation before he needed to ask.

[Their very existence is bowing to your new race, Host. The passive aura emanating from you is suppressing them.]

Liam absorbed that information with internal surprise. He was still discovering the various aspects of his transformation, but learning that he was passively releasing an aura powerful enough to suppress people hadn’t been on his list of expected revelations.

Though when he thought about it, the concept made sense. He’d become something new, something that had never existed before in any universe. Of course that would come with certain... side effects. The tattoos, the constitutions, the unique cultivation system—all of it combined into something that reality itself recognized as fundamentally superior to baseline humanity.

Can I suppress it? Liam asked, curious if he had any control over this passive effect.

[You cannot suppress the aura, Host. However, you can enhance it by releasing your cultivation level aura. Also note that the higher a being’s race or cultivation level, the lesser the suppressive effect your racial aura will have on them.]

Liam smiled internally at that answer. So the effect would be weaker against stronger opponents, which meant it wouldn’t be a crutch he could rely on forever. But for now, dealing with normal humans and weaker practitioners, his mere presence would create this automatic hierarchy.

The future was definitely going to be interesting.

He’d spent enough time dwelling on the aura situation. Daniel, Mason, and Nick were still standing there, probably wondering why their boss was staring at them silently.

"No point keeping you all standing here," Liam said, his tone deliberately casual as he tried to put them at ease. "Let’s go."

He turned and walked toward the Black Titan, the massive A380 waiting patiently on the runway. Behind him, he heard the three men fall into step, their footfalls slightly uneven as they adjusted to moving while fighting against the pressure his aura created.

The aircraft’s boarding stairs were already deployed, and at the top waited the flight attendants. Both women were impeccably dressed in their uniforms, professional as always. But as Liam approached, they both bowed their heads even lower than normal, their greeting carrying a weight of reverence that went beyond their usual excellent service.

Liam saw it and muttered under his breath, quiet enough that only someone very close would hear. "This is going to take some getting used to."

The reaction wasn’t going away. Every person of lower race or cultivation would respond this way to his presence. He’d need to adapt, to learn to navigate social situations where everyone around him was fighting their own biology just to maintain eye contact.

He climbed the stairs and entered the aircraft, Daniel and the others following behind.

A few minutes later, the massive aircraft’s engines spooled up, and the Black Titan began its taxi toward the runway. Within minutes they were airborne, climbing into the sky and banking toward Los Angeles.

***

Three hours passed in relative quiet. Liam spent most of the flight in his suite, giving Daniel and the others space to recover from the constant pressure of his aura.

He’d called Daniel in briefly to ask if any incidents had occurred during his absence—any threats, any problems, any situations that required attention.

Daniel had reported that everything had gone smoothly. No incidents, no threats, no problems beyond the usual chaos of managing a family office connected to the world’s most mysterious billionaire.

Liam had nodded in satisfaction at that answer, though part of him had been curious if anyone would try something stupid during his absence. Testing his new strength against actual opposition would have been interesting. But apparently, everyone had decided discretion was the better part of valor.

The Black Titan began its descent into LAX, the sprawling city spreading below them.

They deplaned directly onto the tarmac where a Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet waited, its sleek lines catching the late afternoon sun.

Nick took the driver’s seat while Mason claimed the front passenger position. Daniel and Liam settled into the rear, the luxury interior isolating them from the outside world.

The drive to Bellemere Mansion took longer than usual. More than half an hour passed before they finally turned onto the private road leading to the estate.

The mansion came into view gradually, its architecture impressive even by Beverly Hills standards. The Mercedes-Maybach pulled to a smooth stop at the front entrance, and Mason was out of the vehicle immediately, moving around to open Liam’s door with practiced efficiency.

Liam stepped out, stretching slightly after the long day of travel. At the mansion’s double doors, three figures waited—Evelyn, Clara, and Mira, the household staff who’d been maintaining the property during his absence.

All three lowered their heads in greeting as he approached, the gesture carrying that same weight of involuntary reverence he’d seen from everyone else.

Liam smiled despite the strangeness of it and returned their greeting warmly. He was genuinely happy to see them, to be back in familiar surroundings after the cosmic chaos of the past month.

The women opened the doors, and Liam stepped through into the mansion’s grand entrance hall.

Daniel followed behind him, with Evelyn, Clara, and Mira bringing up the rear.

After more than a month of traveling through the solar system, Liam was finally back home.

"It’s good to be back," Liam said quietly, more to himself than anyone else.