The war clock had started ticking.Leo stood at the center of the command room, his gaze locked onto the countdown displayed on the screen. Twenty-three hours and forty-six minutes until Evelyn’s execution.The room was filled with tense energy. Serena’s fingers flew across the console, decrypting Echelon’s latest communications. Amara stood nearby, her arms crossed, her mind working through every possible angle. Philip was checking his weapons, his usual quiet intensity amplified by the looming battle ahead.And Damian—who had barely survived the explosion at the Zhao estate—was back, stitched together but unbroken.“We don’t have time to run simulations,” Serena muttered. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it blind.”Leo’s jaw tightened. “Then we don’t just break in. We break everything.”All eyes turned to him.“Victor wants to make this a spectacle,” Leo continued. “A message to the world that no one can defy him. But if we hit him where it hurts, if we turn this execution into a d

Leo's consciousness flickered as he regained awareness, his body aching from the impact. Dust and debris still rained from above, the remnants of their catastrophic fall into Victor’s underground prison. He groaned, rolling onto his back, his vision adjusting to the dim glow of artificial lights embedded within the cavernous walls.Serena coughed somewhere to his right. “Everyone… sound off.”“I’m here,” Amara’s voice came from a few feet away.“Alive, but barely,” Philip muttered.“Damian?” Leo called, his throat dry.A weak grunt followed. “Yeah… that was a hell of a drop.”Leo pushed himself up, scanning their surroundings. The underground chamber was nothing like he had expected. It was vast—too vast to be a simple bunker. Metallic walls stretched upward, vanishing into darkness, and pathways branched off like veins in a mechanical beast. The ground beneath them was smooth, unnatural, humming with energy. This wasn’t just an underground base.It was a labyrinth.And Victor had thr

Leo’s fingers curled tighter around the hilt of his blade, his knuckles turning white with the force of his grip. His body was poised to strike, to end this war with a single swing, but Victor’s finger rested so lightly on the detonator that even the slightest movement could trigger disaster.If Leo killed him now, Evelyn would die.The throne chamber remained locked in a moment of pure, suffocating stillness. The air was thick with tension, humming with the energy of too many unspoken words, too many choices that could not be undone.Victor’s expression was one of eerie calm, his smirk laced with confidence. "This is what separates men from gods, Leo. The willingness to make impossible choices.” He tilted his head. "I wonder… what will you sacrifice?"Leo’s pulse thundered in his ears. Every muscle in his body screamed for action, but this was a battle of more than just strength—it was a test of control.Behind him, Serena and Amara remained motionless, their weapons trained on Victo

The moment Leo’s palm pressed against the cold metal of the throne’s control panel, he felt it—a sharp, burning sensation that shot up his arm and into his spine like wildfire.His muscles locked, his vision blurred, and a foreign force invaded his body.Nanites.Microscopic machines, embedded deep in the throne’s neural core, surged through his bloodstream like a tidal wave, binding him to Echelon’s central command system.The pain was excruciating.Leo gritted his teeth as his nerves lit up, his very essence being rewritten at the molecular level. His breathing grew ragged, his heartbeat erratic.His mind fractured under the weight of the throne’s control, a thousand encrypted commands pouring into his consciousness at once.He could feel them—Echelon’s forces, every soldier, every drone, every piece of technology linked to him.They weren’t just his to command. They were his to control.And just like that, everything changed.A moment ago, he had been fighting to bring this empire

The elevator doors slid open with a reluctant hiss, revealing a corridor bathed in a dim, flickering red glow. The oppressive air was thick with the metallic scent of rust and something more acrid—burnt flesh. Leo stepped forward, his boots echoing against the cold metal floor, followed closely by Amara and Serena. Each step seemed to resonate with the weight of the horrors that awaited them in Sanctum's core.The corridor walls were lined with conduits and pipes, some leaking steam, others pulsating with an eerie luminescence. Shadows danced erratically as the overhead lights flickered, casting the team in a strobe-like effect that heightened their unease. The deeper they ventured, the more the walls bore the scars of violent encounters—deep gouges, scorch marks, and splatters of dried blood.A distant, guttural growl reverberated through the passage, causing the trio to halt instinctively."Did you hear that?" Serena whispered, her voice barely audible over the ambient hum of machin