All Chapters of BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES: Chapter 461
- Chapter 470
621 chapters
462
The plane's hum vibrated through the cold silence as they left the Arctic behind.Samuel sat across from Aria in the dimmed interior of the jet, both of them studying a holographic map projected from the console in front of them. Red-marked coordinates blinked across the globe—each representing a site tied to the ancient Obelisk system. Most were hidden beneath known facilities, long since abandoned or labeled as “research stations” by dead governments.But one blinked brighter than the rest—located deep within the Indian Ocean, far off the radar of any nation.“Site Theta,” Aria said, tapping it. “Submerged. Sealed for over seventy years. We don’t know what’s inside. Just a name in your father’s encryption: 'Vault Mirage.'”“Sounds like a trap,” said Samuel.“It is,” Aria replied without hesitation. “But if Spiral—or the Inner Circle—wants control of Obelisk, they’ll come here too.”Samuel’s eyes narrowed. “Then we get there first.”Beneath the OceanA day later, they hovered above t
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Three days had passed since the encounter beneath the Indian Ocean, and the encrypted data extracted from Vault Mirage had only deepened the mysteries surrounding Obelisk.Now, Samuel stood at the edge of Volken Ridge.The mountain range looked lifeless, a scar of jagged granite slicing through the northern wilderness. Icy winds howled down its slopes, carrying an eerie silence that warned even birds to stay away. The sun, hidden behind a gauze of storm clouds, did little to pierce the gloom. It was as if the land itself resisted their presence.“Something buried here,” Samuel murmured, watching the drone feed from their mobile command unit.“Or someone,” Aria added quietly from beside him. She was staring at the terrain scan, a strange glyph faintly glowing beneath the rock layers. “Same markings as Vault Mirage. The second gate.”“Encrypted access?” he asked.“Worse,” she said. “This one doesn’t just want a relic—it demands a memory imprint. It was built to respond only to someone w
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From the safety of the extraction chopper, Samuel and Aria watched the ridge collapse into itself, leaving only swirling dust and fractured stone behind. The second key—the Blade of Flame—rested in Samuel’s lap, warm even in the freezing air.But Samuel’s thoughts were elsewhere.Morhane’s Hollow.The name repeated in his mind like a whisper. Not just a location, but a memory. A phantom place that shouldn't exist—one never mentioned in any archive, never marked on a map. And yet he saw it, vividly, the moment he touched the relic.A circular valley encased in white stone, where shadows moved without light, and voices echoed without sound.It was calling him.The DecryptionBack at the mobile base, the team worked quickly to decode the second relic’s hidden language. The Blade of Flame wasn’t just a weapon—it was a data key. Within its core pulsed layers of encoded memory, encrypted with ancient glyphs only Samuel could activate.He placed the hilt into the resonance cradle, and the ai
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Samuel didn’t sleep that night.The weight of the revelations bore down like chains around his chest, each link forged from a truth he’d never asked to uncover. Spiral hadn’t just stolen his parents from him—they had orchestrated his entire existence. From birth to betrayal, every moment had been engineered for a purpose he still couldn’t fully grasp.The Eye of Origin continued to glow faintly in his palm. It pulsed in sync with his heartbeat, a constant reminder of the life force now intertwined with it. He could feel it watching him, thinking, learning. Not just a relic—an intelligence.Aria entered quietly, two mugs of something hot in her hands. She set one beside him without a word. Her silence was not from lack of concern, but from understanding. They had walked this road too long to waste time pretending comfort came easy.He finally spoke. “I saw my mother.”Aria sat beside him, eyes never leaving his profile.“She was holding me in a lab. Not a nursery. Monitors, wires, stra
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The storm rolled over the horizon like a wave of vengeance.Samuel and Aria surfaced just as the vessel began its descent, the water around them boiling with the shock of the Core’s collapse. Black smoke from submerged wreckage spiraled up into the sky, mixing with thunderclouds that mirrored the chaos unfolding beneath the surface.Neither spoke. There was nothing left to say. They swam for the emergency raft tethered to the salvage ship and climbed aboard, soaked and bruised, the silence between them heavy with aftermath.Aria looked back toward the ocean. “Did we really do it?”Samuel’s eyes never left the roiling sea. “Spiral’s command chain is broken. But that doesn’t mean their remnants won’t crawl back.”She nodded slowly. “So, we keep going.”They reached the mainland by nightfall. A coded message was already waiting for Samuel on a secure channel. One of the old contacts—Elias—had managed to intercept chatter from a Spiral splinter cell operating out of the north, near the ol
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Samuel didn’t speak much during the journey back to the highlands.The children had been evacuated discreetly, scattered through safehouses managed by allies Elias still trusted. Aria had volunteered to escort the younger ones personally, while Samuel moved ahead—chasing the man whose shadow had hung over his life like a noose.Kassien.The name sat on Samuel’s tongue like venom. He’d repeated it under his breath countless times. Now, it had a face. Now, it had a location. The coordinates Veras had provided pointed toward an isolated estate in the central highlands—an old military facility, cloaked under diplomatic status, untouched during the Spiral collapse.It made sense. Kassien would never bury himself underground like the others. He’d walk in daylight, untouched, hiding behind legality and money. The most dangerous men didn’t hide in shadows. They owned them.Samuel arrived at the outskirts of the estate just after sunset. The surrounding forest was unnaturally quiet. The guards
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Rain fell hard the next morning.Samuel stood beneath the stone awning of the train station, watching steam rise from the tracks. The world had changed overnight—Spiral’s secrets were no longer buried. Kassien was locked inside a fortified facility under international custody. Dozens of political figures were scrambling, cutting ties, hiding evidence. But Samuel knew better.This wasn’t the end. It was just a shift in battlefield.Behind him, Aria walked up, her jacket damp from the rain. She didn’t speak at first, just stood beside him in the silence.“We have a location,” she said eventually.Samuel turned slightly. “Where?”“Eastern port. Elias tracked one of the remaining commanders—General Vosk. He's trying to reach neutral waters.”Samuel’s jaw clenched. Vosk had been the logistical spine of Spiral’s cross-border operations. Unlike Kassien, Vosk wasn’t a face behind a desk. He was a butcher in a commander’s uniform. If he escaped, it wouldn’t just be unfinished business—it would
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Night had fallen again, but this time there was no rest. The port was under lockdown. Patrols rotated every hour, searchlights sliced through the dark, and whispers of what had happened with Vosk were already spreading through the underground like wildfire. Samuel sat alone in the safehouse, his hand wrapped around a glass of untouched water. He hadn’t spoken since returning.Across from him, Aria paced.“You should say something,” she finally muttered.“I already did what needed to be done.”“That’s not what I meant.”Silence again. The air between them felt tight. Aria dropped onto the couch across from him and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, watching his expression for the smallest crack.“You didn’t sleep again last night.”Samuel didn’t answer.She sighed. “You think if you don’t stop moving, the memories won’t catch up.”“I don’t have the luxury of slowing down,” he said. “Not when we still don’t know who pulled Spiral’s strings. Vosk and Kassien were just managers.”“T
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The quiet inside the safehouse was unnatural. It was the kind of silence that didn't offer rest—it only amplified every ticking second. Samuel sat at the long dining table, staring at the map sprawled across its surface. Red ink marked their last location: Zeta Bloc. Next to it, several new points of interest had been scribbled in blue, each one representing a rumor, a name, or a faint trace of activity.The boy—now calling himself Leo—was upstairs sleeping, though Aria had insisted on staying close in case he woke in the night. His body was recovering, but his mind remained locked behind a wall of trauma and uncertainty. Samuel understood that wall too well.Elias leaned on the doorframe, arms crossed, watching him.“You’re obsessed,” Elias finally muttered. “Even now. We got out of that hell. The kid’s safe. You won. But your eyes are already hunting again.”Samuel didn’t look up. “It wasn’t a win. That was one facility. One.”“There’ll always be another one. That’s the game they pl
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The room was silent, filled only with the faint hum of machines keeping the temporary shelter operational. Rain struck the roof like tiny pebbles, and a dull blue light spilled in through the plastic windows. Samuel sat with his back against the wall, his hands still trembling. The aftermath of what had happened with The Gatekeeper lingered like thick smoke around him. Even the warmth Sarah offered with her quiet presence beside him couldn’t burn it away.No one spoke of what had transpired inside the vault. They couldn’t. Words weren’t enough.The rest of the Vanguard had dispersed into different corners of the hideout, some treating wounds, others simply staring off into space, their eyes haunted by what they’d seen in the realm between realms. Sarah had remained at Samuel’s side since they returned, her face pale, her breath sometimes uneven. He could see the fatigue pulling at the corners of her eyes, but she never looked away from him.“You should rest,” he murmured.Sarah shook