“Tomorrow, they won’t hunt us. Tomorrow, we hunt them.”The words landed like a blade striking stone. Mira didn’t respond at first. She sat across from Ares, her posture straight, her hands clasped as if holding something fragile inside herself. Her eyes searched him - not for weakness, but for truth. Was this resolve, or just a man forcing his own wounds shut so others wouldn’t bleed?But Ares did not look away. His face was carved in that familiar calm, the calm of a man who had seen storms break armies and deserts swallow men whole. His words weren’t spoken to inspire. They were spoken because he had already decided.The oil lamp burned low, throwing restless shadows against the cracked walls. Elijah shifted in his sleep, turning over, a soft whimper caught in his throat. The boy’s hand balled into a fist against the threadbare blanket. Ares’s eyes flickered, soft for only a heartbeat, then hardened again.“We can’t live in hiding,” he said at last, his voice carrying like gravel d

“Let him come,” he said. “The hunt has only just begun.”The words left Ares’s lips like iron struck against stone, heavy enough to settle into the marrow of everyone who heard them. Hawk shifted his weight near the window, his shoulders tightening as though bracing for impact. Mira stood at the door, her arms locked across her chest, but it wasn’t anger stiffening her - it was fear. Not for herself. For the boy sleeping only a few feet away.Inside the safehouse, the air felt too small, too stale. Even silence had a pulse.Ares’s gaze lingered on the shadows outside. He didn’t just see trees and dark outlines. He saw patterns. Approaches. Places a man could hide. Places he would strike from. Old instincts thrummed through him, the kind that never truly dulled, no matter how many years or oceans lay between wars.Hawk broke the silence first. “If Wu comes, he won’t come half-hearted. He’ll send a message.”“He’ll try,” Ares corrected. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried the certaint

And the storm, finally, was about to break.The sound of engines carried through the night - low, steady, growing louder. Wu’s men were coming in force this time. No more probing strikes. No more tests. This was the hammer meant to crush.Inside the safehouse, Ares stood by the window, watching the horizon burn faint with headlights. Hawk checked his rifle with mechanical precision, jaw clenched, the scar on his cheek pale under the lamplight. Mira kept Elijah close, her face tight with fear, though she tried not to show it.Ares turned from the window. His eyes found his son.“Come here,” he said quietly.Elijah hesitated, glancing at Mira, then slipped free of her arms and padded across the floor. His small hands were cold when they touched Ares’s calloused ones. The boy’s eyes were wide, searching his father’s face for answers no child should ever need.“Are they coming again?” Elijah whispered.“Yes,” Ares said. He never lied to him. Lies rotted trust faster than bullets tore fles

Chapter 109 – The Gathering StormAnd Ares – scarred, weary, unbroken – was already walking straight into it.The night pressed down heavy on Lin City. Neon lights burned in patches, but the streets carried a silence that felt more dangerous than gunfire. Every corner whispered with tension, every shadow seemed to hold a blade. The Resistance had stirred something in the city - fear, anger, hope - and all of it was funneling toward this night.Ares didn’t look left or right as he walked. His steps were steady, his shoulders squared, his eyes fixed forward. He wasn’t moving into a battlefield made of dirt and trenches. This battlefield was glass towers, underground rooms, and men who wore silk ties but killed as easily as soldiers.Behind him, Mira followed. She hadn’t said a word since they left the safehouse, but her presence was a weight on his back - both comfort and burden. Elijah was asleep in the arms of one of the Resistance women, safe for now. Safe, but for how long? That tho

And this time, he wasn’t standing alone.The night thinned into gray as dawn began to stretch its pale fingers across Lin City. The streets were quiet now, emptied after the chaos of gunfire, but Ares could feel the silence - too tight, too waiting, as though the city itself knew what was coming.Mira sat with Elijah nestled in her lap, his head against her chest. The boy had fallen back asleep, small breaths rising and falling, clinging to innocence even as the world demanded his childhood be stripped away. Mira stroked his hair absently, but her eyes never left Ares.“You mean to go after him,” she said softly. Not a question.Ares adjusted the strap of his torn jacket, scanning the eastern skyline. The towers gleamed faintly, arrogant against the smog. “Victor Wu opened this door,” he said. “Now I’m going to close it - for good.”Mira’s lips pressed tight. “And what about Elijah? About us? You speak like a soldier, but you’re a father too. Don’t forget that.”Her words were gentle,