Asura God of War: Awakening of the Ghost

CHAPTER 8: The Return of The Ghost

The tungsten coin Ares threw from the balcony didn't just burst the right tire, but was capable of splitting the Mercedes' alloy rim in two. The luxury vehicle instantly lost control, sliding wildly on the wet asphalt, then its rear slammed hard into a fire hydrant, exactly according to the General's projectile trajectory calculation.

Water spouted heavily into the air, flooding the intersection, accompanied by the loud blaring of the wrecked car's alarm. From behind the spouting water, Julian's panicked screams could be heard, trapped inside the cabin because his car door was jammed shut from the hard impact and the deployed airbags.

Let the bastard enjoy a little shortness of breath, Ares thought coldly.

On the second floor of the apartment, Ares was already back sitting in his wheelchair. He relaxed his leg muscles, returning his posture exactly like a crippled person before Clara noticed his absence. After closing the plastic tarp on the window again, he backed his chair into the dark corner of the kitchen with the wheelchair tray resting limply on his lap.

The micro communication device under the skin of his ear rang again.

"General," Saphira reported. "Elias reported the streets are cleared. Julian is now soaking wet trapped in his car, and his guards immediately fled, leaving him behind. What are your next orders?"

"Focus on Silas Valerius," Ares ordered softly, his brain already formulating the next step. "Tell Elias to send a package to his headquarters. Put the pieces of Julian's car rim inside it. Leave a message that this is only the first piece."

"What about Madam Clara?"

Ares stared at the bedroom door, making sure his wife was safe. "Clara needs to sleep tonight. Because tomorrow morning, she will become the new CEO of Oakhaven."

The signal cut off. Ares closed his eyes, intending to continue his breathing technique to restore the remaining functions of his body. But suddenly, the landline phone on the kitchen table rang loudly.

Ares remained perfectly still, letting the target on the other end of the phone feel they had the upper hand. After the fourth ring, Clara ran out of the bedroom in a panic and immediately picked up the phone. The woman's face instantly went deathly pale.

"Clara," Silas's deep and mocking voice sounded loudly from the phone speaker. "The rest of your wealth is officially confiscated. And from the audit of your company data this morning, we found the secret documents of your father's true identity... Those documents are now being taken to the Oakhaven court along with five files of your old cases."

Clara's knees went weak. She fell to the floor, sitting down while the phone was still pressed against her ear. "Grandpa... no. What do you mean?!"

"Your arrest warrant is ready," Silas's laugh sounded incredibly cruel. "Tell that crippled husband of yours to start crawling out. The police are in front of your apartment right now."

The phone was hung up unilaterally. The apartment fell silent again, leaving only the sound of rain and Clara's desperate sobs on the kitchen floor. Ares recorded every second of those cries as a new blood debt that must be paid in full by his enemies.

Ares's eyes did not blink. His hands resting on the wheelchair tray slowly clenched tight. The muscles in his wrists hardened extremely. With one strong squeeze from his internal energy, the thick carbon steel tray on his wheelchair broke into two sharp pieces without making the slightest sound.

Patience is no longer needed, Ares thought. His hiding period was over. The hunt officially begins tonight.

A few hours later, Clara finally fell asleep from exhaustion on the cramped living room sofa. Her face looked extremely stressed by the barrage of threats that kept attacking her today. She bore it all alone, not knowing that the paralyzed man she had been caring for all this time was a killing machine as well as a shadow ruler ready to destroy the world for her.

Ares moved his wheelchair soundlessly toward the dark study. The blood circulation in his body had now returned to normal, as had his nerve functions and the sharpness of his military instincts.

He opened the worn-out laptop with the severely cracked screen. His fingers immediately typed at military-level speed, hacking into the local security system and injecting encryption codes into the central city server.

[Node Access: Connected.] [Oakhaven Central Infrastructure: Successfully Breached.]

Ares entered the Dark Web—a global-level underground internet layer only used by the world's supreme rulers. Without needing to remember the access code, Ares's hands automatically typed a secret authentication password that had been engraved in his brain for a long time:

"The Ghost has returned."

Ares pressed Enter.

At that exact second, in various parts of the world—from a secret island base in the Pacific, a high-security room in Geneva, to an underground bunker in Tokyo—thousands of monitor screens that had been dead for the past eighteen months lit up simultaneously. His secret troops, intelligence agents, and global creditors finally awoke from their long slumber.

A reply message immediately appeared on Ares's laptop screen, reflecting a green light into his coldly glowing eyes:

[Awaiting your orders, General.]

Ares exhaled a long breath. While waiting for his troops to mobilize, he hacked into the local banking system to track the Valerius Group's accounts, looking for a weak point.

The threatening documents Grandpa Silas mentioned on the phone earlier proved to be fake. Silas had only manipulated old data to bluff and scare Clara. A cheap tactic from a desperate old man, Ares thought, crossing his arms.

However, Ares's eyes suddenly locked onto one line of his personal account data, finding an unexpected financial anomaly. The military insurance compensation money from his combat unit that was previously claimed to have been "disbursed" by the state, was apparently being held secretly by the Valerius Family in a static account. The balance in that secret account continued to compound interest every day. His total wealth now even made all the Valerius Group's assets look like worthless spare change.

The Valerius Family didn't just intentionally set him up to be crippled, they also tried to rob his military pension money. A very fatal mistake.

Ares stared at Clara sleeping restlessly on the sofa. His wife had been fighting desperately alone without knowing who her husband truly was. Ares reached into his pocket and took out the small black notebook he had brought from the battlefield. Inside was a list of twelve names of high-ranking officials of the Architect organization—the criminal syndicate that orchestrated his attack.

Now, Ares added a thirteenth name to his execution target list: Silas Valerius. One more name that must be erased from the face of the earth.

Ares opened the encrypted message menu to his international asset agents, then typed a brief command: "Force sell all assets and shares of the Valerius Group starting at 09:00 AM tomorrow. Empty all their accounts without leaving a trace."

He pressed the send button and closed his laptop. Tomorrow morning, the Valerius Family will officially fall into poverty and be destroyed without a trace.

Suddenly, Ares's combat instincts reacted sharply. He turned his wheelchair facing the balcony door. Outside there was only rain, but the atmosphere suddenly became unnaturally quiet. The sound of night insects stopped completely—a classic indicator before an ambush.

Ares activated the micro communication device under the skin of his ear to check the radar. The signal from his surveillance drones around the apartment building suddenly cut off.

"Saphira," Ares called softly through his radio network. "Something is wrong. Report."