2024-12-23 17:43:13Madeline’s mind was in chaos, her hands trembling.
The sudden withdrawal of the two biggest investors supporting J&S Corp’s cash flow almost made her faint.
This meant the company had abruptly lost its operating funds, which could disrupt the supply of raw materials—and paying workers would be out of the question.
A major corporation can collapse in an instant!
A flicker of doubt crossed her mind:
Could it be... that Samuel was actually important?
She quickly dismissed the thought.
If Samuel were so capable, why would he have worked to help run the Brooks family’s company?
There must have been some mistake during the partnership.
Gritting her teeth, Madeline returned to her seat.
Gideon and Arthur didn’t seem to have heard anything, cheerfully sipping their wine.
Looking at Gideon’s face, Madeline felt reassured.
After all, it didn’t matter if the investors pulled out.
J&S Corp was about to partner with The Hawthornes!
With The Hawthornes Corporation involved, those investors were irrelevant. J&S Corp would only grow faster than ever before!
Feeling uplifted again, she raised her glass with a smile.
“To our future partnership—cheers!”
Amid the frustration overwhelming Madeline, the person she was thinking about seemed to be enjoying his journey to the West Line.
Samuel lounged in a black sedan wearing sunglasses, accompanied by none other than Joey Gunther.
“You should’ve just let your men escort me.”
Joey smirked and shook his head. “I was wrong, and I admit it was very careless of me.”
The car came to a stop in front of a gate marked ‘Aurora Farm.’
“We’re stopping here for a moment. I need to pick something up before heading to the West Line,” Joey said.
Samuel simply nodded, and both of them stepped out of the car. He looked around, realizing the place seemed familiar.
“I’ll take a walk,” Samuel said.
They both entered through the gate but headed in different directions. Samuel walked to the right, where a path lined with flowers stretched out.
He inhaled deeply, savoring a sense of calm he hadn’t felt in a long time.
His eyes landed on a building by an artificial lake with the sign ‘Aurora Époque.’
Just standing there, Samuel felt a rush of complicated emotions.
This used to be his favorite place.
It was right here that he proposed to Madeline, kneeling on one knee and offering her a diamond ring.
As he approached the elegant building, a voice stopped him in his tracks—one he knew all too well.
It was the laughter of his ex-fiancée, Madeline.
Samuel frowned, and he turned to leave without hesitated.
At the time, a waiter standing near the back door noticed him.
“Mr. Hayes! Mr. Hayes is here!” he exclaimed excitedly.
Madeline's eyes widened.
Her breath catching in her throat as she reflexively turned toward the door.
The muffled sounds of Arthur and Gideon’s conversation faded into the background.
She couldn't focus; her attention had been snatched by the name she had just heard mentioned by a waiter.
“What’s wrong, Madeline?” Arthur’s voice pulled her back for a moment.
His brow furrowed as he leaned toward her from across the table.
Madeline straightened, shaking her head quickly.
“Nothing. I just need to use the restroom for a moment.”
Without waiting for a response, she pushed back her chair and stood, her steps hurried and purposeful.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she followed the faint sound of voices toward the back door, her unease growing with every step.
“Mr. Hayes! Oh, my, it’s an honor for us to welcome you!”
"We thought you weren’t coming!"
The words hit her like a thunderclap, freezing her in place for a moment.
They were unmistakable now, and they spurred her into action.
Madeline pushed open the door without hesitation, her heels clicking sharply against the floor as she descended the stairs.
There he was.
Samuel Hayes.
Samuel stood still, his expression unreadable.
Disaster, Samuel thought to himself. He didn’t expect to see this woman here.
Madeline stormed toward him, fire blazing in her eyes.
“Are you following me, you bastard?” she snapped.
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284
The wind that swept through the valley was no longer laced with ash or whispers from the Veil. For the first time in what felt like centuries, sunlight poured cleanly over the fractured lands. No crackling distortions in the air, no looming shadows. Just warmth.Yet, despite the clarity of the skies, the earth still bore the scars of war.Samuel stood atop the jagged remnants of what used to be the Unity Tower, his cloak fluttering around his legs, gaze focused on the horizon where the new settlement was beginning to take shape. In the fields below, hundreds of veterans moved like ants—rebuilding tents, raising wooden frames, and dragging supply crates from broken vaults. Children, those rare few born during the years of chaos, played near the edges, their laughter unfamiliar, almost foreign. But it was real.Joey joined him, wiping sweat from his brow and carrying a rolled-up map. “They're calling it the Sanctuary now,” he said, gesturing to the settlement. “Guess the name stuck.”Sa
283
Where once rifts tore the heavens asunder and poured chaos into the world, now gentle light spilled across the wreckage like a balm. The ground remained cracked in places, darkened by ash and battle, but small signs of life were beginning to return—sprigs of green pushing defiantly through the blackened soil.Joey stood at the edge of what was once their central outpost, now reduced to rubble and scorched foundation stones. Around him, survivors moved slowly—rebuilding tents, salvaging supplies, carrying the wounded. The air still buzzed with the remnants of supernatural energy, warping the edges of reality like heat haze, but the worst had passed.Samuel hadn’t spoken since the sealing. Not since Ilyra and Marie vanished into light.He sat alone beneath the scorched remains of the unity tree—what once had been the symbolic center of the community. His eyes were open, glowing faintly with that strange silver light, but his thoughts were clearly far, far away.“Still no change?” Joey a
282
The battlefield was still trembling. The skies, though calmer than before, remained torn at the seams—revealing the scars of war between dimensions. Dust and arcane fire clouded the horizon, and energy from both Veil and Light shimmered in unstable equilibrium.Samuel stood at the eye of the storm, his body surrounded by a radiant spiral of opposing forces. He was no longer just a man—he was the fulcrum upon which the balance of the world now teetered.But the equilibrium was not enough.Despite the unity of the dimensions he had nearly achieved, the wound that Veil’s final assault had left across the world continued to spread—slowly but surely consuming existence from the inside.“The fracture is healing,” Joey said, his voice hoarse as he arrived beside Samuel, “but not fast enough.”Samuel nodded. “The energies are still too unstable. If we don’t anchor them soon... everything we saved will burn.”Suddenly, from within the ranks of exhausted veterans and survivors, a presence emerg
281
The sky above cracked open like shattered obsidian glass, revealing a vortex of burning violet and ink-black tendrils. Veil’s voice thundered across the dimensions—ancient, cold, and inescapable."You rejected me, Samuel. You defied balance. Now the world will break with me."A dome of shadow erupted from the center of the battlefield, swallowing light itself. The remaining lines between realities bled into each other. Mountains trembled. Oceans boiled.The final gambit had begun.The battlefield was chaos. Veterans from all divisions stood together, shoulder to shoulder—some injured, some barely able to hold their stance, but none willing to retreat.Joey screamed orders, his eyes scanning the unraveling sky. “Hold the lines! Focus your energy on protecting the inner circle! We cannot let Veil reach Samuel!”Dozens of veteran warriors raised shimmering barriers of flame, light, wind, and steel. Powers clashed in luminous bursts, countering the tide of writhing shadows surging toward
280
The battlefield was a canvas of chaos—ashen skies torn by lightning, the ground trembling with every pulse of Veil’s creatures. Shadowbeasts surged from ruptures in the earth, their snarls echoing like a chorus of nightmares. Joey stood at the front lines, covered in grime and sweat, slashing through one after another with barely a second to breathe. But it wasn’t enough.They were losing.And Samuel was still unconscious."Fall back to the ridge!" Joey shouted over the din, dragging a wounded veteran with one arm while fending off an attacker with the other. “We hold the line until—”A sudden tremor silenced everything.From the center of the field—where Samuel lay beneath layers of debris—a golden ripple spread outward, smooth and silent like sunlight breaking through a storm.Everyone froze.Then the debris exploded.Light surged upward like a geyser, searing white laced with streaks of celestial blue, blinding and radiant. The battlefield hushed as a figure rose from the core—Samu
279
The storm inside Samuel had long stopped roaring. Now it whimpered.He sat in the heart of the shattered sanctuary, its ancient walls scorched with dark runes from the last Veil assault. Shattered pillars, broken statues, and the scent of burnt air were all that remained of a place once devoted to healing. His shoulders hunched as if gravity had finally claimed its due, and his hands trembled over his knees. The once-brilliant markings of light along his arms had dulled to a dim shimmer, like coals clinging to dying embers.A breeze passed through the broken ceiling above—carrying ash, not hope.“Is this all I’ve become?” Samuel murmured, his voice hoarse, his eyes hollow. “A bridge that cracked in half before it could be walked.”He couldn’t feel the fracture anymore. Not because it had healed—no. Because his connection to both the Light and the Veil was thinning, fraying like a worn tapestry at the edge. His body, pushed too far by the ritual and the battles, was failing. But worse,
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