2025-06-20 14:51:36The grand hall buzzed with chatter, wine glasses clinked, and priceless collectibles sparkled under golden chandeliers.
“You’re here to find the medicine, not stir up shit,” Rose snapped, clearly losing patience, “and stay in your lane!"
“Relax. I promised your old man, didn’t I? I’ll get your stuff—no need to lose sleep over it.”Seth lounged back in the plush seat, eyes roaming curiously over the display tables.
“Not gonna lie—some real top-shelf stuff here.”
“Just get me that NOVA 4,” Rose hissed, “and I’ll bid on whatever the hell else you want.”
“Even tonight’s grand prize?” Seth perked up, suddenly interested.
“Yes. Even the damn lunch with Goldmaster,” Rose gritted out, rolling her eyes.
Inwardly, she scoffed—maybe those people downstairs were right. Seth really is a shallow, money-chasing jackass.
“Relax. Just messing with you,” Seth chuckled, leaning back with a cocky grin.
Then the auction began.
The crowd from the regular entrance finally poured in—William and Emily among them, faces like thunder.
They glanced around in a panic… only to lock eyes with Seth, lounging in the VIP section, whiskey in hand.
Damn it!
A rich, smooth voice echoed over the speakers, announcing the first item, a platinum etched timepiece once owned by a king of some irrelevant old country. Bidding erupted as wealthy hands raised fast.
William enthusiastically raised his hand too. “Five million!”
There were gasps.
William knew that the money he was going for was coming out straight from his coffers, his savings weren't deep enough to comfortably afford the amount he had just proposed.
The mere thought of those people—especially the shock etched on Seth’s face—sent a rush of exhilaration through him. He was on fire, determined to seize victory and turn the tide no matter what!
He grinned smugly, looking right at Seth as the hammer dropped.
“Sold.”
Seth gave no reaction. Not a blink. Which, somehow, stung William more than being punched in the jaw.
More items came and went, rare art, antique weapons, weird statues that looked haunted, William remained silent throughout.
Then finally…
The host cleared his throat.
“Our next item… the crown jewel of the evening. A vial of NOVA 4.”
Everyone went still.
Everyone had heard of the legendary NOVA4—its name alone carried weight like thunder. A miracle among miracles, said to bring the dead back to life! Worth more than gold, hailed as the undisputed king of all medicines!
A spotlight hit the center of the room, where a velvet pillow rose from beneath the stage, on it, a vial of silver liquid, sealed in glass.
Seth immediately frowned.
Rose noticed. “Is that it?”
He leaned in. “That’s not right. NOVA 4 is dark silver. Thicker too, that liquid’s almost translucent and way too light.”
She blinked. “Are you sure?”
Seth stared at it.
No vacuum seal, wrong color and he couldn't even perceive the smell from where he sat which was uncommon. And the auctioneer described it like it was some kind of healing drug.
Seth shook his head. “It’s not the one.”
William, who had been waiting for a chance to clap back at Seth, took the chance and instantly signaled Emily who yelled out, “four million.” Everyone gasped.
“Of course he says that!” he laughed out loudly, garnering the attention of others. “It’s because he can’t afford it!”
"You're right, William. No matter how hard a lapdog like him wags his tail, it's not worth $4 million. Miss Tyrel isn’t that stupid," one of the guests sneered. Laughter rippled through the room, their eyes flicking between Seth and Ross with a disgusting smugness.
"Is that so?" Seth chuckled coldly. "Seems like you really don’t understand the power of the Tyrel family." He crossed his arms and leaned back comfortably. "Let me put it this way—Miss Tyrel donates more than that every year just to help stray dogs."
"Four or five million? That’s probably just enough to feed some worthless homeless fools," he jeered.
"You—!" William choked with rage, his face flushed.
"You bastard!" Emily snapped, spinning around to glare at Seth. "Five million!" She raised her paddle, stunning the entire room.
"I won’t let you—"
"Ten million." Rose cut her off, raising her bid without hesitation. She didn’t have time for petty arguments—she had only one goal: win the NOVA 4 and save her grandfather.
"Don’t be reckless! That thing’s clearly a fake!" Seth tried to stop her.
"Even so, I have to try! It’s his only chance!" Rose shook him off, her eyes wild with determination. No matter what, she had to get it.
The guests were in shock. Who the hell could throw out ten million like it was nothing?
"Ten million and one!" Emily growled, her pride shredded by the night’s events—there was no way she’d let Ross outshine her in the final bid.
William winced at the number but raised his chin proudly.
"Twenty million!" Rose called again, raising her paddle with calm resolve. The room fell completely silent.
"Twenty million and one!" Emily snapped back recklessly.
"You’ve lost your mind!" William hissed. "Your whole family’s liquid assets barely reach thirty or forty million!" He yanked her arm, desperately signaling the auctioneer that her bid wasn’t serious.
"Thirty million," a deep voice rang out from the corner. All eyes turned. "And if that’s not enough—make it forty."
His eyes drifted meaningfully to Rose and Seth.
The auctioneer slammed the gavel—sold! NOVA4 had just fetched a record-breaking price. The staff erupted in cheers, clapping and shouting with excitement.
There was a sudden shift, heads turned abruptly, a certain presence had arrived, some people pointed in his general direction subtly as they spoke about him but none dared call him out.
Mr. Gabriel had arrived.
He was dressed in exquisite materials, smooth black silk with golden embroidery, the aura and persona that he carried was simply unmatched in the auction. After all, he was the one hosting this event.
With a proud smile, Mr. Gabriel raised a hand. “Settle down, everyone. I’ll personally deliver NOVA4 to the buyer!”
Applause echoed from all sides.
Then—chaos.
With a flick of his wrist, Seth launched a feather-tipped dart through the crowd. It struck the glass vial containing NOVA4 dead-on.
Clang!
The vial shattered. A silver liquid burst out, splattering across the marble floor—where it instantly ate through the stone, leaving behind smoking, pitch-black holes.
“What the hell?!”
“Isn’t NOVA4 supposed to bring people back from the dead? How can it be this corrosive?”
Panic rippled through the room. Rose stood frozen, her face pale, a chill creeping down her spine.
“That’s because…” Seth rose slowly, eyes sharp as ice.
“That was never NOVA4.”His voice cut like a blade.
“That was concentrated acid—supercharged sulfuric acid.”
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Chapter 206: Structural Weakness.
Alex's POV Alex returned to the executive layers the way a ghost returns to a house that’s been renovated in his absence, the shape is familiar, the corridors still curve the same way, the access points still breathe open when he approaches, but the furniture has moved and the air smells like other people’s decisions.He had not been here since before the war ended.Not truly.Back then the place had been frantic, reactive, command rooms blooming like infections across the administrative floors, people running on caffeine and threat projections, emergency authority being stamped onto anything that could carry ink, now it was different, quieter, smoother, the panic had fossilized into protocol, every hallway padded with procedure, every door protected by three layers of justification before you ever reached a lock.This was where wars went when they were finished.Not to peace.To paperwork.Alex didn’t go to his old office.He went lower.To the infrastructural decks, where budgets w
Chapter 205: What Noel Sees.
Noel's POV Noel had followed convoys before.Government ones with polished armor and predictable escorts, corporate ones wrapped in false branding and private security, underground ones that pretended to be waste management while hauling sealed lives in reinforced containers, he knew the rhythms, the feints, the habits of men who believed movement itself was secrecy.This convoy was different, they had no insignia, no visible escort, no routes that made sense.Three vehicles, matte gray, unmarked, not armored enough to be military, not civilian enough to be ignored, they left a distribution depot that had been condemned eight years ago, one of those urban corpses that cities keep around because tearing them down costs more than pretending they’re dead, the depot sat at the edge of a reclaimed district where glass towers rose out of what used to be tenements, where parks were layered over old slums like green apologies.Noel had been tracking a minor evolved intake lead when the movem
Chapter 204: The Aide’s Office.
Seth's POVThe summons did not arrive through command channels.It did not pass through Alex, it did not appear on his operational board, it did not carry the formatting of military priority or executive urgency, it came quietly, threaded into a system notification that had nothing to do with meetings, a maintenance acknowledgment, a routine authorization update, a single embedded line that didn’t blink or escalate or demand attention, it simply stated that the President’s aide would see him at sixteen hundred, location attached, attendance expected.Seth read it once, then again, then closed the display without responding, already feeling the shift it created in the air around him, the faint sense that something had stepped closer without moving, he had ended a war, dismantled a revolutionary army, been elevated to a position most people never even saw from the outside, and yet this message carried mor
Chapter 203: The Weight of Old Men.
Seth's POVThe decision to go to General Cane did not arrive like inspiration, it arrived like pressure, subtle, constant, the kind that did not hurt at first but slowly reshaped whatever it rested against, Seth had spent the night after the confrontation with Virek pacing rooms that were designed to keep people seated, reviewing structures that were meant to be trusted, watching feeds that only showed what they were allowed to show, and through all of it ran the same awareness, power without anchoring corrodes into spectacle, momentum without counterweight becomes noise, and if he intended to take a country apart without letting it collapse inward, he would need someone who had already watched empires pretend they were permanent.Cane was not part of the new machine.That was exactly why he mattered.Arranging the meeting required layers of misdirection that would have once amused Seth, logist
Chapter 202: White Rooms and Quiet Wars.
Seth's POVThe room Seth chose was not underground.That mattered.Most of the spaces he used now were buried beneath layers of reinforced earth and dead signal zones, rooms designed for secrecy, for containment, for things that were not meant to be found again, but after leaving Virek, after feeling steel fade back into skin and the echo of that man’s pulse still lingering in his palm, Seth did not want another bunker, he wanted height, glass, distance from the illusion that depth meant safety.The conference room sat near the top of a private government tower, not one of the public ones, not the kind tourists took pictures of, but one built for people who preferred the city to look small, its walls wide and curved, windows stretching from floor to ceiling, sunlight pouring in without asking permission.He stood near the glass when the summons went out.
Chapter 201: Two Architects.
Seth's POV The invitation arrived disguised as protocol.Not marked urgent, not flagged hostile, not even routed through any of the newly militarized channels that had begun shadowing Seth’s movements over the past weeks, it came the way institutional traps always came, polite, reasonable, wearing the language of necessity instead of threat, a request for strategic consultation from a senior oversight director whose name carried just enough historical weight to make refusal noticeable.Virek.Seth read it once, then again, not because he needed clarity, but because he wanted to appreciate the audacity, the assumption still threaded through the phrasing that this was a conversation between administrators, not adversaries, that the world was still made of offices instead of fault lines.He accepted without modification.The room they gave him was not a briefing chamber, not a council hall, not one of the sealed operational theaters buried beneath the capital, it was smaller, circular,
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