2026-06-26 12:03:48"Mom, what are you even saying?" Celia's voice rose, trembling with barely contained frustration. "Nick fell on hard times. He didn't do anything wrong." She squared her shoulders, meeting her mother's glare without flinching. "Besides, I gave him my word a long time ago. He's the only man I'll ever marry. I won't accept anyone else. Not now, not ever."
Gloria's face twisted. She stamped her foot against the marble floor hard enough that the sound echoed through the sitting room. "You...
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070
Nick's voice carried the weight of a final warning. "Step out of line again, and there won't be a conversation. There will be consequences."Warren Gallagher nodded sharply. "Understood."He straightened, tension still visible in his shoulders. "I've told you everything. The truth, all of it. I had no part in what happened to the Crane family, but I won't pretend my hands are clean of the circumstances that led to it." He paused. "From this day forward, whatever the Dragon Warlord commands, I will answer. Without question, without hesitation."Nick waved him off. "Fine. If I need you, I'll reach out."The matter was settled. His mind had already shifted back toward Diverton, pulled by an urgency that tightened in his chest with every passing second.The campaign in the Empire of Aurelia had made one thing clear: these people would eventually target those closest to him. Beatrix Sterling was the Soldier Queen, a fighter whose strength few could match, and eve
069
"It's not just because of what happened to the Hartwell family."Warren Gallagher leaned forward, his voice dropping to a near whisper. "The order to intercept and eliminate you wasn't revenge. It was to make you vanish from the world entirely."Sweat beaded along his hairline and rolled down his temples. He held Nick Crane's gaze, though every instinct screamed at him to look away.Nick didn't flinch. His voice cut through the air like a blade. "Were you involved in the massacre of the Crane family five years ago?""Nick Crane." Warren forced the name through clenched teeth, his jaw tight with strain."I know who was behind it.""You might be the Dragon Warlord now, but there are powers in this world you still can't afford to cross.""Knowing too much will only put you in greater danger."Nick's lips curled into a cold, humorless smile. "I'd like to know who had the nerve to touch my family."He took a step closer, and the temperature in
068
Warren Gallagher's face had gone ashen. Every trace of the arrogance he'd carried minutes earlier had drained away, replaced by something hollow and sick. The defeat gnawing at his chest was almost physical. He was the Tempest Warlord, one of the Ten Warlords of the Federated States of Columbia. He had never known failure like this.The Ten Warlords were more than titles. They were Columbia's pride, Columbia's blade, Columbia's living shield. When foreign steel came for the homeland, they were the edge that answered. Every citizen knew it. Every soldier revered it. Their strength alone was a declaration to every hostile power on the continent: touch Columbia, and die for it.Countless warriors broke themselves trying to join a Warlord's company each year, desperate for even a glimpse of that legend in the flesh.Warren had enlisted at eighteen. His talent was extraordinary, his rise meteoric, his tactical mind bordering on genius. Bullet scars riddled his body, souven
067
Nick tapped a brief message on his phone, letting Lydia and Celia know the situation was handled. They could rest easy. He'd be home in a few days. He watched the screen until the message showed as delivered, then slid the phone back into his jacket pocket and leaned against the headrest, letting the hum of the engine settle into his bones.Beside him, Beatrix Sterling drove with one hand draped over the wheel, glancing sideways with an amused tilt to her lips. The highway stretched ahead in a ribbon of pale concrete, empty at this hour save for their single set of headlights cutting through the dark."I didn't expect you to be so attentive to women," she said, her tone light but probing."She's my fiancée," Nick said, flat and without flourish.Beatrix felt something shift in her chest, a strange prickle she couldn't name. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel by a fraction, knuckles whitening for just a moment before she forced them to relax. She
066
Alistair Kerrigan had lost every shred of composure.He had summoned every Martial Warrior at his disposal, gathered them in this killing ground to end Nick Crane once and for all. Yet by some cruel reversal, the plan had collapsed in on itself. His warriors lay scattered across the courtyard like broken dolls, their weapons glinting uselessly in the pale light, and now no one stood at his side. Not a single blade between him and the man walking toward him.A thought flared behind his panicked eyes, desperate, animal, the last reflex of a man who understood he was already dead. His hand shot to his belt, drew the short blade, and pressed its edge against Beatrix Sterling's throat. The steel dimpled her skin just enough to draw a thin white line, and she drew a sharp breath through clenched teeth."Nick Crane." His voice came out ragged, stripped of all pretense. "One more step and I open her throat right here. You want to watch her die?"The last card he had left
065
Nick Crane let out a cold laugh."Delusional. A mid-tier Sovereign is supposed to frighten me?"Contempt flickered through the remaining warriors, open and undisguised. A man who had barely set foot on the martial path dared speak of defeating a Sovereign-tier fighter as though it were an afternoon errand. The arrogance was almost pitiable. Several exchanged sidelong glances, already mentally dividing Nick's possessions among themselves.Rowan Blackwood's eyes burned with hatred, his jaw clenched so tight the tendons in his neck stood out like cords. If he had already broken through to the Sovereign tier instead of lingering at Warlord-tier, he would have cut Nick down where he stood. The mere thought of it sent a tremor of fury through his sword arm."Today," Rowan snarled, his voice dropping to something guttural and barely human, "this fool learns exactly what we're capable of. Nick Crane, today you die."The moment the last syllable left his mouth, Rowan
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