2025-07-26 17:22:03The underground tunnel reeked of mildew and mold, its stone walls slick with moisture and the stench of long-forgotten rot. Dust filled every breath. The narrow passage sloped downward, forcing Jeffrey, Camilla, and Victor into a jog half-crouched, half-blind.
Behind them, the sound of gunfire still echoed from the crypt. But it wouldn’t be long before the soldiers found the tunnel entrance.
Victor slammed the metal latch behind them as they moved. “That won’t hold for long.”
“It only needs to hold long enough,” Jeffrey said. His grip on the ledger never loosened, not even for a second.
Camilla coughed, clutching her side. Blood still seeped through her coat. Jeffrey slowed. “You’re bleeding again.”
“I said I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” he snapped, spinning her toward him. “You’re hurt, and they’ll catch up if you collapse.”
Her eyes met his. “Then don’t let me collapse.”
Something flickered in his chest, anger, guilt, something older than either. He nodded and wrapped her arm around his shoulders to help carry her weight.
Victor led the way, flashlight sweeping across walls covered in old carvings and faded paint, Jeffrey muttered, “This tunnel was sealed off after my grandfather died. He used it to sneak out during the corporate wars of the ‘60s.”
Victor gave a low whistle. “Your family really doesn’t do anything small, do they?”
“They don’t do anything clean.”
The tunnel forked. Jeffrey stopped. “Left leads to the old mausoleum exit by the waterworks. Right takes us to the Goodman Tower sub-basement,” he said.
Victor glanced back. “The tower’s going to be crawling with surveillance. You sure about this?”
“We don’t have a choice.”
Camilla groaned. “Zane has the press, the board, and now Henry Vance’s death squad.”
Jeffrey’s jaw clenched. “Then I’ll take everything they built, and burn it brick by brick.”
A hidden steel hatch opened beneath the tower's lowest parking level, revealing a forgotten freight shaft coated in dust and rust.
Jeffrey, Camilla, and Victor emerged into a massive, pitch-black sub-chamber. Motion sensors clicked as lights flickered to life overhead, They were inside the Vault.
A place that officially didn’t exist. No maps. No elevators. No blueprints. Only Richard Goodman, and now his firstborn son, had ever stood here.
Rows of reinforced glass cases lined the walls, documents, hard drives, photographs. There were cabinets labeled with cryptic codes: “Eclipse Protocol,” “Project Cross,” “Vance Agreement.”
Victor let out a low whistle. “This isn’t just a vault. This is a blackmail factory.”
Jeffrey walked straight to the central pedestal, where a biometric scanner waited. “Retina scan required,” the machine beeped, He leaned in. A soft beep.
Then. Click. The pedestal opened. Inside, a sleek black case sat alone. Etched on its surface: the Goodman family crest. Jeffrey opened it.
Inside: a black titanium flash drive. Nothing else. He held it up.
Camilla blinked. “That’s it?”
“This is what they fear,” Jeffrey whispered. “This is what they tried to bury with me.”
Victor tilted his head. “Should we check it here?” Jeffrey nodded. He plugged the drive into the vault’s terminal.
The screen flashed: Welcome, Jeffrey Goodman.
Then a list loaded, cascading faster than they could read. Each entry was a ticking time bomb: deals with governments, evidence of assassinations, offshore accounts tied to criminal organizations including the Vance family. And at the center of it all… Project Revenant.
Jeffrey froze. “That’s not a name I’ve heard in a long time.”
Camilla looked at him. “What is it?”
“A contingency plan,” Jeffrey said. “My father once told me the Goodman family would never fall not because of their business, but because of what they had on everyone else. ‘Revenant’ was his doomsday file. It contains data on every person in power whose loyalty was bought or stolen.”
Victor stared at the list. “This could blow up the city.”
“No,” Jeffrey said softly. “This could burn down the world.”
Camilla stepped back. “We can’t release this.”
Jeffrey looked at her. “They killed my father. They tried to kill me. They’ve poisoned this city for decades.”
“I know,” she said. “But if we use this recklessly, we become them.”
His jaw flexed. “What would you have me do walk away?”
“No,” she whispered. “But don’t become the monster they were afraid of.”
Victor stepped between them. “Guys. Hate to interrupt your moral dilemma, but we’ve got company.”
He gestured to the surveillance monitor in the vault, Three black SUVs had pulled into the underground garage Armed men exited. “Vance’s security again,” Victor said. “They tracked us here.”
Jeffrey yanked the flash drive and stashed it. Camilla gripped his wrist. “Wait listen.”
A soft beep echoed through the vault, The door behind them had locked. Jeffrey turned. “That’s not supposed to”
BOOM.
The wall behind them exploded, Flames, Smoke, Heat. Concrete rained down as masked soldiers poured into the vault through a breach. Automatic weapons raised. Jeffrey shoved Camilla down. “TAKE COVER!” Gunfire erupted.
Victor returned fire, taking two men out, But they kept coming, The glass cases shattered. Documents ignited. Centuries of secrets burned, Camilla crawled behind a toppled cabinet, bleeding again.
Jeffrey slid behind a pillar and opened fire, clipping one soldier in the shoulder, Then he saw him, Henry Vance, stepping through the smoke.
Gray-haired, immaculate suit, bulletproof vest, Smiling. Like he already owned the end of this story.
“You’ve done well, Jeffrey,” he called. “Really. I’m impressed.”
Jeffrey stepped out, gun raised. “You’re a dead man, Henry.”
“No,” Henry said calmly. “I’m the man who built your father’s empire with him. I’m the man who gave you the tools to survive exile. And I’m the man who can end this… if you hand over the drive.”
Jeffrey’s hand didn’t move., Henry’s eyes darkened. “You don’t know what’s at stake.”
“I know exactly what’s at stake,” Jeffrey said. “Everything.”
Henry motioned with his hand, One of his soldiers dragged someone forward bloody beaten. Jeffrey’s chest froze, It was Victor. Camilla screamed.
“Let him go!” Jeffrey shouted.
“You have a choice,” Henry said coldly. “The drive. Or your friend’s life.”
Jeffrey’s heart pounded, Victor met his eyes. “Don’t do it, boss. Don’t you dare.”
Henry raised his gun to Victor’s head, Camilla sobbed. “Jeffrey, don’t”
Jeffrey raised the flash drive, Henry smiled. “I knew you’d see reason.”
But Jeffrey’s eyes burned like fire. “I see everything now.”
And then, He threw the drive into the flames. Henry’s face twisted in rage. “NO!”
Victor headbutted the soldier holding him. Gunfire erupted again, Smoke engulfed the vault as the flames roared, Jeffrey tackled Camilla, dragging her toward the far exit.
A hidden tunnel. One his father never logged, Henry screamed orders as his empire went up in fire and smoke. Jeffrey didn’t look back.
But as they fled into the darkness, Camilla whispered: “What did you do?”
Jeffrey’s voice was calm. “I burned the bait.”
She blinked. “What?”
He pulled a second drive from inside his boot, The real one, Her eyes widened. And behind them, the vault exploded.
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Chapter 57 – The Man Who Returned Was Not the Same
The night split open. Camilla staggered back as fire swallowed the skyline, a column of molten light roaring upward from the ruins below Goodman Tower.It wasn’t just destruction, it was proclamation. The city itself seemed to bow beneath the force of it. Windows shattered for miles. Car alarms wailed. Every living soul felt it in their bones.And then, through the smoke and fire, he rose. Jeffrey Goodman. But not the Jeffrey she remembered. His body was wreathed in fire that did not consume him but crowned him.His eyes glowed gold, so bright they were blinding, and strange sigils crawled across his skin like living scars. His every step melted stone; the ground trembled beneath his feet.Martin fell to his knees, choking on the smoke, whispering like a man in prayer. “It’s him. He survived. God help us… he survived.”Camilla clutched the balcony rail, her breath caught in her throat. Her heart screamed recognition, this was the man who had once held her, once bled for her, once whis
Chapter 56 – Baptism of Fire
Jeffrey Goodman was burning. But the fire did not kill him. It remade him. The abyss was endless, a storm of black and crimson flames that hissed and shrieked like living things.Chains twisted in the inferno, lashing around him, piercing his skin, threading through his veins like molten wire. Every heartbeat was an explosion, every breath a scream, every nerve a battlefield between destruction and rebirth.He tried to fight. He tried to claw upward, but the fire dragged him deeper, devouring. It tore memories from him, the sound of his mother’s laughter, the warmth of Camilla’s touch, the echo of his father’s cold eyes, and burned them to ash. In their place, it whispered.“You are not man. You are fire. Fire consumes. Fire rules. Fire bows to no one.”Jeffrey’s body convulsed, flames boiling out of his mouth, his eyes, his wounds. His flesh split, only to seal again in burning threads of gold and black. His scream became a roar that shook the abyss itself.And in that roar, he reali
Chapter 55 – The Crucible of Chains
The world was gone. There was no sky, no ground, only chains. They swarmed like serpents in the dark, rattling with a sound that sank into bone.They dragged Jeffrey down through fire, through smoke, through the black pulse of the abyss until he no longer knew if he was falling or being devoured.His chest seared where the molten tears had burned him. His sword was gone, torn from his hands, his flames smothered by the coils around his arms.Every breath was ash, every heartbeat a hammer against the cage of chains. And then, sudden stillness.He hit ground that wasn’t ground at all but a shifting surface of steel links, stretching endlessly into black. The Crucible. “Here, the heir will be tested.”The Third Shadow’s voices rolled through the dark, three mouths speaking from nowhere and everywhere.Chains slithered, forming walls, a dome, a prison. Within it, shapes stirred. Figures. Shadows coalescing into forms Jeffrey knew too well. The first to step forward made his blood run cold
Chapter 54 – The Third Shadow
The sky was breaking. Every soul in the city looked up, frozen beneath the rain of chains that screamed like falling blades.The rift above gaped wider, tearing the heavens apart. Fire bled into blackness, and blackness pulsed like a living heart.Jeffrey’s knees buckled beneath him. He was slick with blood, barely standing, his sword trembling in his hand. His vision was ash and fire, but his instincts screamed what his mind refused to accept.This wasn’t over. It had never been about the Doppelgänger or the Beast. They were gatekeepers. And the true horror was still behind the door.“The heir has awakened. The seals are broken.”The voice rolled through the city like an earthquake, rattling windows, shaking steel, making children scream and soldiers drop their guns.Camilla stopped mid-run, clutching her ears as blood streamed from her nose. Her body crumpled, but still her lips formed his name.Jeffrey staggered toward her, each step tearing his muscles raw. He reached her in time t
Chapter 53 – The Ashen Veil
The world was fire. Jeffrey’s lungs burned, his skin flayed by molten air. Darkness pressed in from all sides, pierced only by violent flashes of red and white.He tried to move. His body didn’t respond. Then, voices. Whispers, endless, writhing. They slithered through the inferno, caressing his skull like smoke.Child of flame. Son of ash. You are not broken. You are becoming. Jeffrey’s eyes snapped open. He wasn’t in the courtyard anymore. He wasn’t anywhere human.The ground beneath him was charred bone. The sky above was a ceiling of fire, cracking, bleeding light. Chains hung down from nothing, rattling with no wind, stretching into infinity.And between them, two shadows. The Doppelgänger. The Beast. Alive. Waiting. The Doppelgänger loomed, his molten form reduced but no less menacing, heat dripping from his limbs. His eyes burned, twin suns locked on Jeffrey.The Beast crouched opposite, its body darker than void, its eyes two smoldering embers. Chains slithered from its skin,
Chapter 52 – Chains of the Abyss
The giant’s grip was closing. Jeffrey’s ribs buckled, vision tunneling, blood rising in his throat. The Doppelgänger’s molten fist was a coffin, searing, suffocating, inevitable. And then came the chains.They tore up from the fractured earth, red-hot and clanging, each link thick as a carriage wheel. They coiled around the titan’s arms, burning into molten flesh, dragging him backward toward the yawning abyss below.The Doppelgänger howled, his colossal body thrashing as though hooked by the hands of hell itself. And then, from that abyss, eyes ignited. Twin infernos, vast and hungry. The beast.The same abomination Jeffrey had chained in the underworld, the same monster he had bled and broken to prove his dominion, alive, reborn, hungrier than ever. Its roar split the heavens.The Doppelgänger reeled, momentarily distracted, and his grip slackened just enough for Jeffrey to gasp a ragged breath.Pain lanced through every bone in his chest, but he forced his arm to move, his blade to
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