2025-12-10 07:40:05
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
THE PLAN BENEATH THE TRAP
Lorne stared at Ethan like the room had shifted under his feet.For a few seconds, he said nothing. The anger was still there, but confusion had cut into it so sharply that it could no longer move the same way. Ethan sat where he was, one hand near the cold tea, the other resting beside the burned teddy bear, as if he had not just said something insane.Then Lorne found his voice.“What do you mean it worked?”Ethan did not answer immediately.Lorne took a step closer to the bed. “We almost died out there. A good number of our soldiers died, patients in critical conditions were hit, Nira died. The helicopters were hit. Rathenfall burned. And you are sitting there telling me your plan worked?”Ethan looked up at him calmly. “Almost is not the same as did.”That answer did not help.Lorne laughed once, but there was no humor in it. “That is what you say to me?” He pointed toward the dark screen where Varros had just vanished. “After all that, that is what you say?”Ethan reached for th
THE ANGER OF THE LOYAL
The silence after the broadcast was worse than the voice that had filled it.The screen went dark, but Lucien Varros still felt present in the room, as if his words had stained the walls and refused to leave. Ethan remained seated on the edge of the hospital bed, one hand resting near the cold tea, the other close to the burned teddy bear. He did not speak. He did not move. Captain Lorne did both.“This is too much!”His voice hit the room like a strike. He turned away from the screen so sharply that the portable unit rattled on its stand. Then he paced once, twice, stopped near the window, and hit the wall frame with the side of his fist hard enough to make the metal ring.“They recorded it,” he said. “They attacked you, they filmed it, and then they stood in front of cameras and bragged about it.”Ethan said nothing.Lorne turned back toward him. “No shame. No restraint. No fear. They speak like they own the law, like they own the sky, like they own death itself.”He took another
THE BROADCAST OF MOCKERY
The drone did not blink.It held Ethan’s helicopter in the center of the screen with a steadiness that felt more hateful than chaos ever could. In the quiet of the medical room, the image looked even worse than the memory. It was not a battlefield view. It was an execution angle.Lorne stared at the screen as if the machine itself had insulted him. “They recorded it,” he said.The camera remained fixed. The helicopter rose slightly from the ground. Men moved below like targets already measured and dismissed. The image sharpened one degree more, as if whoever controlled the drone had wanted every second preserved.Lorne’s voice went lower and harder. “They recorded everything.”Ethan said nothing.The screen flashed white.Then the explosion came again.Even knowing it was coming did not soften it. Fire burst through the side of the helicopter. Metal blew outward in a vicious bloom. The camera shook once from the pressure wave, then stabilized again, still watching. The anchor’s vo
THE SILENCE AFTER SURVIVAL
Four days after the explosion, the quiet around Ethan felt unnatural.He sat upright in the main headquarters of the Tribunal army medical wing wearing a plain hospital gown, a light blanket over his legs, and slim white plasters across his ribs and shoulder. A cup of tea rested untouched on the small table beside him. Next to it sat Nira’s teddy bear, cleaned as much as possible but still marked by smoke at one ear.The room was soft with machine beeps and filtered light. It should have felt safe. It did not.A doctor stood at the foot of Ethan’s bed with a chart in hand while two others finished reviewing his scans on a wall screen. The oldest of them adjusted his glasses, studied the numbers one last time, and then stepped forward.“You should still be in bed,” the doctor said.Ethan looked at him calmly. “I am where I need to be.”The doctor let out a careful breath. “That attitude is the reason you are difficult to treat master Ethan.”Lorne, who had been standing near the wind
THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
The helicopter had barely left the ground when the attack spread.The blast under Ethan’s aircraft ripped through the cabin with a savage force that turned light, heat, and metal into one violent wall. The side of the helicopter vanished inside flame. Screams burst from the yard below. For one stunned second, the other two helicopters still held position, their pilots trying to understand whether the explosion had come from inside, below, or from the dark beyond the landing zone.Then someone on the ground saw them first.“Drones!”The shout cut across Rathenfall like a blade. Heads snapped upward. Small black shapes dropped out of the smoke above the hospital perimeter and came fast, low, and direct toward the remaining helicopters. Their engines whined like insects. Their intent was cleaner than artillery and colder than gunfire.One pilot yelled over the comms, “Incoming! Incoming!”A second later, the first drone struck the tail side of the nearest helicopter. Metal screamed. G
THE TRAP SPRINGS
“I came here, because I need to, and I am leaving here, because I need to, however I am sure that the Herold army will try to attack our western command once more,” Ethan said. “And when they do, they will find us ready.”He did not raise his voice when he said it, but the certainty in it carried farther than shouting. It was not a promise built on comfort. It was one built on inevitability.Something changed in the crowd then. It was not joy. Rathenfall was too damaged for joy. But a shape of hope moved through them, thin and unsteady and still alive.Some of them straightened slightly. Others simply stopped trembling as much. It was not belief yet—but it was enough to hold onto for one more hour.Lorne came to Ethan’s side. “First helicopter is ready.”Ethan adjusted Nira slightly in his arms. She had not let go of the teddy bear for once. “She comes with me.”There was no hesitation in the decision. No calculation. Just a quiet acceptance that leaving her behind was not an option.
You may also like
The Gilded Man With A Thousand Lives
Kaiser Ken96.6K viewsThe Billionaire's Supremacy
Butter Cookies97.8K viewsThe Midnight Heir
South Ashan99.8K viewsThe Heir's Revenge
Twine Twin79.8K viewsBillion Dollar Legacy
Lee Ray 1.3K viewsThe Rise Of The Orphan Billionare
Son Of Neal4.3K viewsThe Janitor's Payback
Redfury445 viewsRise of the Masked King
Collins write1.4K views