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Chapter 135 : The Gathering Storm
The desert stretched endless beneath the jet, gold dunes flashing like waves under the morning sun. Ethan sat by the window, silent, his reflection fractured against the glass. Every word Cain had spoken still rang in his ears: You were not born. You were cultivated.He clenched his fists until his knuckles whitened. Vessel or not, Cain would not own him.Across the cabin, Wren sharpened her dagger with precise, rhythmic strokes, watching him without saying a word. She hadn’t pressed him since that night, but her silence was louder than any question. Camille was buried in her holo-screens, running projections, mapping risk scenarios. Kael leaned back in his seat, smoke curling from his lips, pretending to nap though Ethan knew he was listening.The Dubai Summit loomed ahead—a convergence of tycoons, warlords, innovators, and shadow players. The perfect stage to prove his legitimacy. Or the perfect slaughterhouse if Cain had his way.Camille broke the silence. “Word’s out. Helena’s cal
Chapter 134 : Cain’s Shadow
The safehouse was quiet after the trial, too quiet. Survivors whispered in corners, their eyes flicking to Ethan with a mix of awe and fear. He had walked into Helena’s trap and walked out alive, but the price of victory weighed on him.Wren sat sharpening her blade, her knuckles still pale. Camille fiddled with the servers, muttering about “signal ghosts.” Kael smoked in silence.Ethan stared at his trembling hands. Even now, he could feel the phantom weight of those chains burning into his skin. Helena’s words gnawed at him: Every fight makes you him. Every scar pulls you closer.The lights flickered. Once. Twice. Then the entire room froze.Not just the power—time itself. Smoke from Kael’s cigarette hung suspended in the air. Camille froze mid-keystroke. Wren’s blade paused against the whetstone.Only Ethan moved.A slow clap echoed through the frozen room.He turned, and his stomach lurched.Cain stood in the doorway, dressed in black that shimmered like oil, his silver eyes gleam
Chapter 133 : Trial by Ghost
The desert air still smelled of fire when Ethan’s convoy reached the safehouse. Trucks lined with stolen weapons groaned to a halt, engines coughing smoke. Survivors stumbled out, bloodied but alive. For the first time since Dubai, there was laughter—bitter, sharp, but real.Wren dropped onto the sand beside Ethan, wiping her blade clean. “That was chaos.”“It was necessary,” Ethan said, eyes still fixed on the horizon. The image of Cain’s enforcer dying under his knife burned in his mind. Necessary, yes. But Cain’s voice had lingered in his skull, whispering, praising.Before he could answer Wren, Camille shoved through the crowd, a tablet in her hands. Her face was pale. “You need to see this.”She tapped the screen. A broadcast filled the safehouse wall.Helena stood in a chamber of shifting glass, her figure draped in silk that glowed like flame. Behind her, hundreds of holo-screens flickered—faces of Council representatives, Ghost Market moderators, and world leaders tuning in. H
Chapter 132 : First Blood
The ruins of Dubai still smoked in the distance when Ethan gave his first command.They gathered in the abandoned hangar on the desert’s edge, a ragged collection of survivors who had once been heirs, killers, and kings. Now they were exiles. Ethan paced before them, his eyes burning with a resolve they hadn’t seen since the Summit.“We strike tonight.”Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Mira stepped forward, her robes still stained with her brother’s blood. “Strike where? We barely survived last time. Cain will expect us to crawl into hiding.”“Good,” Ethan said. “That’s why he won’t see this coming.”He flicked his wrist, projecting a map onto the hangar wall. It showed the northern quarter of Dubai—the docks. “The Council is moving weapons through the Ghost Markets into the real world. Drones, railguns, mind-scramblers. Tonight, a shipment leaves the port. Guarded. Untouchable. Unless we make it ours.”Kael, his leg still bound in steel braces, grunted. “So we steal from Cain’s own
Chapter 131 : Building from Ashes
The desert outside Dubai was silent, except for the low hum of drones circling high above, feeding Helena’s propaganda to the world. Ethan stood on the roof of a burned-out villa, the city’s fires still visible on the horizon. His body was numb, but his mind burned hotter than the ruins.The Dubai Summit was meant to be his triumph, his stage to declare himself King. Instead, Cain had turned it into a slaughterhouse. Helena now ruled the headlines, crowned as the world’s savior while Ethan’s name was dragged through the mud.Behind him, Wren leaned against the cracked wall, blade balanced across her knees. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him since they fled. Camille sat a little further away, wrapping her bleeding arm with torn cloth, her face pale and hollow. They were what remained. From the dozens Ethan had gathered, only a handful escaped.Ethan clenched his jaw. This is what Cain wanted—to strip me down to nothing. To make me kneel.Cain’s voice slithered into his skull, smooth as
Chapter 130 : Ashes of a Throne
The Dubai skyline still burned when Ethan staggered into the morning light. Black smoke coiled into the sky like funeral banners, the glass skin of the Burj Khalifa cracked and bleeding. Sirens wailed far below, but no fire engines or rescue crews came. Cain had sealed the city with silence.Around Ethan, the survivors were pitifully few. Camille stumbled beside him, her face streaked with soot and dried blood. Her hands shook around the shard of glass she still carried, as though afraid to let it go. Wren walked a pace behind them, her blade still wet, her eyes fixed on Ethan’s back like she was weighing whether to bury it between his shoulders.The summit was over. The alliances were dead before they could be born. Cain had won.Not won, Ethan corrected himself, chest heaving. Not yet.He forced his body forward, dragging his survivors into the ruined lobby. The once-gilded marble was stained with blood and littered with corpses. Ghost soldiers had vanished, leaving only the evidenc
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