2025-07-23 10:52:03The rooftop wind whipped harder now, tugging Mira’s coat behind her like a banner.
She stood alone.
Or rather, above it all.
From this height, Lin City no longer looked like a maze of corruption - it looked like a battleground reclaiming its soul.
Her phone buzzed again.
Another message.
“Stage Two in motion. Stay ready.”
- A
She read it twice. Then once more, slower.
The battle wasn’t over.
It had just begun.
...
Down below, the drainage tunnel reeked of rust and gunpowder.
Ares moved like a shadow - low, silent, focused. His team followed in tight formation: Reyes, Kara, Monk, and three former Ghost Division operatives he trusted with his life.
Their mission was simple.
Find the server core. Pull the full archives. Expose everything Victor Wu buried.
No more hints. No more whispers.
Proof.
“Right door,” Kara whispered, motioning toward a steel blast hatch.
Monk placed a charge without a word, counting down with his fingers.
Three. Two. One.
Boom.
The hatch tore off its hinges, crashing inward with a metallic scream.
Gunfire answered instantly—automated turrets tucked into the ceiling rails.
But Ares was faster.
He dove into the smoke, his rifle barking three precise shots. Sparks danced as the turrets fell.
Reyes exhaled. “Show-off.”
Ares glanced back, unamused. “Move.”
They breached.
Inside, the temperature dropped. White lights flickered above rows of humming black servers. Data towers stood like pillars of some forgotten temple - cold, humming, alive.
Kara was already at the core terminal, fingers flying across the keyboard.
“Encrypted deep. But not deeper than I can dig.”
Ares stood watch, pulse steady.
Everything depended on this moment.
...
Elsewhere in Lin City, chaos bloomed like blood in water.
The footage Hawk had released spread like wildfire. Cable news scrambled to verify. Social media exploded with names, numbers, photos of burned villages and silent graves.
The lion’s head had become more than a symbol.
It was now a reckoning.
And in a corner office high above the skyline, Senator Harold Lin stared at the footage with shaking hands.
His niece was in the middle of this.
His name - his legacy - was tied to her.
He slammed his desk.
“Get me the President. Now.”
...
Victor Wu sat in silence aboard the extraction chopper.
He was soaked in sweat, not from the heat - but from realization.
Everything he had spent years crafting, bribing, threatening, destroying - it had just been shattered by one man’s defiance and another’s code.
Across from him, the man in the pinstriped suit watched quietly.
Victor broke the silence. “We underestimated their reach.”
The man’s lips curled faintly. “We underestimated their pain.”
Victor’s eyes darkened. “What do we do now?”
“Kill the roots,” the man replied. “Ares. Reyes. Hawk. Mira Lin.”
Victor leaned forward, teeth bared. “Then do it.”
The man nodded slowly.
“I already am.”
...
Back inside the fortress remains, Mira moved swiftly through rubble -strewn corridors.
She wasn’t hiding anymore.
She was hunting.
Two former officers flanked her -Yuan and Nadine, veterans of the silenced Border Uprising.
Ares had given her a target - General Lian. The one who funded the trafficking corridors, shielded by fake NGO badges and fake smiles.
Lian was the cancer behind Victor’s rot.
And Mira was about to cut him out.
They found him in the east wing—flanked by two bodyguards and dragging a young girl behind him like a briefcase.
Mira didn’t hesitate.
Two shots, clean and controlled.
The bodyguards dropped before their weapons even cleared their holsters.
General Lian turned slowly.
“Mira Lin,” he sneered. “You wouldn’t shoot an unarmed man.”
She stepped forward, weapon raised. “You’re not a man.”
She pulled the trigger once.
Then again.
Then a third time - for the girl’s eyes, which had forgotten how to cry.
Yuan led the girl away.
Mira stood still, smoke curling from the barrel.
No one cheered.
But something in the air changed.
Justice wasn’t blind anymore.
She was loaded.
...
Back in the server room, Kara cursed under her breath. “They’ve got secondary encryption. Military-grade.”
Reyes leaned in. “You break codes faster when I’m annoying, right?”
Kara rolled her eyes. “I break bones when you’re annoying.”
Monk chuckled.
Ares ignored them.
He stared at the flickering screen, the cursor blinking like a heartbeat.
Waiting.
“We don’t have long,” he said.
Kara nodded. “Just stall the collapse protocol. Thirty more seconds.”
Behind them, Reyes loaded another clip.
“Thirty seconds. That’s forever in war years.”
Ares stepped to the door, eyes scanning the hallway.
Then he saw it.
A blinking red light at the end of the corridor.
Laser tripwire.
Not aimed at them.
Aimed behind them.
“Trap!” he shouted, spinning.
Too late.
The entire back wall of the server room exploded inward.
Concrete and metal surged like a wave - hurling Kara against a terminal, Reyes into a column, Monk into darkness.
Ares hit the floor hard, ears ringing, lungs burning.
Dust blinded him.
But he crawled toward Kara -bleeding, limp.
She groaned, eyes barely open. “Files… still uploading…”
Then he saw the figure step through the smoke.
Not Victor.
Not soldiers.
But him.
The man in the pinstriped suit.
No name. No past.
Just death in tailored fabric.
He raised a sleek black pistol, silencer already screwed on.
“Your mission ends here.”
Ares stood slowly, blood trailing from his lip. “You’ve been hiding long enough.”
The man cocked his head. “I’m not hiding. I’m evolving.”
They circled each other, slow and steady.
“I used to think your type was rare,” the man said. “Men who stand for something. But you’re just a delay. A noise.”
Ares cracked his knuckles. “Then hear me roar.”
The man lunged first.
Fast.
But not faster than Ares.
They collided midair.
Fists flew. Bone cracked. Blood sprayed.
They weren’t soldiers now.
They were monsters forged by different fires.
And only one was walking out.
...
Outside, Mira heard the blast.
She turned to Yuan.
“He’s still inside.”
“I’ll go - ” he began.
But she was already gone.
...
Back in the server room, Ares’s breathing grew ragged.
The man in the suit moved with surgical cruelty, landing precise strikes to ribs and throat.
But Ares fought like a wounded animal.
Cornered.
Desperate.
Alive.
A final swing - elbow to jaw - broke the rhythm.
Ares caught him by the lapel, slamming him into the server core.
Sparks exploded.
The pistol fell.
Ares grabbed it.
Aimed it at the man’s temple.
But then paused.
“You don’t deserve a quick death,” he said.
Then he pistol-whipped him into unconsciousness.
“Put him on the feed,” Ares told Kara as she crawled back online. “Let the world see the face behind the curtain.”
She uploaded the image.
Every screen across Lin City lit up again.
This time, it wasn’t a lion.
It was the man behind the slaughter.
The ghost behind the throne.
The architect of hell.
Exposed.
...
Outside, the rebellion’s forces surged forward.
The city wasn’t broken anymore.
It was awake.
And behind every cracked window, every alleyway, every satellite dish -
The truth was roaring.
...
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
ASH IN THE VEINS
The steel slab still stood at the western ridgeline when Ares returned at midday. The sun was higher now, carving the message deeper into the scorched metal with every flicker of heat. He didn’t touch it. Didn’t have to. The words were burned behind his eyes.We are not your past. We are your consequence.He stood there a moment longer, wind tugging at the collar of his coat, the dry scent of dust and burnt wire rising from the earth. Reyes approached from behind, silent, until the crunch of his boots gave him away.“They’re not just warning us,” he said. “They’re staging something. Making a show of memory.”Ares nodded slowly. “And calling it justice.”Reyes looked out toward the hills. “You think it’s just Vale?”“No.” Ares didn’t blink. “I think it’s what Vale left behind. A creed. A code. A wound still bleeding after all this time.”Reyes crossed his arms. “I’ve buried too many men to be haunted by ghosts.”Ares looked at him. “Then start digging again. Because this war... it didn
THOSE WHO REMEMBER
Because now, they had something worth defending.And for Ares Kai - the man who once lived only to destroy - that made him more dangerous than ever.The rooftop wind brushed over him, sharp with the chill of dusk but filled with the scent of food cooking in shared courtyards and the murmur of distant laughter. It was the kind of night that made a man forget, if only for a moment, how much blood had stained his past.But forgetting wasn’t an option.Mira stood at his side in silence. Her hand had long since slipped from his, but her presence hadn’t. She leaned against the railing, watching the city breathe. Her eyes were calm, but her voice, when it came, held a quiet weight.“Do you think they’ll come here? The ones watching?”He didn’t answer right away.Then, “Not yet. But they’ve taken notice.”She tilted her head. “Of you?”“No,” he said. “Of us.”Mira glanced back at the glowing blocks of Lin City - at the rebuilt shelters, the lights flickering in the old Assembly Hall, the hum
THE WEIGHT OF STILLNESS
Ares didn’t move.He sat by Elijah’s bedside long after the boy had turned back into sleep, his small hands tucked beneath his cheek, his breaths soft and untroubled. The notebook lay closed beside them - those sketches still etched into Ares’ mind.That last drawing... the three of them standing beneath a sun not yet drawn. No smoke. No sirens. No shadows clawing at the edge of their peace. Just presence.Ares leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees, his head buried in his hands. His back ached from old wounds. His fingers were calloused from war. But none of that compared to the pressure behind his ribs now - the unfamiliar weight of not having to fight.Outside, the windowpane rattled gently in the breeze. There was no storm tonight. No cries. No coded transmissions. Just wind brushing across the roof and the distant clatter of tools as the early workers began their shifts.Mira’s door was still ajar across the hall, warm light spilling through the gap. He could have gone to her
EMBERS AND ROOTS
Mira didn’t move for a long time.She sat cross-legged on the floor, her arms resting on her knees, eyes fixed on the sleeping boy and the man beside him. The only sound was the low hum of the generator outside and the steady breath of a child who finally, finally, had no reason to be afraid.Ares didn’t speak either. He leaned back against the wall, knees bent, one hand resting protectively near Elijah’s shoulder, the other slack on his thigh. Every now and then, his eyes flickered open - checking, listening - but the tension he used to wear like armor had softened into something else.Stillness.Not weakness. Not surrender.Just the absence of running.Mira eventually pushed herself up, bones stiff, and moved to sit beside Ares. He shifted slightly, making room, careful not to wake the boy.They didn’t touch - not yet. But their shoulders were close enough to share warmth.“You should sleep too,” she murmured.“I will,” Ares said. “Just... not yet.”She nodded.A long breath passed
THE PROMISE OF STAYING
The Assembly Hall was quiet the next morning.Not silent - there were distant boots on tile, quiet murmurs of volunteers laying cables and pinning up maps -but the kind of quiet that came after storms. The kind you earned. Ares stood near the north-facing window, watching as the mist lifted off the shattered rooftops of Lin City.Behind him, Elijah tugged at his sleeve.“Is this where they argue?” he asked.Ares smirked. “Sometimes. Mostly, they try to listen.”Elijah nodded solemnly, like that was harder.The boy wore a scarf too big for him and boots slightly too worn. His hair still stuck up in wild tufts from sleep, and he held The Little Prince under one arm like it was a secret weapon. Ares rested a steady hand on his son’s back as they stepped inside.Some of the council members were already seated. Kara gave a quick wave. The woman from the South End was bouncing her baby with one hand and flipping through ration figures with the other. Hawk stood by the coffee dispenser, pour
THE WEIGHT OF PEACE
The Assembly Hall was quiet the next morning.Not silent - there were distant boots on tile, quiet murmurs of volunteers laying cables and pinning up maps - but the kind of quiet that came after storms. The kind you earned. Ares stood near the north-facing window, watching as the mist lifted off the shattered rooftops of Lin City.Behind him, Elijah tugged at his sleeve.“Is this where they argue?” he asked.Ares smirked. “Sometimes. Mostly, they try to listen.”Elijah nodded solemnly, like that was harder.The boy wore a scarf too big for him and boots slightly too worn. His hair still stuck up in wild tufts from sleep, and he held The Little Prince under one arm like it was a secret weapon. Ares rested a steady hand on his son’s back as they stepped inside.Some of the council members were already seated. Kara gave a quick wave. The woman from the South End was bouncing her baby with one hand and flipping through ration figures with the other. Hawk stood by the coffee dispenser, pou
