The Untouchable God of War

Chapter 4

Silence lay over the ballroom like a heavy shroud. The guests held their breath, their eyes darting between the lifeless body of Toby on the floor and the dark figure of Gabriel.

Ezra Foster with a jaw tightened, his bloodied hand dripping mixed wine and red droplets onto his custom suit. He stared at Gabriel, his mind racing to make sense of the ghost standing before him.

"Who sent you?" Ezra spat, his voice laced with venom, "Name your price, whatever they paid you, I will double it, better still Triple it."

Gabriel took a step toward the center of the grand stage, his boots clicking rhythmically against the blood-stained floor.

"Fifteen years ago, you ordered the murder of a mother and her two young sons for a gold pendant," Gabriel said, his voice dropping with menace, "You thought you buried the past, Ezra. But blood leaves a debt, and tonight, your deadline is up."

Nancy Foster sneered from beside her husband, her face twisted in rage despite the horror around her. "You filthy street dog!" she shrieked, "Do you have any idea who we are? You walk into our home, ruin our night, and threaten my husband? You're nothing! You'll be dead before you cross the gate!"

Gabriel didn't even look at her, his eyes remained locked on Ezra.

Ezra's face went dark, he raised his hand, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Kill him! Both of you, tear him apart!"

From the shadows behind the high stage, two men stepped forward.

They weren't ordinary guards, these were the twin enforcers of the Foster family,

Victor and Vane, former heavy-weapons mercenaries notorious throughout the underground network. Victor carried a massive tactical combat blade, his body built like a reinforced brick wall, while Vane moved with lethal, snake-like speed, wielding twin curved daggers.

"You got lucky with Toby," Victor growled, cracking his knuckles as he stepped between Gabriel and Ezra. "But you won't survive the two of us."

"I'm going to carve that cold look right off your face," Vane sneered, spinning his daggers in tight, lightning-fast circles.

The two enforcers struck at the exact same moment.

Victor lunged low, swinging his heavy combat blade in a brutal horizontal arc aimed at Gabriel's torso, while Vane leaped into the air, coming down from above with both daggers aimed straight for Gabriel's neck. It was a synchronized execution maneuver that had left dozens of targets dead in their past operations.

For a second, Gabriel seemed trapped, and the guest murmured that he wouldn't survive.

Vane’s daggers came down fast, but Gabriel slid his upper body back by an inch, letting the steel graze the air in front of his chest. At the exact same moment, Gabriel drove his boot straight into Victor’s rising knee.

CRACK!

Victor groaned as his knee joint collapsed backward under the immense force. Before the big man could fall, Gabriel grabbed Victor's tactical vest, using the giant as a human shield. Vane’s descending daggers buried deep into his own brother's shoulder.

Victor roared in pain, Gabriel didn't give them a second to recover.

He ripped the heavy combat blade straight out of Victor's hand, spun on his heel, and drove the flat side of the heavy weapon into Vane's ribs. The impact sounded like a shotgun blast, shattering Vane’s ribcage and sending the agile fighter crashing sideways into the orchestra stage, smashing violins and harps into splinters.

Victor, staggering on one broken leg, swung a wild, desperate punch with his remaining strength. Gabriel caught the fist mid-air, twisted Victor's arm until the shoulder popped clean out of its socket, and slammed the giant head-first onto the floor.

It had taken less than thirty seconds, two of the city's most feared killers lay broken at his feet.

Vance stumbled backward, his face drained of all color. He opened his mouth to shout for more guards, but the grand double doors of the mansion broke off their hinges entirely.

BOOM.

The doors smashed onto the floor.

A sea of armed men in pitch-black tactical gear spilled into the ballroom. One hundred heavily armed soldiers marched into the hall in terrifying precision, their high-caliber rifles trained on every corner of the room.

The perimeter was instantly sealed.

At the head of the battalion stood Andrew. He walked to the center, stopped three paces behind Gabriel, and bowed his head respectfully.

"The compound is fully secured, Commander," Andrew reported smoothly. "Not a single soul leaves without your command."

The high-society guests panicked. Women shrieked, and powerful businessmen dropped their champagne glasses, sinking to their knees with their hands raised in absolute terror. The room smelled of sweat, and blood.

Ezra glanced at Andrew, he recognized the face, his hands shaking violently as his eyes averted toward the armies that had filled his home. "What... What are you? Who are you?"

Gabriel stepped up to Ezra, he didn't answer the question.

He reached out, grabbed Ezra by the throat, and lifted the man straight off his feet, pressing him against the wall, Ezra clawed frantically at Gabriel's grip, his legs kicking uselessly in the air as his vision began to blur.

"This is for my mother," Gabriel said softly.

With a single twist of his arm, a sharp snap echoed across the silent room.

Gabriel released his grip, and Ezra Foster’s lifeless body crumpled to the floor like a sack of dirty clothes. The tyrant who had ruled the city’s shadows for decades was dead.

"Ezra!" Nancy screamed, dropping to her knees beside her husband's body. She raised her eyes to Gabriel, her face contorted in rage. "You monster! You murderous dog! You think you can get away with this? The police, the court, the whole city will hunt you down! You're dead! Do you hear me? You're a dead man!"

Gabriel looked down at her with indifferent expression.

"Andrew," Gabriel said calmly.

"Commander," Andrew stepped forward instantly.

"Shut her up, and make sure she never walks again."

"Understood."

Andrew stepped forward without a hint of hesitation. He delivered a swift, backhanded slap across Nancy’s face that sent her crashing hard onto her side, spitting blood and broken teeth onto the floor. Before she could even scream, Andrew brought his heavy boot down hard on her kneecaps with two devastating strikes.

Cries of agony tore from her throat before she collapsed into unconsciousness, her legs completely shattered.

The surrounding guests wept in horror, scrambling backward, terrified that they were next on the execution list.

Gabriel turned his eyes toward the crowd of trembling elites

.

"Run," Gabriel said with an authoritative voice. "Don't tell anyone in this city what happened here tonight. I have marked your faces, and if I find out you made comments about this to anyone, I will come for you and your family.."

The moment the words left his mouth, the crowd lost their minds, judges, and billionaires tripped over themselves, screaming and crawling toward the exit doors, desperate to escape the nightmare.

Gabriel walked past the fleeing crowd, stepping out into the cool night air as Andrew followed right behind him.

Gabriel paused on the front steps of the estate, looking back at the glowing lights of the Foster mansion.

"Tear it down," Gabriel ordered. "Leave nothing standing."

"Yes, Commander," Andrew replied.

Andrew raised his hand and signaled the tactical team outside. Four heavy armored vehicles rolled up the driveway, turning their mounted cannons toward the estate.

Within moments, explosive rounds slammed into the structure. Flaming debris rained down from the sky as the roof collapsed in a mountain of fire and dust. The grand mansion that had symbolized Fifteen years of corruption and misery was reduced to a pile of burning rubble in minutes.

Gabriel stood in the rain, watching the flames lick the night sky, his eyes burning brighter than the fire.

"One down," Gabriel whispered into the dark. "I'm coming for the rest of you.”