Apocalypse: becoming the hidden Ruler

Caden just stared at the three of them, half amused, half annoyed. We were literally the ones trying to frame the guy. Still, he knew better than to say that out loud. Not unless he wanted his teeth knocked in.

"He played it viciously, sure. But the fact is—he won this round." Caden crossed his arms. "If we try to hit him again right now, we're only gonna dig ourselves deeper. Declan's already suspicious."

Blackstone let out a long breath, finally cooling off. He slumped into a half-broken chair, throwing an arm around one of his underlings. "Fine. Whatever. Screw it. Let's drink."

Then, through the half-open window, he heard the hushed voices of the three men.

"Bro, you shouldn't have listened to him."

"He's just some bootlicking tactician."

"What a clown."

Caden's beard twitched in irritation. I'm an Awakened too, you morons. And maybe learn to whisper before talking shit next time.

Still, he let it slide. A slow smirk spread across his face as he tugged at his beard thoughtfully.

"What an interesting opponent," he muttered.

The next day.

In a high-end hotel suite in the Saka District of Sin City, the man in the cloak was giving his report. "There are 17 candidates left. Since the last update, three more have died."

Halfway through the trial, and already more than two-thirds of the participants were gone. The mood in the room grew heavy. Members of both the Gray Wolf Squad and Obsidian Squad exchanged solemn looks.

"What about Axel?" Kaia asked, twirling a lollipop in her mouth, her wide eyes blinking innocently.

"After his last fight, he joined a gang in the Baird District. He's still alive." That was all they knew for now, and digging deeper would take time and finesse.

"And Elijah?" Jade cut in.

"Two days ago, Elijah's team was ambushed. Even after teaming up with another squad, they were forced to retreat. He's been withdrawn from the trial." The cloaked man spoke plainly.

"What?! That's bullshit!" Jade snapped, standing up abruptly. She didn't even have to look to know Rosaline was silently judging her. "Elijah was the strongest. Now some nobodies are still in the game. What a joke."

Rosaline, cold as ever, didn't so much as glance her way. Just then, a harsh burst of static buzzed through the air. Everyone's watch lit up at the same time.

A middle-aged man with a head of gray hair appeared on-screen. His features were sharp, his voice sharper. Despite his age, he carried the energy of a man half his years—hard-eyed, alert, and unmistakably dangerous. "Status report."

The room instantly quieted. Jade shut her mouth. No one dared be anything but focused in front of *him*.

"Sir, I'll take this." Wesley stepped up, glad for the interruption before Jade and Rosaline started throwing punches.

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"The target, Dr. Crowe, founded the Crowe Institute here in Sin City. It specializes in training Technological Awakeners."

"We tried to infiltrate once, but the place is loaded with tech-based surveillance. Any breach immediately triggers a lockdown—we couldn't get far."

"Crowe rarely leaves the facility. When he does, it's only for raw material pickups, and he never sets foot outside the Baird District."

The man on the screen didn't interrupt. His eyes narrowed as he listened.

"We've scouted for a window to strike, but there hasn't been a good opportunity." In Krythos, they could've snatched Crowe off the street without blinking. But here, in Sin City, Morris was always watching.

Any fight involving Awakeners above level 4 caused massive Force fluctuations. That would alert Morris instantly.

The man remained silent for a long moment. "We're running out of time," he finally said. "Exotic Beast Pills are still hitting Krythos. We've got thirty-seven Awakeners contaminated and over a hundred civilians dead."

"If we can't capture Crowe, then we need to cut off his supply chain. Immediately." He paused, then delivered his final order. "If taking him alive proves impossible, abort the mission. Everyone else pulls out. Vince, Rosaline, Wesley—assassination protocol is in effect."

Assassination.

The word hit the room like a sledgehammer.

Everyone froze when the order came down. Carrying out a direct hit inside Sin City was damn near suicide. The fact that the higher-ups were willing to authorize it underscored how critical this mission really was.

"Yes, sir!"

Rosaline, Vince, and Wesley snapped to attention, the initial shock still in their eyes—but they didn't hesitate. Orders were orders.

The old man's voice came through the screen again, calm but cold. "How are the new recruits progressing?"

The cloaked man ran through the current status of the trial candidates. The old man's expression didn't change.

"If they jeopardize the mission, pull them out. Don't let anything get in the way of this objective."

"Understood. I'll handle it accordingly."

With that, the video cut out. Silence fell over the room again.

Millers and Kaia both shot uneasy glances at the trio who had been selected. Wesley didn't look thrilled, either. It wasn't about skill—he trusted Rosaline and Vince completely—but the risk? That was real.

If they didn't kill Crowe instantly, and he had even a few seconds to react, the resulting Force spike would be massive. Morris would sense it. And then none of them would make it out alive.

Still, Vince was as calm as ever, slowly running his fingers along the edge of his rapier. Wesley let out a frustrated sigh.

"We'll start with the supply line. That's our best shot right now."

"The Exotic Beast Pills are being distributed in bulk to the gangs across several districts. After that, it gets resold in small doses—too scattered to track efficiently."

"So we go upstream," he said grimly. "The raw materials."

That's when the recent intel came in handy.

Over the past few days, they'd discovered that every other day, a transport truck rolled out of Crowe Academy. It always returned with a shipment of mysterious crates—nothing marked, nothing obvious. But when Kaia scanned them with her mental detection ability, she found what was inside:

Mutated beast flesh. Blood. Condensed beast essence. Exactly the kinds of ingredients you'd need to brew up something as dangerous as the Exotic Beast Pill. But the pickup points changed every time, making it impossible to trace the supplier directly.

"Then we cut off the supply chain."

"But if we hit them directly, won't that alert Crowe? He'll just dig himself deeper into that lab and disappear." Someone spoke up, voicing the concern everyone had been quietly thinking.

That's exactly why they hadn't moved before.

"Maybe," Wesley admitted. "But we're out of time. Sitting on our hands won't help anyone. He's too cautious to leave the institute unless he has to."

Silence followed.

It was true—cutting off the shipments would send a message, but it would also lock Crowe down tighter than ever. And it meant committing someone to stay behind in Sin City to keep watch for who knew how long.

"We take it step by step." Millers gave a crooked grin. "Maybe if we hit him hard enough, he'll get angry and come out to handle it himself."

His half-joke made Vince pause. Then his eyes lit up with something sharper. "No, he's got a point. If we make it look like a robbery, not a hit... don't bring overwhelming firepower, don't use Force abilities too blatantly... Crowe might think it's just some gang ambush. He might slip. Show us something."

The team nodded. That was solid thinking.

"Alright then," Wesley said. "Let's move. Two teams—one to hit the convoy, one to provide backup."

The room snapped to life. After days of bottling up their tension and playing it safe, they were finally going to move. Finally going to fight.