Chapter 130: Bluffing

Air-raid sirens wailed across the city.

Silas Drake stood frozen on the steps; his face looked pale as he gripped his rapier, staring at Evren in disbelief.

Before Silas could speak, Elder Caldwell’s tablet let out another sharp beep.

A red notification flashed on the screen with Grand Arbiter Kincaid’s seal.

[SECOND WARNING: ALL SECTOR COMMANDERS MUST DEPLOY WITHIN FIFTEEN MINUTES. ANY GUILD FAILING TO REPORT WILL BE CHARGED WITH IMMEDIATE WARTIME DESERTION.]

Caldwell’s face twitched. The arrogant look he had worn minutes ago was completely gone, replaced by panic. "Silas, get in the van!" he shouted, grabbing the young heir’s arm. "We have to reach Sector B before Kincaid’s enforcers arrive!"

Silas pulled his arm free, glaring at Evren with hatred.

"Don’t think you’ve won, Evren!" Silas hissed through gritted teeth. "Zone One is an S-Rank death trap! We’ll see who makes it back alive!"

"You’d better run, Drake," Evren replied in a flat voice. "The rift won’t wait for you to put on your makeup."

Silas cursed under his breath, turning around and sprinting down the marble steps. Caldwell waved his golden baton in a panic, yelling at his men to move.

The Solar Crown guards scrambled back into their armored vans. Up in the air, the four gunships turned their thrusters, banking hard toward the east as their engines roared.

Within thirty seconds, the entire blockade sped away down the boulevard, leaving the street outside the sanatorium completely empty.

Evren watched them leave, then turned back toward the hospital lobby.

Dr. Orson let out a sigh of relief, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Thank heavens," the doctor breathed. "Chairman Evren, if you hadn’t walked out, Caldwell would have torn this place apart."

"He was bluffing," Evren said calmly as he walked back inside. "He didn’t have a warrant, and he knew it."

Amber stepped up beside Evren, looking out toward the purple sky in the east. "Evren, the dimensional surge is massive." Her dark-brown eyes were serious. "The whole city is shaking. We need to move."

"We are," Evren nodded.

He turned to look at Guild Master Walter and the fourteen cured hunters standing behind him.

"Walter," Evren said. "We’re heading to Zone One, but this hospital cannot be left open. Calista is upstairs on the fourth floor. She is paralyzed from the neck down and cannot defend herself."

Walter straightened his back.

"Understood, Chairman," Walter said firmly. "I will leave four of my best men here with Dr. Orson. Nobody gets near Lady Calista’s room without stepping over their dead bodies."

Four of the veteran hunters stepped forward, saluting Evren with their fists against their breastplates.

"Good," Evren said. "The remaining ten hunters come with us to the frontline."

Walter nodded, though a look of hesitation crossed his face.

"What is it, Walter?" Evren asked.

"Chairman... back at our outpost in the eastern valleys, we have about twenty-five hunters," Walter said in a hesitant voice. "Ten are older veterans with lingering injuries who must stay to guard our home fort and families. But fifteen can fight if we buy them healing supplies and gear."

Walter swallowed hard, then added quickly.

"Also, when the cartel hit us with that fifty-million debt, twenty of our veteran brothers were laid off to find odd jobs. If we clear their back-pay and buy medicine, my deputy can recall them immediately. That would give us thirty-five seasoned hunters to reinforce you."

Evren didn’t hesitate for a single second.

He pulled out his phone and opened his banking app.

"What is your guild’s registration number?" Evren asked.

Walter blinked in surprise, then quickly read off the nine-digit code.

Evren typed in the numbers and entered a single transfer amount: two million dollars.

BEEP.

A bright green confirmation flashed on the screen:

[WIRE TRANSFER SUCCESSFUL: $2,000,000.00 USD DISBURSED TO IRON-THISTLE GUILD OPERATING ACCOUNT.]

At the exact same time, Walter’s old communicator began buzzing violently in his belt pouch.

Walter pulled it out, staring at the notification in complete shock. His eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped open.

"Two... two million dollars?!" Walter gasped.

"Use two hundred thousand to charter an emergency military mag-rail train straight to the Capital," Evren said in a calm, businesslike tone. "Tell the rail bureau it has wartime priority clearance from Apex."

"And the rest?" Walter asked, his hands shaking as he held the communicator.

"Clear all the back-pay you owe, buy healing supplies for the wounded, and recall every scattered veteran," Evren replied. "Get those thirty-five hunters geared up and on that train right now."

Walter’s eyes filled with tears.

For years, Iron-Thistle had been treated like dirt by the big guilds, begging for crumbs just to survive. Now, this young chairman had treated his men like family, dropping two million dollars without blinking an eye.

"Chairman Evren..." Walter choked back a sob, bowing so low his forehead nearly touched his knees. "Iron-Thistle will follow you into the deepest pit of hell."

"Get your deputy on the line and give the orders," Evren said with a faint smile. "We have a rift to clear."

While Walter stepped aside to call his frontier outpost, Evren tapped a contact he had saved but hasn’t used before... Master Tridon.

The screen connected after two rings, showing Tridon’s soot-stained face inside his Capital workshop.

"Chairman Evren!" Tridon boomed over the background noise of hammering metal. "I saw the sirens! Are you heading to the wall?"

"We are," Evren said. "Walter of Iron-Thistle Guild has thirty-five veteran hunters arriving on an express train in a few hours. They need solid steel armor, tower shields, and broadswords. Can you supply them?"

"Consider it done!" Tridon grinned, wiping sweat from his brow. "I already have twenty heavy sets sitting in my workshop, and I know merchant houses down the street with the rest on hand. I’ll buy fifteen more sets and have all thirty-five laid out at the rail platform before the train even pulls in!"

"Charge the purchases to my account," Evren said. "Thanks, Tridon."

"Give those void bastards hell, Chairman!" Tridon laughed, cutting the call.

Evren slipped his phone back into his pocket.

Before he could step toward the courtyard, another tremor shook the floor tiles. The deep spatial shockwave from Zone One rolled across the city sky, rattling the hospital windows.

Right then, a sharp golden chime rang inside Evren’s mind.

[SYSTEM SCAN COMPLETE: CATEGORY S-RANK MUTATED DIMENSIONAL SURGE!]

[STAGE 4 CURE INGREDIENT DETECTED IN ZONE ONE!]

[TARGET: S-RANK MUTATED VOID DEVOURER]

[CATALYST: UMBRAL HEART-STONE]

[FUNCTION: CLEARS THE FINAL 25% SHADOW ROT & RESTORES 100% MANA CHANNELING FOR FMC #2 (ZEPHYRA NIGHTSHADE)!]

Evren paused, the blue light reflecting in his eyes.

He looked over at Zephyra. The silver-haired assassin was standing near the door, quietly checking the grip and tension wires of her mechanical Shadow Whip-Blade.

Her restoration was at seventy-five percent. Her physical body was healed, but her mana core was still blocked by old shadow rot. She couldn’t channel mana into her weapon.

Now, the final cure was right ahead.

Evren’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t just going to Zone One to follow Kincaid’s orders or humiliate Silas Drake. He was going to kill that beast, take the Umbral Heart-Stone, and fully heal Zephyra.

"Let’s move," Evren said, turning toward the door.

Ten minutes later, Evren, Amber, Zephyra, Walter, and the ten cured hunters boarded Apex’s heavy armored transport.

The heavy diesel engine roared to life, and the vehicle shot forward down the boulevard.

Emergency sirens wailed non-stop as the transport sped past closed shops and abandoned cars, heading straight toward the eastern district.

Fifteen minutes later, the transport screeched to a halt at the main gate of Zone One.

The scene outside was pure chaos.

Zone One was a massive outer defense ring divided into tactical sectors along the perimeter wall. Apex had been assigned to the frontline breach at Sector A, while Solar Crown had claimed the fortified bunker line of Sector B right beside it.

Caldwell had placed Silas Drake there expecting heavy gun turrets to do the fighting while Apex took the brunt of the storm.

Instead, the mutated tear had ruptured directly over Sector B.

Chunks of the shattered outer wall lay burning on the ground, and thick clouds of purple void smoke poured from the sky. Wounded soldiers were being dragged back to medical tents as void hounds snapped at the secondary barricades.

Just two hundred yards ahead, the gold-and-white banners of the Solar Crown Guild were in complete disarray.

A pack of six-legged void beasts had ripped through their line, tossing guards through the air.

Silas Drake was backed up against an armored truck, his fancy rapier shaking in his hand as he screamed in pure terror: "Fall back! Fall back! Somebody kill these things!"

Evren stepped down from the transport onto the smoking gravel.

The cold void wind whipped his dark coat, but his eyes were completely calm.

"Walter, set up your shield line on the left flank," Evren said in a quiet voice. "Amber, Zephyra. Follow me."