CHAPTER 007The room pulsed with quiet efficiency; men and women in tailored suits, each with a reason to be there and clearly on purpose, circulated in and out of Nero’s expansive office. Near the window, Lucia stared at the streets below them. Her thoughts, like the city itself, never slumbered. She never made a decision or a move that didn't bring her closer to her revenge.“Lost in thought, Lucia?” Nero's voice broke through her reverie. Seated behind his desk, his sharp gray eyes studied her like a puzzle he hadn't yet solved.She forced a faint smile and turned. “Always. It keeps me focused.”Nero smiled and waved her in closer. ‘You’ve done good; you’ve earned trust and respect perhaps faster than I had thought.’ What’s on your mind today?”Her fingers brushed the hem of her jacket, and she hesitated. This was her chance. She couldn’t falter now. Her voice was steady but firm, but she began, ‘I’m going to need a favor.’Nero arched a brow. “A favor? That’s a bold request. Go on
CHAPTER 008Sophia paced back and forth in the dim room, her heels creating an unhappy snick on the polished floor. Her fingers clenched and unclenched at her sides, and every now and then she glanced toward the door as if she could allow Lucia to appear. It was hard having so much jealousy burning inside of her. It was all becoming too much.Lucia was everywhere. She had wormed her way into the Roselli family, into Matteo’s life, and now she was beginning to worm her way past all of Sophia’s defenses. The closeness between Lucia and Matteo wasn't just what bothered her. No, it was more profound than that; it gnawed at her whenever she saw them together. Lucia was too perfect, too calm, too composed. She hated Sophia being jealous; it made her feel small, smaller, and insignificant.She had to do something. She was going to have to stop Lucia before it was too late.The plan was simple. Expose her as a fraud. She will expose herself as merely exploiting Matteo to ascend the family hie
CHAPTER 009Lucia thought very sharply and focused as she moved quietly through the shadows of the mansion. The Roselli family never failed to brag themselves up; they had built their power on lies and manipulation. But that was about to change. She calculated every move, every step to bring them down. She had spent months learning their weaknesses, learning their lives. But now that her plan came together, she nearly tasted victory.Outside it was still, silent, the air heavy from the tension that held the world in a constant void. Her mind was racing in the hallway, and she paused for a moment. Mr. Her next target was Roselli, the leading figure in this cancer case. He had harmed someone while she was protecting him, and he had crossed a boundary he would never regret.The pulse of power in her chest she could feel. This was all the pain... the betrayals... the broken pieces of her past leading her to. This was her opportunity to make them all pay.The plan was simple: It would targ
CHAPTER 010Matteo had a sleep problem.First they were flashes, broken images. They were vivid, real now. In every dream he could see her face, the woman who filled his thoughts every waking moment. Lucia.The first dream appeared suddenly, like a whisper in the night. Now, they were memories—memories of things he couldn’t remember fully. It was as if his old life were clawing, piece by piece, back to him. Every time he awoke, he’d be sweating and panting, his heart racing.In the dim light of his room, he sat staring at the ceiling, trying to put it all together."Why can't I remember?" he muttered under his breath. Frustration built inside of him; his fingers gripped the edge of the desk.He had seen her before, in these dreams. He could feel it—the betrayal, the pain, the heartbreak. He couldn’t recall the details, but it was like his heart knew her before his mind did. The more he got into the dreams, the more he started to understand.She wasn’t just some woman from his past. Sh
CHAPTER 011His eyes scanned the shadows of the alleyway. Dante leaned against the cracked brick wall. His mind was colder than the steel of the gun tucked inside his jacket, and the night air was thick with humidity. The one he didn’t want to take; he had just agreed to the job. The Vulpin mafia had made their offer, and he couldn’t help but feel he should walk away, but he couldn’t.Kidnap Nero’s “cousin.” That’s what they said.It made him uncomfortable just thinking about it. It didn’t feel right, but asking questions wasn’t his place. Not anymore. Not when the Vulpin mafia had him in their sights and had a debt on his head that he couldn't ignore.Despite this, the decision—all 80 plus kilograms—weighed on him. He had worked for Nero before. He wasn’t a fan of this cousin of his, but he had a certain respect for the man. Lucia, they called her. A mystery. The enigma is shrouded in such secrecy that Dante finds himself questioning if the risk was worthwhile.He muttered under his
CHAPTER 012In the darkness, Dante stood and looked into the house in front of him. His decision weighed on him harder than he could bear, and the world seemed to close in on him. Initially, the job seemed easy. Kidnap Lucia. For the first time, though, he'd met her face-to-face, felt the tugging of the bond between them, and everything was different.He leaned against the cold brick wall of the alley, watching the dim light of the streetlamps flicker like dying stars, and his stomach twisted into knots. He had known all along that this mission was strange. The Vulpin mafia was always messy, always full of lies and danger, but this was different. This was something he’d never been asked before.Lucia.The name echoed in his head. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. The way she looked at him with that piercing gaze, like she could see right through him, made his heart pound every time he thought about her. She wasn’t just a target. She wasn’t just on a mission. No, it was something ab
CHAPTER 013In a room lit only by the table's lamp, the map of Matteo's quarries stretched out, and Lucia was standing. Not a single line, not a single symbol on the paper was out of place: she was weaving, spinning the web to bring him down. She had spent months gathering information, quietly infiltrating his supply chain using Nero’s mafia resources. But finally the pieces were starting to fall a certain way.She ran a finger over the routes—the routes that were already being disrupted. Small shipments are disappearing. Larger deals are falling through. It was all of it, orchestrated by her, with Nero’s blessing. At least, that’s what he had told her; he had agreed to help her. She wasn’t so sure anymore. She had started to wonder if he knew how far she would go to get her revenge.It had all started as so small, so easy, so tiny... However, at the moment things were escalating, and Lucia felt there was pressure on its building. Nothing was accidental, nor was a step taken to topple
CHAPTER 014She moved in the dim alley silently, her senses up. It was cold out; a cold breeze prickled across the night air, causing the leaves scattered on the ground to rattle. She stealthily stepped from shadow to shadow, disappearing among the shadows. She had learned to be careful and has always been watching and listening, since the day she had been reborn. Kept herself safe and on track; there was nothing more important.But tonight was different. On a mission she was; she needed to stay sharp. She crouched behind an old dumpster, and her eyes scanned the street ahead. She wasn’t expecting anyone to be out here, but after the note she had received earlier, she wasn’t taking any chances. Someone knew. She had to stay ahead of the game; someone was getting too close to figuring her out.Dante was part of the Vulpin mafia, who had their hands in many things. She had seen him before, but tonight she didn’t know what to expect. She had planned to avoid him, to stay away from him mo
Chapter 178Alessandro stood in the center of the ancient chamber, his arms raised high, fingers trembling as dark energy swirled around him like a living thing.He could feel the ritual pulling at him, drawing every ounce of his being into the abyss.The Heart of Lunaria glowed at his feet, its radiant light contrasting sharply against the creeping darkness that now surrounded him."This is it," he whispered to himself, the words heavy with a strange mix of excitement and fear. "No more pretending to be human. No more limits."The air crackled, thick with the power he was awakening. His heart raced as the energy surged through him, filling every pore, every fiber of his being. He could sense the power of a god, pulsating within his fingertips.The ritual, long and agonizing, had finally reached its peak. He could hear the whispers of ancient beings calling to him, their voices a chorus in his mind.But this power— it was not just power. It was a dark promise, a gift that demanded sac
Chapter 171With his boots digging a little into the charred ground, Dante stood at the edge of the battleground. The last remnants of moonlight were sucked up by the heavy clouds that rolled like a brewing storm, causing the sky above to churn with an unnatural darkness.The once-bright light flickered, struggling to stay in place as the Celestial Nexus shook under the weight of the impending chaos.It was this. This was his last stand.A gust of wind blew through, carrying the smell of burning ozone and something worse—the stench of decay, of the darkness edging closer.Dante's fists clenched, Though he knew the truth deep down, every nerve in his body begged for action. He couldn't abandon this battle."Dante!" The sound of distant thunder was broken by Lucia's voice. She showed up next to him, her eyes burning with desperation, her silver hair whipping wildly. "This is not necessary for you to do! We can figure out another way—""There isn't another option." His heart thumped like
Chapter 170Under Valeria's feet, the ground shook and the ancient stone floor cracked. The smell of burning magic permeated the air, the traces of Eldrin's cosmic anarchy still hanging there.Her vision faded, and she staggered backward, clutching the edge of a broken pillar. Every breath seemed to be her inhalation of fire."Lucia!?" Her voice hardly reached the howling winds whirling with unadulterated intensity. She could hear Nero yelling, his voice strained and urgent, some distance away.Her attention then turned to the impossible view before her—a rippling distortion in the air, shifting like liquid glass, opening and closing like a wound in reality itself.Her mind slithered with a deep voice."Do you, child, feel it? Is the ability dormant in your blood?She held her head, a sharp pain cutting across her skull. The voice was not emanating from beyond. She knew it inside her. There was something ancient and deeply ingrained within her. Her pulse throbbed again through her rib
Chapter 169Eldrin gazed out over the wide-open space of the darkened sky from the edge of the temple's magnificent balcony.The stars above, once constant and predictable, now fluctuated, flickering like dying embers from a storm.His fingers twitched in anticipation as he grinned to himself. It was this—his time. Everything Lucia and her allies had painstakingly built collapsed with the start of the gambit."Everything is aligning perfectly," Eldrin muttered to himself, his voice hardly audible above the roaring wind that blew through the open areas of the temple.The power crackled all around him, a cosmic force that was both thrilling and terrifying.The unraveling was intensifying, encroaching on reality itself like a sickness.He had meticulously woven the delicate thread of the celestial event he had triggered over centuries, but now it was falling apart, and there was no turning back.His surroundings were starting to change, first slowly, like a ripple in the air, and then mo
Chapter 168Every breath Sophia took served as a small reminder of the power coursing through her as her body lay in the shadows of the dimly lit room.The magic within her erupted like a wild storm, hungry and uncontrollable, despite the fact that her resurrection had been partial and brittle. She was more than just the Sophia Roselli they were familiar with.But she was more than that. It wouldn't take long for Lucia and the other people standing beside her to realize she was a formidable opponent.Her eyes opened slowly; in the dim light, the slight glow of her irises almost seems unnatural. The air around her was heavy with the weight of her new life.Her body ached as if it were separating from the inside, but each painful movement was a reminder that she was alive living in a way she had never experienced before. The black, twisted magic inside her was undeniably powerful.She stood up, her movements startlingly silent, like a predator preparing to strike, She ran her hand over
Chapter 167The air in the concealed room was dense with the scent of smoke and plants, the walls throbbing with the gentle hum of dark energy.Kalyndria stood in the middle, her fingers tracing the complex glyphs engraved into the floor under her feet.The room appeared to shrink, the shadows moving closer, pushing in on her as if the very power she was about to unleash was alive, ready to take form.Eldrin loomed behind her, his presence towering, quiet, but his dark power palpable.She could feel the weight of the deal in her chest, like a big stone lying on her heart. This was no ordinary partnership.What she was going to do would alter everything. Powering this immense came at a price, but she was eager to pay it. No, she needed to pay it. The expense would be worth the outcome. The ritual was set. Eldrin's voice shattered the silence, its tone harsh and low, as if he were speaking through the very air itself. “You are certain, Kalyndria? Once we unleash the magic we summon, th
Chapter 166The acrid smell of dust and ancient power was carried by the wind as it howled down the chilly stone hallways.Alessandro stood in front of the altar, his angular features shadowed by the faint flicker of lighting.With each long, steady breath, he reminded himself of the weight he was carrying—the weight of the sinister ritual he was going to carry out. The only sound to break the stillness in the room was the gentle rustling of his coat on the chilly stone floor.There was a noticeable tension in the air, as if the chamber's walls knew about the evil powers Alessandro was about to unleash. He would transcend tonight. Above all, he would ascend and assert the authority that had escaped him for ages.He could approach the item that had been missing for so long—the Heart of Lunaria. A tingle ran through his veins at the notion. The ceremony was nearly complete,The incantation was the last thing he needed.The ancient relics that rested on the stone altar, each steeped in
Chapter 165Dante stood at the edge of the dark, swirling portal, his heart pounding in his chest. The air around him hummed with the energy of it, an unnatural pull that made his skin crawl.His fingers gripped the hilt of his dagger, the metal cold against his skin. He wasn't sure what haunted him more—the portal's power or the darkness it seemed to call to."You’ve come this far, but are you really ready?" a voice whispered inside his mind, familiar and cruel. "Do you think you can just undo the things you’ve done? Do you think you can really save anyone? Even you?"Dante ignored the voice, clenching his jaw. He knew it wasn’t real, not in the way a person was.It was the darkness that lived inside him, always trying to pull him down, to remind him of the past he couldn’t escape. But he wasn’t going to let it win now.He stepped forward, the ground beneath him trembling. The portal pulsed, a deep, resonating hum filling the air, and he felt it—every inch of it—a hunger that wanted
Chapter 164The air inside the temple was thick with the scent of burning incense and something else—something bitter, electric. Shadows flickered along the stone walls, shifting like living things.Valeria pressed a trembling hand to her temple, feeling the weight of the prophecy humming beneath her skin. It was coming. She could sense its pulsing presence, yearning for a voice.But so could they.Dark figures loomed at the entrance, their presence seething with an energy that made the candles shudder and flicker wildly.The enemy had come for her sight— for the truth woven into her bones. Should they taint her visions, the prophecy would perish irrevocably. Lucia would be lost forever.She could not allow it.Lucia’s voice rang out behind her, sharp with urgency. “Valeria, we have to leave! Now!”Valeria’s lips parted, but no words came. Her vision blurred, splitting into two realities—the present, where her body trembled with exhaustion, and the near future, where blood painted the