While Bishop was hunting down the lead, Hunter and Knight followed a man who was supposed to have died in the very explosion with Luna—but hadn’t.
On the morning of the blast, he had taken an urgent day off. That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
If the masked man had been able to enter the lab so easily, it meant Rex was involved—for the facility was under their tightest security, and yet they still betrayed Luna, who had been working for them for years.
And who could say with certainty that someone from her own team hadn’t been the traitor?No unknown person could have stepped foot in such a highly guarded and confidential zone.
Because of this, the Phantoms divided into separate groups to investigate the matter.
When Hunter and Knight reached the northern island, they were stunned by the level of surveillance.
Guard lines stretched far into the sea, every approach watched by Rex’s elite forces.
The island itself didn’t exist on any map—wiped clean, as if it had never been there.
Only Rex had access to it. The two men couldn’t help but wonder what was being hidden here.
They had tracked the scientist all the way, slipping through surveillance nets and past the traps littered across the island. For them, such things were child’s play.
But when they reached deeper inland, they saw the man escorted away in a tank-like vehicle.
For days, they searched the island, following the faint trail of the armored transport, battling poisonous insects and flowers that seemed to turn the wilderness itself into an enemy.
After nearly a week, they stumbled upon a villa deep within the forest.
Hunter lifted his binoculars and fixed his gaze on the villa hidden deep within the forest.
He had hoped to catch a glimpse of activity inside, but the attempt was futile—the windows were fitted with eclipse glass, a technology designed to block any form of outside surveillance.
Whoever lived here clearly had much to hide. What they could see from the outside was already enough to raise every alarm in their instincts.
The villa was guarded like a fortress—seventy men stationed across the perimeter, each one armed with the latest military-grade machine guns.
These weren’t ordinary guards; their discipline, their stances, the sharpness in their eyes screamed of elite training.
Luna had not only worked with Rex as Dr. Lia in the fields of research and medicine, but she had also been the most formidable dealer of arms and weaponry for Country Y.
To the underworld she was not Luna, not Lia—she was the Devil, feared under the name Hades.
Her influence stretched across continents, her dealings so precise and untouchable that even Rex, with all their power, had never dared to cross her openly.
The true connection between Dr. Lia and Luna remained hidden, buried so deep that not even Rex—the masters of surveillance and control—had uncovered it.
To them, Lia had been a brilliant, invaluable scientist; to the criminal world, Hades was the phantom who could tip the balance of wars with a single shipment.
"If Rex truly had a hand in Boss’s assassination—whether by intent or through a traitor among their ranks—" Knight muttered as they crouched in the shadows of the dense undergrowth, "then they’ve invited a storm they can’t possibly control."
Hunter’s jaw tightened, eyes narrowing on the distant glow of the villa. "A storm?" he said quietly, almost to himself.
"No... when the Devil rises, vengeance follows.
You know her name in the underworld—Hades. She won’t rest until every betrayal is burned into the bones of those who crossed her."
Knight’s throat worked as he swallowed, his gaze flicking uneasily toward the villa. "Then God help them," he whispered, "because she won’t."
Hunter, ever the most active and skilled mercenary when it came to infiltration and spying, chose to breach the villa.
There were too many mysteries wrapped around this place, and someone had to slip inside unseen.
Knight remained hidden on the outskirts, his sharp eyes sweeping the perimeter to ensure no one slipped past.
Hunter moved like a shadow, swift and precise.
With one clean strike, he knocked out an elite guard, stripped him of his uniform, and slid into the disguise without hesitation.
Using the guard’s ID card, he passed through the first layer of security with unnerving ease.
No alarms, no suspicion—only the steady pounding of his heart as he entered the villa, carrying the weight of secrets that could change everything.
He had stationed a pin-sized camera on his button, so small and discreet that no one would have ever noticed it.
Linked with a hidden earpiece, the device connected him directly to Knight outside.
Every corridor Hunter stepped into, every breath he took, was transmitted in real time.
Perched high atop an ancient tree, Knight blended into the canopy with his camouflage.
His sharp eyes flicked between the guards’ patterns on the ground and the live feed from Hunter’s camera.
"Feed’s clear. I’ve got eyes," Knight whispered, his voice low through the earpiece.
"Good. Keep me updated on outside movement," Hunter murmured back, his tone flat, efficient. The faint echo of his boots tapped against polished marble floors.
Knight’s gaze sharpened at the feed. Damn. This was no ordinary villa. Encrypted locks lined the walls. Steel doors.
And the guards—every one of them armed with precision, moving like clockwork.
"You seeing this?" Knight asked, tension tightening his words.
"Yeah," Hunter replied, slipping past a hallway corner, his hand brushing against the hilt of his blade. "This isn’t a safehouse. It’s a fortress."
Knight counted the men patrolling on the screen, his jaw clenching. "Seventy guards outside, God knows how many more inside. Whatever they’re protecting—it’s big. Rex doesn’t want the world to see it."
Hunter’s lips pressed into a thin line as the camera caught the shadow of another steel door ahead, reinforced, guarded by two men with rifles. He lowered his voice. "Then we find out what’s behind that door."
"Careful," Knight warned, his eyes never leaving the feed. "One wrong move, and you won’t be walking back out."
Hunter smirked faintly, more to himself than to his partner. "When have I ever?"