Chapter 235
Tricked (2)
IAM had been waiting—patiently—for the exact moment they let their guard down. That was when he would use KASSARA. There was no more need for stealth or pretending. The time for subtlety had passed.
He wasn't at full strength. Far from it. After burning through so much mana, he was exhausted. His chest still ached faintly from the backlash, and his head felt heavy. Engaging them directly, especially in a drawn-out fight, wasn't something he wanted to risk unless absolutely necessary.
So, the plan was simple—take the initiative, hit fast, and end it quickly. If he struck before they even realised he was there, he could tilt the odds heavily in his favor.
That's what KASSARA was for.
He was just using normal bullets—and he wasn't aiming for anything vital. Killing them served no purpose right now. If anything, Thor would probably want them alive for questioning. Interrogation would be far more useful than leaving corpses behind.
That's why he had aimed for Masie, the novice ascender. Even in his current condition, IAM was confident he could handle an ordinary human. But an ascender, even a novice, could become a problem if they had time to react. So he chose to eliminate the biggest variable first.
IAM quickly raised his hand and pulled the trigger, aiming straight at the normal guy—Derren—whose face was frozen in a twisted mess of shock and fear. He couldn't even finish processing what was happening before—
Bang!
The gunshot echoed sharply across the area.
Derren flinched, his entire body tensing. Then he looked down at himself in panic, his hands running over his chest and torso in disbelief. He paused… confused...
Nothing.
He stared at himself for a second. Then another.
IAM had… missed.
A strange silence fell over the scene, it was thick and awkward. Even Derren didn't know how to react.
IAM narrowed his eyes, annoyed, and without wasting another second, fired again.
Bang!
This time, the bullet tore into Derren's shin. It punched through the skin with a wet, meaty crack, instantly sending the man toppling to the ground with a howl. Blood sprayed across the dirt, and his leg twisted awkwardly under him as he clutched it in agony, kicking weakly with the other.
IAM kissed his teeth in exasperation.
Missing on the first shot at such a crucial moment—he couldn't afford mistakes like that. If Derren hadn't been frozen in panic, or if he had shouted or fired back, things could've gone south fast.
He sighed, lowering his arm slightly.
He had a long way to go.
He cautiously made sure both were completely immobilised before approaching.
…
Through the pain, Masie heard the crack of another gunshot. Another bullet fired—and then the heavy sound of Derren collapsing somewhere nearby.
She gritted her teeth hard, the pain in her thigh pulsing with every heartbeat. Her vision blurred for a second, but the sound of approaching footsteps cut through everything.
She turned her head slowly, She had to see who it was. Who had taken down all five of them alone. And when her eyes finally landed on him, they widened in disbelief.
He had caramel-colored skin, faint traces of old acne scattered along his cheeks, but now streaked with sweat and smudged with dirt and blood, his face was twisted in focus.
But it wasn't that which gripped her chest.
It was his eyes.
His sclera were normal, white and untouched. But his pupils...
They weren't just black—they were darkness. A deep, swallowing kind of dark. Not metaphorically—but visibly, deeply wrong. His pupils looked like they pulled at the world, like two gravity wells quietly devouring everything they saw.
Two absolute abysses that stared ahead without emotion, without recognition, without humanity.
She couldn't look away.
A chilling realisation gripped her.
There was a strange absence in those eyes. Like they didn't acknowledge the world around them. Like they were staring through it. Through her. And whatever was on the other side...
It wasn't just that he had beaten them all.
It was that he didn't seem to care.
And those eyes—those pupils—felt like proof that whatever he was, he hadn't come here alone. Something else was looking with him.
As IAM drew closer, Masie began to whisper—barely audible words of mercy slipping through her lips, her face twisted grotesquely in fear.
He didn't say anything. He simply stopped next to her, his gaze was unreadable.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide and trembling… as she watched as he slowly raised his foot.
The bottom of his sole filled her vision—blocking out everything else, turning the sky above into nothing but the dirty tread of a boot.
And then—
It came down.
And everything vanished in flashes of blac k and white.
...
IAM quickly tied them up together, looping the rope tightly and double-checking the knots. Once he was sure they weren't going anywhere, he finally allowed himself to exhale and slumped down beside them, his back leaning against the truck.
To his right, he'd laid out everything he'd seized from their clothes after a quick, rough search—five guns placed side by side, two hidden knives, a small plastic canister of lighter fluid, and an old, scratched metal lighter. Each item sat neatly on the ground, a silent reminder of how real the danger had been.
There was nothing more for him to do now.
He could only sit. And wait.
Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long.
All of them were government-issue sedans—long, wide-bodied, and boxy in design. Their surfaces were clean but unmarked, painted in a standard dull grey with no visible logos or emblems to identify them. The windows were heavily tinted, making it impossible to see inside.
Their tyres rolled slowly over the gravel, crunching gently as they came to a controlled stop. Each vehicle parked spaced evenly apart in a neat arc, all facing toward the warehouse.
Though they looked ordinary at first glance, their reinforced frames, antenna fixtures, and side-mounted mirrors made it obvious they weren't commercial vehicles. These were the kind of sedans used for security—standard issue for response teams or units not meant to draw attention.
The engine of the front-most car shut off. A moment later, the door opened.
Thor had arrived.