Before them, a massive throne of black stone materialized, covered with skulls of unknown creatures and bones all around it.
Its height was thrice that of a man, and its shadow swallowed the ground before it.
Seated on it was Ryan. Legs crossed, his eyes glowed a hellish red.
Era Eyes.
He gave a dark smile, one hand half-covering his face while it rested on the armrest supporting his head. He lowered it, and the sight of him froze the Peacemakers in dread.
"Megan," Ryan's voice echoed through the air. "I was wondering when you'd show up."
Her stomach dropped. "No… Impossible."
She recognized him, Cole Ryan. Not by his face, but by the aura he carried, a feeling that pulled her memories backward.
The world knew his name. Criminal organizations whispered it in terror. Cole Ryan was the man who had destroyed forty-nine hidden syndicates in eight years, wiping out over two hundred thousand lives. To some, he was a monster; to others, a necessary evil.
She smiled as she looked at Cole Ryan, who seemed to be wearing a new identity. They had crossed paths once before, and it hadn't been a friendly meeting.
She had worked with many criminal organizations in the past, but she always tried to stay away from Cole Ryan, the man who killed criminals as if it were nothing but sport. Still, her team wasn't so lucky.
They were wiped out completely, and she had been forced to watch. By some miracle, she managed to escape. Even crazier, she had escaped from Cole Ryan five different times, each one bringing her a step closer to death.
"You've built yourself quite a reputation," Megan spat, trying to mask her fear. "But we're not afraid of you."
Ryan pressed the tips of his fingers together just in front of his mouth, his eyes locked on Megan.
"When power meets purpose, things change," Ryan replied coldly. "The elimination of those who twist and manipulate this world to serve their ends, that's the change I'm talking about. Now, what is your little group planning?"
He snapped his fingers, the sound echoing unnaturally across the barren world.
Megan laughed, her tone sharp with defiance.
"You think we'll tell you? Do your worst. We don't betray our leader."
Ryan's eyes narrowed, and his voice rolled like thunder. The two Peacemakers beside her collapsed under the crushing weight of his aura.
In an instant, Ryan blurred forward, materializing before her in a burst of red light. Her eyes couldn't process what just happened. His red reptilian aura was already eating her from within.
"Brace yourself," he said flatly. "This is going to hurt."
His fingers pressed against her temples. Megan screamed as her mind unraveled, memories peeling back like layers of paper. Ryan sifted through them, his consciousness weaving into her mental landscape. All he had to do was just watch, searching through her lifetime imagery.
He narrowed his vision when he realized he was getting there, her initiation as a Peacemaker was his target. But suddenly, a foreign force intervened.
A hand tore through the fabric of her memories, dragging him into another reality.
"What is this?" Ryan muttered, his surroundings foggy and unstable. All that was in sight were leafless trees taking weird shapes. It wasn't his Construct Reality. This was something else, brain engineering. A trap designed to kill intruders.
"An illusion trap meant to kill its victim. Clever," he thought, decoding the trick.
He moved his head, noticing something close to his feet.
Then he saw them, bodies scattered across the ground. Not strangers. People he had once called family. Faces he had tried to forget.
"No…" Ryan staggered back, holding his head as tears rolled down his cheeks. "This isn't real."
"Tears?"
He didn't realize when they came out. He hadn't seen them in a while. It felt strange.
He clenched his fists. "No. This is a trap."
An invisible force began pulling him upward. He resisted, using his powers. He pulled his sword from behind him and drove it deep into the ground, pinning himself in place as a strand of red energy stretched from his body to the blade.
He pulled himself downward and sank through the ground like a thick liquid. He fell into a dark space of nothingness until it hurled him back into his body. He gasped, snapping awake, drenched in sweat.
It felt like his soul had nearly left him.
Megan lay before him, pale and shaking.
"What… what did you do to me?" she whispered.
Ryan's expression hardened. This was serious. If it were any other person, their consciousness would be locked inside Megan's mind. That meant whoever led them was far beyond his league.
Brain engineering illusions on this scale… only the highest-level Izigans could pull that off.
Frustration burned through him. He had nothing, no answers, no leads. Only a waste of effort.
"You can't stop us," Megan managed, a defiant laugh breaking her trembling voice. "We'll never betray our leader."
Ryan noticed then: the two other Peacemakers were dead still, eyes glazed. A kill switch. Their leader had erased them before they could be exposed.
This made things even more frustrating.
In the end, nothing.
Outside, reality snapped back. The bank appeared normal again, civilians stumbling out as if waking from a dream. They ran out until the bank was nearly empty. Sirens wailed as the SPU team swarmed in black tech suits, collecting the unconscious Peacemakers.
"They're alive," one confirmed.
But Ryan was gone.
"Ryan," Stella's voice crackled through his wrist device. "You went off-script again."
From the rooftop of a distant skyscraper, Ryan smiled faintly, then stared down at the city, the sun nearly going down, approaching the horizon.
"Great job, though," Terry's voice followed. "Thanks to you, the Peacemakers are in custody."
"What's next?" Terry asked.
Ryan's eyes lifted toward the horizon. His voice was calm, steady, breathing softly.
"I'll handle whatever comes. This is only the beginning."