In the days that followed, Ethan Voss's plans advanced smoothly on every front.
The acquisition of Hammer Industries was already more than halfway complete. The strategy he designed had worked perfectly from the beginning. Through a carefully coordinated legal attack, the New York City government filed a massive lawsuit against Justin Hammer.
The city demanded that Hammer personally compensate New York for the enormous destruction caused during the recent crisis.
On the same day the lawsuit was announced, Ethan quietly removed a massive amount of weapons and equipment from Hammer Industries' storage facilities. When investigators began the official asset liquidation process, they quickly discovered that enormous quantities of military-grade weapons had vanished.
The discovery created an immediate scandal.
Justin Hammer was suddenly accused of smuggling illegal weapons on a massive scale. The charges escalated so rapidly that prosecutors nearly added treason to the list of crimes.
Under the crushing weight of these accusations, Justin Hammer completely collapsed. Temporarily imprisoned in Nahaide Prison while awaiting trial, he eventually lost his sanity altogether.
Meanwhile, Hammer Industries' stock price crashed repeatedly. Investors panicked, and the company's value plummeted dramatically.
At that critical moment, the New York City government stepped in again.
Officials announced a new policy that linked Hammer Industries' acquisition rights directly to Justin Hammer's compensation obligations.
In simple terms, anyone who wanted to purchase Hammer Industries would also have to assume responsibility for compensating New York City.
The number attached to that responsibility was staggering.
Eight billion dollars.
The announcement frightened away nearly every potential buyer.
Few companies were willing to take on such an enormous financial burden just to acquire a struggling weapons manufacturer. One by one, competitors quietly withdrew from the bidding.
At this stage, Ethan had almost no rivals left.
Combined with the groundwork he had already laid, the acquisition of Hammer Industries was essentially guaranteed.
The next step involved negotiating with the city government regarding the compensation amount.
Eight billion was obviously impossible. Even eight hundred million would likely be rejected.
Fortunately, this stage had already been discussed privately with Mayor George. The two sides agreed to deliberately drag out the negotiations for several days.
The purpose was simple.
Create the illusion that talks had completely broken down.
Then the next step would begin.
Stark Industries would be pulled directly into the conflict.
After all, the disaster started with them.
What kind of logic was it to ignite a fire and then walk away while someone else cleaned up the ashes?
Not a chance.
Eventually even the U.S. government was dragged into the argument. Lawsuits accused federal agencies of negligent oversight.
How had Ivan Vanko managed to travel from Monaco to New York without detection?
Why did intelligence agencies fail to discover his attack plans earlier?
Why had the government failed to prevent the disaster?
In a country famous for its endless public debates and criticism, the blame quickly spread in every direction.
Once politicians, corporations, lawyers, and media outlets all began arguing and shifting responsibility, the final compensation numbers could easily rise far beyond what the public originally expected.
In the end, the real cost always landed on a small group of people.
Most citizens didn't feel the consequences until the stick actually fell on their own backs.
While the Hammer Industries acquisition progressed smoothly, Ethan's underground empire plan was also moving forward rapidly.
Over the next several days, more than a dozen imprisoned gang leaders gradually left Nahaide Prison.
Some used legal loopholes.
Others used methods that were far less legitimate.
To ensure safety, each of those leaders traveled with several trusted assistants. These assistants had also been quietly brainwashed by Ethan earlier.
In addition, Ethan had granted some of them extremely useful abilities.
The enhanced soldier serum was obviously too valuable to distribute freely, but his divine kingdom now contained a large number of mutant powers that could be replicated and reassigned.
Many of those abilities were perfectly suited for criminal leadership.
After receiving their assignments, the gang leaders packed their belongings and left New York.
They traveled toward distant cities that represented new opportunities.
Boston.
Philadelphia.
Washington.
San Francisco.
Los Angeles.
Every one of them carried Ethan's secret support and resources.
As for New York itself, Ethan intentionally left the city without a single organized crime boss.
The number of superheroes operating in the city was simply too overwhelming. Without the protection of protagonist-level luck, gangsters had almost no chance of survival there.
Each crime boss was a valuable asset.
And valuable assets needed to be used carefully.
At the same time, Ethan renewed his law enforcement cooperation contract with the New York City government. The recent surge in public safety had become undeniable proof of his effectiveness.
A safer New York strengthened his reputation even further.
On this particular afternoon, Ethan was handling company documents in his office when someone knocked on the door.
"Come in."
The door opened immediately.
Natasha Romanoff stepped inside, her pace unusually hurried.
"Boss," she said quickly, "we just received a message from Blade. It looks like he has discovered the location of the vampire headquarters."
She paused briefly before adding the most important detail.
"And after sending the message… he went there alone."
Ethan looked up from his desk.
"Do we have the address?"
"Yes," Natasha answered immediately.
…
As dusk settled across the city, a silver-white motorcycle roared down a long empty road.
Blade leaned forward over the handlebars as the machine thundered forward at full speed.
His mind burned with fury.
Not long ago, his closest ally and mentor, Whistler, had been killed by Deacon Frost. Frost had recently seized power and become the new leader of the New York Vampire Council.
The vampire leader even sent Blade a direct message afterward.
It contained a simple address.
An invitation.
A challenge.
A trap.
Blade knew it.
But he still came.
At this moment, he wanted only one thing.
To storm into that building and kill every vampire inside.
A faint thought flickered in the back of his mind.
If he had accepted that young man's offer earlier… perhaps things would be different today.
The motorcycle finally stopped outside a tall structure.
Edgewood Building.
After killing the former council leader, Frost had taken control of the entire vampire organization in New York. This building had become their new headquarters.
Inside, Frost had gathered a large number of vampires along with armed human mercenaries.
Tonight's objective was simple.
Capture Blade once and for all.
Outside the building, mercenaries patrolled the perimeter.
They barely had time to react when they heard the distant roar of a motorcycle engine.
Then the glass entrance doors exploded inward.
The silver motorcycle smashed directly into the lobby, crashing through the mercenaries stationed there.
Gunfire erupted instantly.
Before the guards could respond, several of them collapsed under a barrage of bullets.
Blood splattered across the floor.
Blade immediately realized that the people he had just killed were human rather than vampires. Their bodies did not dissolve into ash.
He did not hesitate.
Anyone who willingly served vampires—creatures that fed on human blood—had already betrayed their own kind.
After emptying his submachine gun, Blade switched to a shotgun.
With his extraordinary reflexes and combat speed, even heavily armed mercenaries were easy targets.
Soon the vampire elite forces arrived.
Yet even they struggled against his relentless attacks. One after another, the vampires burned into ash beneath his silver weapons.
Blade fought his way through the building until he reached the end of a long corridor.
At that point, no one dared to stand in his path.
The corridor ended at a single white room.
The interior was strangely simple.
A massive coffin-shaped bed stood in the center of the room. Beside it sat a small table with a laptop computer.
On the screen was a complex three-dimensional map of an underground structure.
Blade frowned as he studied it.
At that moment, the silver coffin slowly opened.
Inside lay a black woman dressed entirely in white.
When Blade saw her face clearly, a cold chill ran down his spine.
"…Mom."
The woman inside the coffin was someone who should have been dead for decades.
His mother.
When she was pregnant with him, she had been bitten by a vampire. After giving birth to him, she supposedly died.
That strange circumstance had created the Daywalker.
Half vampire.
Half human.
Yet here she was.
Alive.
And inside the vampire headquarters he had come to destroy.
"Eric?" the woman said softly, recognizing him immediately.
Blade removed his sunglasses slowly, staring at her in disbelief.
"You were supposed to die a long time ago."
"I came back, Eric," the woman replied calmly.
She lifted her arms slightly as she spoke.
"That night… Frost saved me."
Blade stood frozen.
So all these years…
His mother had been alive.
She looked exactly the same as she had decades earlier.
A vampire hunter whose own mother had become a vampire.
The revelation shook him so badly that he failed to hear the quiet footsteps approaching behind him.
By the time he sensed the danger, it was already too late.
A powerful electric current surged through his entire body.
His muscles locked instantly, forcing him down to his knees.
He collapsed directly in front of his mother.
Before the paralysis faded, several more high-voltage stun devices were pressed against his body.
The repeated electric shocks made him convulse violently.
Behind him, Deacon Frost stepped forward.
He wrapped an arm around Blade's mother and kissed her gently.
Then he looked down at Blade with a cruel smile.
"I thought you would be happy."
"After all these years, you've finally reunited with your mother."
He tilted his head mockingly.
"So why aren't you smiling?"
"Don't you like to smile?"
Blade could barely breathe from the pain. His voice refused to come out, but his eyes remained fixed on his mother.
Slowly, he raised his arm toward her.
He waited.
He hoped.
But his mother only shook her head slightly.
The last of Blade's strength disappeared.
Darkness swallowed his vision.
And he collapsed onto the floor like a lifeless body.
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/InfinityWeaver
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon