Chapter 4 "What's happening?" Sasha went pale beside me. I understood immediately. It was a trap, layered and calculated from the start. Axel had deliberately leaked the information to Weston and allowed Sasha to overhear it. The entire point was to lure all three parties to this one location so he could call in his father's secret army and wipe us all out in a single sweep. The ruthlessness of it was staggering. He was not just eliminating me and his political rival. He was throwing away the woman who shared his bed without a second thought. There was no time to think.

I grabbed Sasha's hand and ran for the darkness. "Hundred-War Specter!" The C-class wraith materialized in an instant, splitting into three spectral warriors with blades in their hands. They threw themselves at the Augments without hesitation or fear. Still, the Augments were too strong. The Specter held out for less than ten seconds before it was torn to shreds. "Damn it!" I dragged Sasha through the maze of ruins at a dead sprint. The Augments stayed right on us, and every strike they threw was precise and lethal. "Let go of me! I can run on my own!" Sasha struggled against my grip.

She was a C-class ability user herself. "shut up and keep moving!" I snarled. We rounded a corner and Sasha's foot hit something wrong. She let out a sharp cry as the ground gave way beneath her, a camouflaged pit trap, and her entire body pitched forward into the pit. I caught her arm on pure instinct and held on. But the instant I grabbed her, something cold and absolute flickered through her eyes. Her free hand shot to her waist, drew a dagger, and drove it straight at my heart. "I'm sorry, Nico!" Her voice trembled, but her hand did not.

"You have to die so I have a chance to live!" _It was another betrayal. At the edge of life and death, this woman did not hesitate for a single second before choosing to sacrifice me again. Whatever was left in me went cold. The dagger punched into my body, but it did not hit my heart. The instant she moved, I had shifted Shade Child's position inside me, placing the wraith directly over my heart. The blade pierced through the Wraith Armor and through Shade Child's spectral body, but it went no further. (Warning: Wraith "Shade Child" critically damaged.

Entering dormancy.) I let out a strangled grunt and blood spilled from the corner of my mouth. Sasha saw the strike had failed and disbelief flashed across her face. I used the force of her own thrust against her and shoved her hard toward the Augments closing in behind us. "Nico! You b*stard!" She screamed in desperation, but within seconds the Augments swallowed her whole. I did not look back. I poured everything I had left into my legs and vanished into the distant darkness. The cold mechanical voice echoed through my skull. (Extreme betrayal detected. Host resentment intensity surging.

Initiating forced system upgrade.] [System upgraded to LV3. Ultimate function unlocked: Wraith Dominion (host may establish a territorial domain; within the domain, the host is absolute). New wraith tier unlocked: Calamity-class.] I made it back to my hideout. The Wraith Armor slowly knitted my wound shut, but Shade Child's dormancy was like losing a limb. Sasha's betrayal and Axel's trap burned through what was left of my restraint like venom-laced fire. I wanted revenge, and I wanted it now.

The system upgrade had given me power I had never felt before, and I was no longer content to pick them off one at a time. I wanted to give them a spectacle of destruction they would never forget. I made a decision that bordered on insanity. _linfiltrated the quarantine zone on the outer edge of the base, the facility that held thousands of zombies kept alive for experimentation.