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Chapter 178
+25 BONUS
Chapter 178
Two of Lydia’s soldiers lunged at Alex in a synchronized move, each trying to knock him off balance with a “forceful kick aimed at his knee.
The blows landed, but Alex didn’t budge an inch.
It felt, to them, like their legs had just collided with a slab of solid iron.
One soldier let out a strangled cry as he crumpled to the ground, clutching his shattered shin.
The other toppled over next to him, howling in agony.
“Y–you monster!” another soldier snarled, leveling his weapon at Alex’s head.
Several more followed suit, forming a ring of gun barrels pointed straight at him.
Suddenly, one of the men who’d been aiming at Alex turned his rifle away from its target.
Without warning, he pulled the trigger–twice–blowing the heads off two of his own comrades in a grisly, explosive spray.
“What the hell just happened?” someone shouted, horror–stricken.
“I–I don’t know!” cried the shooter, eyes wide with panic. “My hand… it moved on its own!”
“Drop that damn gun!” barked another soldier, voice trembling.
The moment the shooter tossed his rifle aside, he yanked a hunting knife from his belt and lunged at the nearest comrade, stabbing viciously.
“Stop!” the comrades yelled.
One soldier fired his pistol in desperation, the bullet ripping through the assailant’s chest.
The attacker collapsed, but in a grotesque twist, his body kept moving–like a mindless puppet–driving the blade deeper into the soldier he’d tackled.
“Shoot him again!” someone else screamed, voice shrill with terror. “He’s not going down!”
Several rifles went off at once. Bullets tore into the attackers torso until he finally slumped over, lifeless.
While the soldiers reeled from this nightmarish scene, Alex stood with a faint, chilling smile curving at the corner
of his mouth.
Unbeknownst to them, he held complete control over everyone within fifty meters with his internal energy–like an unseen puppeteer tugging at strings.
In the midst of the carnage, Lydia, the head of security for the Kingston family, stared at the killing with shock etched across her features.
She’d never seen anything like this before.
Her entire squad–trusted, trained soldiers–were turning on each other, and most had been slaughtered in more
moments.
A solitary soldier–turned–puppet, riddled with bullets but still twitching, staggered in front of Lydia.
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Half its head was blown off, yet it charged forward with a blade raised.
“Back off!” Lydia shouted, emptying her entire magazine to the ghastly figure.
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Ten bullets tore through what little remained of its skull. I stumbled, yet somehow kept going, letting out at guttural groan as it thrust the blade at her.
“You bastard!” Lydia roared, finally drawing the gleaming word strapped to her waist.
A single, lightning–fast slash severed the puppet’s arms; another cut took both legs at the knees.
The corpse collapsed in a broken heap, quivering one last time before going still.
Lydia stood panting, surrounded by the fallen.
Her own people–her squad, once the pride of the Kingston family–lay dead. Her chest rose and fell with ragged breaths, fury blazing in her eyes.
“You have to die,” she snarled at Alex.
Lydia rushed him, sword raised high.
With a calm expression, Alex sidestepped her blade at the last second and slammed his fist into her abdomen
The force sent Lydia hurtling backward until she crashed into a tree trunk with a sickening thud.
Despite her cracked ribs and the agony coursing through her body, Lydia refused to submit. She tried to stand, only to have Alex blur forward and clamp a hand around her throat, lifting her clean off the ground.
Lydia choked, feet dangling uselessly. She could feel her life slipping away as her lungs burned for air.
“Alex, stop! Please, let her go–she’s my family!” Jasmine Kingston cried, voice stricken with desperation.
Kelly, her face ashen, echoed the plea. “If you kill Lydia, there’ll be hell to pay! The Winston family doesn’t let things like this slide!”
But Lydia just managed a contemptuous glare. “Go on, do it,” she rasped, spitting blood. “But you’ll die too. The entire Winston family will hunt you down.”
“Really?” Alex said, his voice low and mocking. “So you think you can try to kill me, but I’m not allowed to kill you?”
“You’re committing suicide if you murder me!” she hissed, clinging to the last vestiges of her pride.
Alex’s lips curled in a cold smile. “Then let’s find out.”
He tightened his grip. Lydia’s eyes bulged, her struggles weakening.
A moment later, her neck gave a sickening crack. Her body went limp, then dropped in a boneless heap onto the ground.
Silence.
Every surviving guard seemed rooted in place, jaws slack, minds barely processing the horror of Lydia’s death.
“Holy… Lydia… He really killed her!” one guard finally gasped, eyes wide as if he’d seen a demon.
“You’re insane!” another guard shouted at Alex. “You’ve no idea what you’ve done!”
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Chapter 178
+25 BONUS
Alex rolled his shoulders, as if shaking off an inconvenience “She went straight for my throat. If I’d let her kill
that’d be real stupidity I don’t do that.”
me
“You-“The guard’s voice faltered, unable to formulate a reply.
Alex turned toward Jasmine, ignoring the furious stares. “Jasmine, I take it you’re not surprised your mother’s family made a move like this. Care to explain?”
Jasmine exchanged a look with Kelly, then let out a weary sigh.
“My mother’s from Detroit, part of the Winston family—well–known for their weapons manufacturing and security contracts. They never liked my father because he refused to give them a stake in Vancouver State. They’ve held a grudge ever since.”
“Ironically, despite their resentment, my father still hires them to handle security and supply the guards–after all, they’re the best in the country.”
She drew in a breath and squared her shoulders, trying to maintain her composure.
“Charles–my brother–must have promised them something. Maybe Jericho Kane is also pulling strings. I suspect Lydia was a mole, feeding them our travel route and coordinating this ambush.”
Kelly’s eyes flickered with realization. “That’s why she started barking orders the second she arrived… She was never here to protect us; she was setting a trap.”
“But how could she betray the Kingstons?” another guard burst out, shock still evident in her voice. “She was our head of security!”
Jasmine’s lips tightened into a thin line. “Money. Power. People do awful things for both.”
She shivered at the thought of what might have happened if Alex hadn’t been so formidable.
“We have to warn my father. If Lydia was compromised, there could be others. A snake inside the house is deadlier than a lion outside.. One leak, one betrayal, and the entire Kingston family could crumble from within.”
Kelly looked unsettled, glancing at the wreckage of bodies on the ground. “So what’s our move?”
Jasmine inhaled shakily, swallowing the dread tightening her throat.
“We head back. We tell my father everything. He must know that my mother’s family is now aiding Charles.”
“And Jericho Kane isn’t a fool–he’ll keep stoking the fire of our internal conflict until we tear ourselves apart. Then, when there’s nothing left but ruins, he’ll swoop in and claim it all.”
“His greatest victory will be making us destroy ourselves.”
Chapter 179
