Cealen's pov
One week later,
Things had gone back to "normal" or whatever normal looked like when your life revolved around blood, contracts, and people who only called you when they wanted someone erased from existence.
Cealan stood in the center of his mansion, shirtless, the morning light slicing through the tall windows and carving golden lines across his skin. The tattoos on his back thick black strokes curling like serpents around his spine down to his torsos disappearing into his joggers,made him look like he was being embraced by something ancient, dangerous, and alive. People always stared. Some in fear. Some in awe. He didn't care either way.
His phone was tucked between his shoulder and ear as he lazily scrolled through blueprints on a tablet.
"Your boy made a mess," Cealan said, voice smooth like poison honey. "Not my problem… unless you're paying."
The man on the other end stuttered, desperate.
"I'll pay whatever the price is just clean it up."
A slow smirk curved Cealan's lips.
People always caved.
"My price is eight figures," he said, tapping the screen. "Non-negotiable."
There was a heartbeat of silence, then, "Done."
"Good." Cealan hung up without a goodbye.
He tossed the phone onto the bed, stretching his arms above his head. Muscles flexed, tattoos shifting with the movement. His mornings were always like this contracts, killings, money. Easy things. Predictable things. Things he understood. He'd take jobs from huge business men who wanted someone or something out of their way and they always ran to him.
But this week?
This week had been different.
Because for the last seven days, he and Lucas had been planning something that made even him feel a spark of excitement.
To bring down Darian's entire empire in one night.
Not scare him.Not warn him.Dismantle him. Piece by piece. Bone by bone.
Cealan loved this kind of work. He loved the precision like a surgeon, he wasn't a psychopath that killed for fun or anything neither was he a masochist but maybe he was getting to that stage but he loved the chaos like a god of destruction with a sense of humor.
And most of all, he loved having a partner who could keep up with him. Lucas was sharp. Calculated. Cruel in a clean way.
Their ideas matched so perfectly it was almost artistic.
He padded into his room, picking up his rings, sliding them onto his fingers each one heavy, metal glinting. Tools, not fashion. A punch with these could crack a jaw like glass.
He checked the time.Lucas would be waiting for the final confirmation later tonight.
And then? The real fun begins.
Cealan ran a hand through his hair,chuckling low to himself.He couldn't lie, though…
There was one thing he'd been thinking about all week.
One person.
A certain bratty, stubborn, easily-flustered boy whose voice shook whenever he lied.
Princess.
Cealan smirked. Yeah. Tonight was going to be perfect.
LUCAS' POV
Things had slipped back into routine on his end too. Meetings. Documents. Business calls. The usual rhythm that kept him looking like the stable, untouchable CEO the world expected.
He sat in his office, fingers tapping lightly against the desk, eyes scanning the latest reports. But his mind kept drifting back to earlier that week.
-FLASHBACK-
He had driven Neo and Pia home after making sure they were both cleared.
The moment they walked toward the porch, the door opened and their mother rushed out eyes wide, clearly anxious.
But then she saw him.
For a second, she genuinely froze, hand slightly covering her mouth.
"Mr.Luther?"
Her voice whispered like she didn't trust her own eyes. "You...Neo works for you?"
Neo felt his soul drop through the floor.
Pia didn't breathe.
Lucas simply offered a polite nod.
"Good evening, ma'am."
She blinked rapidly, clearly trying to recover her composure.
"I… I had no idea Neo didn't inform me you were the one bringing them home. You must have had more important things to attend to. He should've told me-"
Lucas raised a hand gently, stopping her.
His tone was measured. Soft. Almost warm.
"Please don't worry. Neo was needed and I happened to be with him. Ensuring my employees' safety is part of my job."
Neo and Pia were stunned.
Lucas had never sounded that calm.
That patient. That… human?
Their mother exhaled in relief, still a little overwhelmed by the idea that a man constantly on international broadcasts and business panels was standing at her doorstep looking almost humble.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "Truly."
Lucas gave a small nod, eyes flicking briefly to Neo.
"Take good care of him. I'll check in later."
And with that, he left-
Neo and Pia watching him go as if the universe had just glitched.
-FLASHBACK ENDS-
Lucas blinked and refocused on the present as one of his managers stepped into the office.
"The numbers for last quarter-"
"Email me the corrected projections," Lucas said without looking up. "I'll review them tonight." "Yes, sir."
The door closed, leaving Lucas alone again.
His gaze shifted to the blueprint glowing on his tablet the one Cealan had sent.
The final version.Darian's estate layout.
Security patterns.Underground routes.
Guard rotations.Blind spots.Vehicle movements.Every. Single. Detail.
Cealan wasn't just prepared.He was obsessively thorough.
And Lucas wasn't used to feeling this level of anticipation.
He hadn't told Kellan.He hadn't told the family. He hadn't told anyone.
For once, he wanted to walk into the fire alone.With someone just as dangerous beside him, Someone he couldn't fully predict. Someone who annoyed him endlessly.
Because all week long, Cealan had slipped Ethan into every single strategy call.
"Your little brother kicks in his sleep."
"Ethan would faint if he saw this."
"He's cute when he tries to act scary." "Don't worry. I like him."
Lucas nearly crushed his pen three times.
But he didn't complain.He needed Cealan.
And Cealan needed him.
They were waiting for one final confirmation.
Once Cealan said "Go"…Darian's empire would collapse before sunrise.
Lucas picked up his phone, eyes cold and steady.
Tonight… blood would rewrite the balance of power.
The rest of the day dragged itself through endless meetings, signatures, firm nods, sharp decisions the kind of responsibilities that made him look composed on the outside while his mind was already miles away planning murder.
By the time the board dismissed themselves, the sun was long gone.
Kellan pulled up with the car exactly at the same moment Lucas stepped outside.
Perfect timing, because Kellan was always perfect at everything except minding his business.
They talked on the drive home straight business, clean, controlled.
Lucas kept his voice steady, breathing even, face unreadable. He had learned how to hide storms since he was a child, but Kellan was different.Kellan saw through people.
"One of our clients needs something cleared out," Lucas said, tone level. "I won't be back till tomorrow morning."
Kellan's eyes slid to him for a second. Silent. Sharp.Lucas didn't blink. Finally, Kellan nodded.
"Fine. Just keep your location on," he said. "And if anything goes south… call me before you bleed out." Lucas almost smiled. Almost.
"I will."
When they pulled into the estate, Kellan headed toward his wing without another word.
Lucas watched him disappear around the corner before turning toward his own hallway. He stepped into his room, locked the door behind him… and the mask dropped instantly.
He exhaled a breath that was half a laugh, half a thrill bubbling in his chest.
He didn't expect to feel this alive.
Lucas went to his closet and brought out the outfit he'd prepared for this particular event, then he moved deeper than the clothes, deeper than the suits. He knelt, lifted the old silver brooch under his shoe rack, and pressed it.The scanner lit up,Cold blue, Silent,Waiting,He placed his thumb.
CLICK.
A section of the wall cracked open,He stepped through.
The room inside was a cathedral of violence.
Guns lined the walls in precise rows,Blades.
Smoke charges,Explosives,Custom-made ammunition.
Shelves of different currencies stacked like trophies.A glass case filled with every type of credit card known to man wealth in physical form.
Lucas didn't even look overwhelmed.He belonged here,he moved straight toward the weapons table and picked the ones he trusted with his life. The SIG Sauer P320 XCarry Legion his favorite for close-quaters violence.The Heckler & Koch MP7 compact, silent, deadly.And a matte black KA-BAR combat knife, the one he sharpened by hand
He strapped everything on with practiced ease, adding grenades, smoke bombs, a thermal disruptor device Cealan insisted he bring, and a small silver blade tucked into his boot his father's favorite.
As he finished adjusting the last holster, his phone buzzed.
One message.
No other than one person he'd been expecting.
"They burn."
Lucas smiled, really smiled.The kind that reached his eyes and sharpened them at the same time. "Showtime," he whispered.
Darkness welcomed him as he stepped out and headed for the garage silently and drove off.
CEALAN POV
He was no different.
In his own mansion far more chaotic than Lucas', dim lights, bare floors, glass tables, knives laying around like decoration.Cealan moved like a man dancing through routine.
The first thing he packed was his set of favored blades curved, serrated, silver-edged, each one infamous in underground circles.Then his all time favorite the torture kit, he'd used this in most of his works,
Leather straps.A bone saw. Three syringes of something that definitely wasn't legal.
A branding tool.A shock baton.
Then his weapons
Two Glock 19s, A customized CZ Scorpion EVO 3. Then his silver knife the one Ethan didn't know he carved from scratch.
He slid on his black leather gloves, the ones that never left prints, then placed a spare pair into his bag. "For Lucas," he hummed. "Wouldn't want his pretty fingers on the crime scene."
His computer went next sleek, powerful, stacked with illegal hacking software.He typed fast, opening the security backdoor he'd implanted in Darian's system long before contacting Lucas. Tonight, he'd blind every camera, Scramble every sensor. Make the guards see ghosts and make the alarms fall asleep.
Clean. Quiet.Ghost-level infiltration.
He zipped his bag shut and stood in front of the mirror.
A small smile tugged at his lips.
"Let's go ruin a man's legacy," he whispered to himself.He grabbed his keys.
One last message sent to Lucas
"Ready?"
Cealan arrived first.
Deep in the woods that lead to their target's mansion, the night was thick and silent, the wind barely brushing the leaves. He leaned against a blacked-out SUV like this was a casual Friday link-up, not a planned annihilation of a man's entire bloodline.
Lucas' headlights cut through the trees.
Cealan smirked.
As soon as Lucas stepped out,
"Show me" cealen demanded.
"HK MP7, custom silenced," Lucas said, unzipping a case and revealing the matte-black beauty.
Cealan whistled. "Nice."
He unsheathed two long, matte combat knives balanced, razor-clean, nothing flashy, just pure efficiency.
Lucas' eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas.
"No fingerprints?"
"Please," Cealan scoffed. "I'm insulted."
They crouched beside the hood of the car, going through the plan again floor layouts, guard rotations, escape routes, Darian's location.Every detail flowed smoothly.
They clicked frighteningly well. "Ready?" Lucas asked.
Cealan grinned. "Born ready."
Lucas drove them as he knew the routes better while Cealan navigated.
They parked under a massive tree near the estate Cealan threw a cloak over the car, the fabric blending seamlessly with the darkness.
From that moment, their bodies switched into ghost mode.Not a sound.Not a crack of a twig.Not even the crunch of gravel.
You'd swear their feet weren't touching the ground.
Cealan tapped a small device. All the mansion's cameras flickered once.
"Security system's blind," he whispered.
"No one sees anything tonight." Lucas murmured, "Perfect."
They reached the west wall where two guards stood patrol.
Pop. Pop.
Two suppressed bullets. Two bodies down. No sound, no chaos.
Lucas and Cealan didn't even pause they stepped over the bodies like shadows.
Inside the mansion grounds, guards fell one by one without any sound. A hand around a throat, a knife through a vest seam, a silenced shot between the ribs. Efficient.
Clinical. Fast.
Their outfits were already sprayed with dark stains, but neither acknowledged it, they were too deep in the rhythm of violence.
Once Cealan hacked the interior grid, the remaining guards walked blind, unaware death was sliding silently behind them.
Lucas ducked behind a pillar, aimed, fired
three headshots so clean Cealan whispered, "Show-off."
"You're slower tonight," Lucas shot back while reloading, Cealan laughed actually laughed as he snapped a guard's arm and used the momentum to flip him into the wall.
"You love this," Lucas said. "I live for this," Cealan answered.
They moved through the hall like a two-man storm.Every room they slipped into went quiet within seconds.Kitchen staff tried to run.Security tried to call for help.
The control room tried to reboot the cameras.All useless.Silent bullets went flying here and there in Precision strikes.
Bodies dropping before they even understood what was happening, before long, half the mansion's manpower was gone.
They had moved according to plan killing every guard according to the their schedule and all now it was time to face one person before Darian himself. His right hand man who was already in stance.
Cealan insisted.
"This one's mine."
Lucas found a chair and sat, calm as ice.
The right-hand man charged first, massive, trained, dangerous.
The kind of man you'd expect to survive a war.
He didn't survive Cealan.The fight was brutal, bone-crunching, loud enough to shake the chandeliers. Cealan fought like someone who enjoyed the struggle, dodging, striking, dragging the man across the floor, throwing him into shelves, breaking his stance, breaking his confidence.
The guy got a hit in, a sharp slice across Cealan's arm.
"He SCRATCHED you?" Lucas said, almost offended.
Cealan didn't answer he just took the man down harder, faster, leaving him sprawled and unmoving on the tile.
Cealan's breathing was rough as he stood over the fallen body. Lucas raised a brow.
"You look horrible." "I know," Cealan hissed. "The idiot gave me a scratch."
Lucas leaned back in the chair, legs crossed.
"So he needed to meet his maker?"
"Oh, he's dining with them now," Cealan said, wiping his gloves. "Open hall near the pool, yeah?" "According to plan." Cealan smirked.
"According to plan."
With the right-hand man down, the final sweep began.
Every door,Every hallway,Every room.
Silently.Dark.Efficient.
By the time they were done, the mansion wasn't a home, it was a hollow echo chamber with no living soul left to guard it.
Lucas checked his watch.Cealan cracked his neck.They looked at each other.
two devils who had successfully burned down an empire in one night. And they weren't even tired.
Darian sat at the long marble dining table, laughing with his wife and his little girl a bright, tiny person in a yellow dress, hair tied with ribbons. The air was warm, domestic, clueless.
He didn't know his entire empire was already dead.He didn't know the two men who murdered it were already inside. He didn't know he had one hour left to be a husband.
His daughter was bored though. She hopped off her chair and skipped away from the table, little hands dragging her toy along the hallway.
And that's how she found them.
They were checking the east wing doors, whispering final notes on the plan.
Then the door creaked.A tiny head peeked in. Lucas immediately crouched, softening his eyes in a way that was honestly terrifying like a lion pretending to be a teddy bear.
"Hey, sweetheart," he whispered. "Do you know me? I'm one of your uncles."
The girl blinked.Her toy dragged the floor.
She didn't scream.
She just stared with big innocent eyes.
Then her mother appeared in the doorway, worried after looking for her.
She froze.
Her lips parted ready to scream. But Cealan was quick he stepped behind her so smoothly she didn't even feel the movement.
He pressed a finger to his lips.
"Shhh."NHer breath hitched.
He leaned close, voice calm, quiet, deadly honest.
"Take your child. Go now. Get the fastest flight out of the country."
Her eyes widened, trembling.
"In one hour," Cealan whispered, "you'll be a widow."
She didn't ask questions.She didn't grab belongings. She just scooped up her daughter and walked away as silently as a ghost.
Lucas' face softened for a second unusual for him, then snapped back into that cold excitement.
"Let's finish this."
Back in the dining room, Darian suddenly paused mid-sentence, Something felt wrong.Too wrong.
His instincts screamed.
He stood up so fast his chair toppled.
Without a word to anyone, he sprinted down the hall straight to the basement.
He didn't check if his wife and daughter were behind him.He didn't care.
He just ran for the one safe room he had left.
Lucas and Cealan walked slowly through the mansion again only this time, the silence wasn't peaceful. It was mocking.
Cealan clicked his tongue.
"A whole grown man. Hiding?"
Lucas snorted. "Embarrassing."
"He didn't even try to attack," Cealan continued. "Just ran like a scared rabbit."
Lucas tilted his head, scanning a hallway.
"He's desperate. That makes him sloppy."
Then,a sound.Barely audible.
The smallest scrape of a shoe on a cement floor. Cealan smirked.
"Basement." Lucas nodded.
"Lead the way."
And that's exactly what they did.
They moved down the metallic stairs.Lucas ahead, Cealan behind, synchronized like a two-man army.
As soon as Lucas touched the last step
RATATATATATATA—
Bullets tore through the dark like fireworks.
Sparks hit the wall. Dust exploded off concrete.
Lucas didn't even flinch. He ducked behind a pillar, rolled to the side, aimed
BANG.
One clean silenced shot, The guard dropped like a puppet with cut strings. Lucas clicked his tongue.
"Shooting like a blind person."
Cealan laughed actually laughed while stepping over the guard's body.
"That one was your kill," he teased.
Lucas shrugged. "Too easy."
At the far end of the basement, Darian was hunched over two suitcases, hands shaking, trying to shove stacks of documents and money inside. His breath was loud, panicked, messy. He looked pathetic.
So pathetic Lucas raised a brow.
"He's almost done packing," Lucas said casually.
Cealan tilted his head. "Well… we can't have that." Then they stepped forward.
Darian froze.
The light flickered. The room felt suddenly smaller.
Lucas' voice dropped, low and almost amused:
"Game over."
They dragged Darian upstairs into his own hall, big, echoing, decorated like a man desperate to show off his wealth.
Cealan dumped a heavy case on the floor and popped it open, revealing rows of specialized tools, cold metal glinting under the chandelier.
Lucas didn't wait.
His first strike landed so fast Darian didn't see it.Then another.Then another.
He punched him so hard with the rings he had on drawing blood from his nose as it broke, controlled, every impact fueled with the rage of someone protecting his family.
"Why did you hurt Neo and My familia?" Lucas snarled.
"I....I didn't! I swear, it wasn't me!" Darian cried.
Cealan leaned on his knee."Lies. Tell us who you're working for." "If I talk, I'm dead!" Darian shouted. "You don't understand..."
Cealan laughed.
"If you don't talk, you'll still be dead. But mine will be faster."
Darian cracked. Then hardened. Then cracked again. His fear battled with his stubbornness.
Lucas finally stepped back, chest rising and falling. He had beaten him to stupor to nonsense that darian couldn't see properly
"I'm done. Cealan, finish." Cealan's grin stretched slow. "With pleasure."
Lucas took the car keys they came with.
"Call 911 at the end. Don't take too long."
Cealan gave a mock salute.
"You know me."
Lucas turned to leave, but paused.
"Actually… I'm curious."
He went back to the basement, rummaged through everything Darian had been desperately packing, phones, documents, coded files, a burner laptop. He swept all of it into a bag.
Returning to the hall, he said, "I'll share all of this later."
"No problem," Cealan replied casually.
Then Lucas walked out, slipped into the car, and vanished into the night.
Once Lucas was gone, Cealan turned to Darian with the slow smile of a man in his element.
"You hurt my princess," he said softly. "So now I'm going to hurt you in a way you'll never forget."
He opened the inner case.
"You know… when you meet your maker, tell him Cealan sent you."
The rest was screams as cealen used his tools whole heartedly playing with his favorite skin, shadows could be seen, and Cealan's calm, chilling professionalism. Darian begged for his life with all that was in him but not even words could calm him down. Darian screamed in pain as his body was burning up.
Eventually, silence.
He wiped his face with a cloth that was drenched from the blood on the floor, peeled off his gloves, checked his phone, and typed something. Darian was dismantled in a way that would leave the anyone speechless if they saw him they might even have pitted him at that moment but not cealen. Cealen dragged the dismantled body into a huge black plastic bag and dragging to his poo and dumped him there.
An hour later after he'd retraced his and Lucas step to check if they had dropped anything or made any mistake, a car rolled into the mansion.
Cealan climbed in, leaned back, and dialed 911.
Then he disappeared into the night feeling more than satisfied, they had really ended that empire in one night afterall