Chapter 764

A ghost running into people with ghost vision was, to put it mildly, an awkward situation.

Imagine a burglar who had spent hours evading security cameras, cutting through wire fences, and scaling a towering perimeter wall, only to discover that he had broken into a military training base. Worse, an entire company of soldiers stood before him, preparing for a live-fire exercise.

That was roughly how things stood now.

Both sides froze. For several long seconds, absolute silence reigned.

The Ghost agent stood rigid, afraid to make even the slightest movement.

She had carried out this kind of infiltration mission countless times. Years of rigorous S.H.I.E.L.D. training, combined with her extraordinary abilities, had made her exceptionally difficult to detect. Her previous operations had gone smoothly enough that she’d almost begun to take her success for granted.

So how had she managed to stumble into a disaster like this?

It made no sense.

Since entering the facility, she’d traveled through walls and floors rather than using ordinary entrances. She’d remained invisible the entire time, never giving anyone a reason to suspect she was there.

How could these people possibly have spotted her?

Perhaps it was a coincidence.

Clinging to that faint hope, she glanced over her shoulder. Maybe the people in front of her weren’t looking at her at all. Something behind her might have caught their attention.

She looked.

There was nothing behind her except a wall.

The Ghost agent swallowed and cautiously shuffled two steps to the left.

Every pair of eyes followed her.

She moved two steps to the right.

Their gazes tracked her again.

Wonderful. They could definitely see her.

The people staring at her were the ones HYDRA had sent here for a transformation program, all carefully selected by Peggy Carter. Peggy had personally vetted the candidates, then relied on a remarkably unscientific but effective final selection method: rolling dice to determine who had the potential to survive the transformation.

Those fortunate enough to pass through the ritual had gained a special ability known as Ghost Sight.

It had been developed to detect demons skilled in stealth and concealment. Against someone like the Ghost agent, it was devastatingly effective.

The moment she’d appeared, they’d seen her.

Seeing her, however, didn’t mean they were eager to attack.

Surviving the transformation ritual was only the beginning. Once the candidates had been remade, the Eredar Twins had subjected them to even harsher training.

Their philosophy was simple: the training ground was the battlefield.

To improve combat effectiveness, sharpen practical fighting skills, and systematically reduce the enemy’s ability to resist, the twins summoned a dozen or so Felguards or Wrathguards from the Convergence Rift almost every day. The demons were then unleashed against the recruits in live combat.

There were no neat little arenas, no formal announcements, and certainly no fair warning.

Real battles rarely began when both sides were standing at opposite ends of a field, waiting for someone to blow a whistle. The twins intended to make sure their recruits understood that lesson down to their bones.

Sometimes, a recruit would be sleeping peacefully in the middle of the night when an urgent need to use the bathroom dragged him out of bed. Still half asleep, he’d stumble down the corridor, push open the restroom door, and discover a Felguard squatting on the toilet with a two-handed battle-axe already swinging toward his head.

That was the sort of training they received.

Under such relentless pressure, the recruits’ combat abilities had improved by leaps and bounds. The Eredar Twins were thoroughly pleased with the results.

They were even more pleased with another development.

They’d started running a betting pool.

Whenever they had some free time, the twins dragged Stephanie into their wagers. The bets covered practically everything. Would a recruit react quickly enough to a surprise attack? Who would win once the fight began? How long would the battle last? How many moves would it take before someone went down?

The possibilities were endless.

So were the profits. Their gambling operation had become a reliable way to funnel money back into the company.

Unfortunately, the recruits had grown more than a little paranoid after weeks of this treatment. Every unexpected sound sent hands flying to weapons. Every unfamiliar shadow was a potential demon waiting to tear them apart.

The sudden appearance of the Ghost agent was therefore interpreted as another surprise test.

Naturally, only an inexperienced idiot would immediately charge an unfamiliar enemy without considering the consequences. The more experienced fighters first assessed their opponent’s abilities, then chose an appropriate response.

The recruits spread out and surrounded the intruder.

As they watched her standing motionless in the middle of their formation, they noticed something else. Every so often, her body seemed to flicker, leaving faint afterimages behind her.

Their confidence wavered.

Had their instructors grown tired of using ordinary, bloodthirsty demons to train them? Had the twins decided to introduce something even stranger?

Something like a ghost?

Several recruits instinctively glanced down at their weapons.

Perhaps it was time to get themselves some wooden blades. The kind used to deal with supernatural entities.

Before anyone could make a move, the Ghost agent flickered and darted backward.

She was heading for the wall.

Her mission had been reconnaissance, not combat. Even if she’d been sent to assassinate someone, being discovered by an entire group of armed opponents was a clear signal to withdraw and try again later.

And these people could see her despite her invisibility. Who knew what other abilities they possessed?

Charging into the middle of them and attempting to cut everyone down would be spectacularly poor judgment.

"Ha!"

Before she could reach the wall, two warriors suddenly thrust their blades forward and charged from opposite directions.

Their attacks converged on her simultaneously.

Then something bizarre happened.

The Ghost agent’s body became as insubstantial as a projected image. Both warriors passed straight through her and collided with each other.

The impact sent them stumbling backward three steps apiece.

They stared at one another in disbelief.

"Take this!"

A third warrior leaped into the air, his weapon erupting with an explosive crack. Green flames roared along the blade as he brought it down, a Fel-infused strike sweeping toward the Ghost agent.

This time, she didn’t dare rely on her phasing ability.

The sight of those green flames stirred a powerful sense of danger in her gut. She threw herself sideways, narrowly avoiding the attack.

But the dodge carried her farther from the wall.

Escape through the wall was no longer an option.

Fine. She’d go through the floor instead.

The Ghost agent glanced down, preparing to sink into the ground.

Then she saw the green rune beneath her feet.

Her instincts screamed.

She immediately threw herself into a sideways roll.

A heartbeat later, the marked patch of floor erupted in flames.

"Hmph. You can pass through walls, so passing through the ground isn’t exactly a difficult conclusion to reach." A female warrior chuckled. "Did you think we wouldn’t prepare for that?"

By now, the recruits had figured out the basics of their opponent’s abilities. Her direct combat strength didn’t seem especially impressive. The real problem was her ability to pass through solid objects and shift between tangible and intangible states.

Unfortunately for her, they had ways to deal with all three.

The wall was blocked. The floor was blocked.

What was she supposed to do now?

Panic began to creep into the Ghost agent’s thoughts. She raised her eyes toward the ceiling.

Maybe she could jump high enough to reach it, then find a way out through the upper levels.

No. Absolutely not.

If these people could mark the floor with runes, there was no reason they couldn’t mark the ceiling as well.

"Bind!"

The female warrior extended one hand and pointed at her.

The Ghost agent barely had time to register the command before a pair of bronze-colored hoops appeared above and below her, one near her head and the other near her feet. A curtain of green light stretched between them, enclosing her body.

She froze in place, trapped in the middle of the startled movement she’d been making.

She couldn’t move a muscle.

"We actually caught one alive?"

The moment they realized their opponent had been restrained, the surrounding warriors relaxed.

One of the men scratched his head and turned toward the woman responsible.

"That’s why you’re our big sister, Galia."

"Exactly! Nobody does it better."

"No wonder those two ladies think so highly of you!"

"The strongest warrior beneath the High Lord, and now you’ve proved it again!"

Galia was no ordinary recruit.

She had possessed exceptional talent even before undergoing the transformation ritual. Afterward, her strength had surpassed that of the other HYDRA candidates by a considerable margin. She was also the only person besides Peggy Carter who had mastered two different demonic transformation forms.

That distinction had earned her a formidable reputation: the strongest warrior beneath the High Lord.

However, the praise seemed to bring another thought to one of the men.

"Still..." He grinned mischievously. "I wonder whether the two ladies will be happy or disappointed about this."

Galia glanced at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Their betting pool didn’t include an option for capturing the enemy alive."

The other warriors immediately understood the joke.

Everyone knew about the Eredar Twins’ gambling habits. Surprisingly, the fact that the twins were effectively betting on their lives had never bothered the recruits.

They had their own betting pool, after all.

Unfortunately for them, Galia had made a bold declaration before this latest training session. She’d promised that the next time she faced an opponent, she would capture them alive.

Nobody had believed her.

They all knew the binding spell. Every recruit could use it to immobilize a demon, at least briefly. The problem was that none of them had managed to hold a target for more than three seconds.

Three seconds was hardly a prisoner.

Even Galia, talented as she was, couldn’t possibly pull off something that difficult.

Or so they’d thought.

Now, with the Ghost agent trapped in a magical cage, the outcome was undeniable.

The house had won.

All bets were lost.

"Wait a minute. You can’t be serious!"

One by one, the recruits began digging into their pockets with the expressions of men watching their financial futures collapse.

Their contributions were hardly impressive. Most produced a crumpled banknote, which they reluctantly handed to Galia.

The man who had made the joke was particularly reluctant.

"Big sister, that’s my food money."

"Then learn to budget." Galia snatched the bill from his hand. "A single missed meal won’t kill you."

That explained why nobody minded the Eredar Twins gambling with their lives.

They were doing exactly the same thing among themselves.

Galia had announced her intention to capture an opponent alive, and everyone had assumed it was impossible. Since she had succeeded, the bookmaker had swept the entire pot.

Several recruits sighed in despair.

At this rate, they wouldn’t be able to afford soap for their showers next month.

What kind of training program left its participants unable to pay for food and basic necessities?

They’d attended plenty of training programs back in HYDRA. None had ever required them to cover their own living expenses, too.

Had HYDRA failed to allocate enough funding for this project?

Pathetic.

HYDRA really was a worthless organization. No wonder it was doomed.

Galia finished counting the money, tucked it into her pocket, and turned her attention to the immobilized intruder.

"All right. Someone notify our instructors. It looks like we’re about to be rewarded for our efforts."

When Peggy Carter received the report, she was completely baffled.

An enemy had been captured alive?

What enemy?

The recruits had been training so intensely that Peggy had begun to worry they might suffer a collective nervous breakdown. She’d deliberately given them a day off to rest.

And now they’d apparently invented their own exercise.

Peggy hurried to the scene, wearing her mask.

Her confusion only deepened when she arrived.

What on earth was going on here?

After a moment, she collected herself and turned to Galia.

"Galia, listen carefully. Nobody leaves this area, and nobody moves without permission. You’re responsible for keeping everyone here. If anyone attempts to leave, kill them on the spot. I’ll report this to the two directors immediately."

"Understood."

Peggy took one last look at the restrained intruder before turning away.

Whatever had happened here, the Eredar Twins needed to hear about it.

And soon.