Chapter 175: The Martyr & The Painter.

『"Fuck-me boots, black holes, and absolutely no manners."』

Whatever nervousness they had gave way to focused preparation as everyone took a deep breath.

Through it all, Amara still couldn’t shake the feeling that Raj may have been compromised.

As the aircraft began its descent, Dante turned to the five of them.

"Look lively, Shapers..." Dante’s gaze shifted specifically to Ethan. "...and fellow Tyrants." He grinned. "The goal is simple. My team will run extraction—"

"And we just need to fuck shit up enough to create the perfect distraction," Raj cut in, slamming his fist into his open palm.

Dante snapped his fingers at Raj. "Couldn’t have said it better myself."

Through the small windows, Amara caught glimpses of the ambush site below.

There were multiple overturned vehicles, massive craters that were still scorching, bodies scattered across the pavement, and... a friggin’ satellite?

What the hell happened here?

"Thirty seconds," the pilot announced.

Maya stood at that exact moment. "Anyone have any last-minute questions about our assignments before we touch down?"

"No, we’re good." Hiro gave her an A-OK sign and what looked like a fake smile. Then he pulled his inhaler from a pouch and took a long pull.

Yelena, on the other hand, wore the same expression she’d had since boarding the aircraft. She rubbed a half-eaten apple on her shoulder and muttered something Amara couldn’t catch.

The aircraft’s rear ramp began lowering, and wind rushed through the cargo hold, bringing with it the smell of smoke and blood.

"Let’s go!" Maya commanded, and they moved.

The drop was only ten feet. Amara landed smoothly, Angel’s Bane already manifested, and activated her Intent Sight as she surveyed the scene more clearly.

The convoy was devastated. Two armored transport vehicles were in shambles, and the bodies of Institute guards lay scattered across the road in unnatural positions.

Amara hadn’t been wrong about what she’d seen from the aircraft. There was, indeed, a satellite that should have been in orbit, torn apart and smoking inside a crater.

And in the center of the destruction, a figure lay motionless on the ground.

"Is that the Anchor?" Hiro asked, stepping closer to Amara as his voice dropped. "...Is he dead?"

"Unlikely." Ethan stepped closer. "From everything we’ve gathered so far, it’s in their best interest to keep the Anchors alive."

"Right... right," Hiro said.

Sophia scanned the area. "If that’s the Anchor... then where are the Apostles?"

Raj grinned. "Maybe we scared them off."

Amara’s eyes suddenly blazed as her gaze subconsciously shifted to the tree above.

"I don’t think so..." She pointed toward the woman sitting in the tree. The woman’s eyes narrowed, but she made no sudden moves.

Yelena’s eyes narrowed as well, her body settling into a stance.

"The fuck." Sophia frowned. "I couldn’t sense her."

"Wait..." Raj’s brow furrowed, his jaw clenched. "You mean to say she was just there all along? Taking us for fools?!"

Hiro quickly raised a hand, gesturing to Raj. "Settle down, bud."

Raj exhaled, then grinned. "I’m settled, alright."

Amara couldn’t help but notice the sudden change in Raj’s tone and body language. From the subtle shift in Ethan’s gaze, she knew he’d noticed it too.

But now wasn’t the time to think about that. An Apostle was sitting directly above them, and she still hadn’t made a move.

"Seriously, though, what’s with the boots?" Sophia asked.

Her question actually elicited a reaction from the Apostle as she tilted her head slightly.

Amara looked at the lady on the tree, then at Sophia. "You mean the fuck me boots?" Her grip on Angel’s Bane tightened. "I was just about to ask the same."

"What the hell are fuck-me boots?" Hiro glanced between them and shook his head. "Not important." He sighed. "What is important is that she hasn’t done anything yet."

"Yet..." Raj said slowly.

"Yeah." Hiro stared at the lady. "So let’s not try to piss off the clearly stylish lady by calling her out on her impeccable fashion sense."

Meanwhile, Dante, Maya, and the other Institute agents focused on recovery and extraction, all while keeping a wary eye on the woman in the tree.

It wasn’t lost on them that she could act at any given moment, try to put a stop to what they were doing. So why wasn’t she?

Dante reached the overturned vehicle and tore the warped door from its hinges, revealing Jamie curled up inside.

"Got one!" Dante shouted. He pulled the teenager free and carried him several meters away from the wreckage before setting him down. "Easy. You’re safe now."

Nearby, Maya moved between the injured, her lantern, Sol, glowing with warm, golden light. Wherever she passed, wounds began to close beneath the warmth of her light.

"Get the survivors tagged!" she called.

Several agents immediately moved in, fastening slim wristbands around the wrists of the injured Anchors and Institute personnel.

One agent pressed the button on his wristband, and a brief flash of light surrounded him. Then he vanished.

Dante touched his comm. "Alpha transport is a go."

Another agent pressed her wristband, and in a flash, she was gone.

One by one, the survivors disappeared from the battlefield, transported somewhere safe.

Maya straightened and looked toward the massive crater a few meters away. Her eyes widened. "That’s Jerry Lowenthal."

The unconscious Anchor lay at the bottom of the crater, his body partially buried beneath broken earth.

Directly above him, perched casually among the tree branches, sat the Apostle. She hadn’t moved, merely watching them all with an unreadable expression.

Maya stared at the scene in disbelief. "I can’t believe he was taken down."

Hiro’s expression turned thoughtful. "Then who took him down?"

He glanced toward the woman in the tree. "Because Boots over there doesn’t exactly look like she was part of a fight." His eyes narrowed. "Though I could be wrong."

The woman grinned. Slowly, her tongue traced her lips, and Hiro swallowed.

Amara glanced between them before looking at Ethan. "And weren’t there supposed to be two of them?"

Dante looked over from where he was overseeing the extraction. "Doesn’t matter now. We grab Jerry, and that’s a wrap on the primary objective."

He pointed toward the woman perched above them. "Then we can ask our friend over there a few questions."

Maya nodded and started toward the crater. She had taken only a few steps when the ground shook beneath her.

Maya froze briefly the moment a hand suddenly punched through the earth. The ground cracked open beneath her as a body began forcing its way out.

She instinctively leapt backward, putting distance between herself and the emerging figure. Moments later, a man stood in their midst, only a few meters from Maya.

The weird part was that he definitely hadn’t been there a moment ago. Amara’s Intent Sight should have seen something. Anything. He had simply... sprung out of the earth.

An expression of psychotic glee was plastered across his face. A tattoo covered his torso and arms, creeping toward his face as though it were alive.

"That fucking gravity-controlling bitch." Malachi cracked his neck, stretched his arms, and grinned at them like they were friends. "Being spaghettified is new to me."

He stared up at the Painter. "Do you know how painful it is to come back from being crushed in a black hole?" he asked, as though they weren’t standing in the middle of a battlefield.

She smiled and rose from the branch, finally moving.

"Minutes felt like months," Malachi continued. "I could feel every atom in my body stretch. Hurt like a bitch." He cracked his neck again.

"Took you long enough," the woman said to the Martyr. She sounded amused rather than angry.

"Put a sock in it, Monet," Malachi replied as he moved toward the unconscious Anchor lying in the crater, all the while completely ignoring Maya.

"Some of us have to take one for the team. You just sit there looking pretty." He kicked an unconscious Jerry the moment he reached him.

He reached down and effortlessly hoisted Jerry over his shoulder like he weighed nothing, treating the Five and Unit 11-B as though they weren’t even there.

"Hey!" Amara called out. "Put him down."

Malachi paused, turned to look at her, and his grin widened. "Or what, bitch? You’ll cut me?" He laughed and kept walking.

"Don’t call her a bitch!" Raj shot back.

"You’re not taking Jerry," Maya added, stepping forward with her lantern blazing bright. "Stand down or we’ll put you down. Permanently."

"Permanently..." Malachi mused. "I’m afraid permanence and I broke up a long time ago, bitch."

"I must say," Hiro said, gesturing toward the Martyr, "you sure have a way with words."

Just then, Monet dropped from the tree branch, landing beside Malachi with her wooden brush already in hand.

She gave Hiro one last look before drawing a circle on the ground. A dark hole formed beneath her, and she stepped toward it.

"Ishigami," Yelena said quietly, her blades already manifesting.

"Understood," Ishigami replied as his strings shot outward, weaving into a net that wrapped around the Painter and yanked her away from Malachi.

Monet twisted midair, slipping through Ishigami’s grasp. She then blasted through the air, toward the tree line, with Yelena and Ishigami immediately giving chase.

That left the rest of them staring at Malachi. He gently set Jerry down and cracked his neck one more time.

"So," he said, his grin suddenly disappeared. "Which one of you wants to die first?"