The heavy fire door slammed shut with a thunderous clang.
The warmth, fragrance, and golden light were severed completely by steel and concrete.
The stairwell pressed in around them—narrow, suffocating. Dust particles danced in stale air while unstable voltage made the motion-sensor lights flicker and buzz, casting sickly yellow shadows that writhed like living things.
Ethan stopped. Crouched down.
Those same hands that had just wiped his daughter's mouth now gently covered Lily's eyes.
His palms were dry, warm, protective.
"Lily, the game begins."
Ethan's voice dropped to that low, magnetic rumble that could calm storms. "The rules are simple. Close your eyes and count to ten—loudly. Don't peek until you're done. Daddy needs to make the 'roadblocks' disappear."
"Like magic?"
Lily pressed her ice-cold little hands over his larger ones, sealing her vision completely. Her tiny canine tooth peeked out in excitement. "Okay! Lily's the best at following rules! One..."
Her innocent voice echoed through the empty stairwell.
Ethan straightened.
His hunched shoulders snapped rigid as steel cables.
Those eyes, moments ago brimming with paternal tenderness, turned arctic as they fixed on the shadows below.
The switch was complete.
He was no longer a father.
He was the demon who'd waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
In the lower left corner of his vision, crimson data streams flooded his optic nerves with searing pain:
**[WARNING: Contact countdown 0 seconds]**
**[Hostile targets locked: 3]**
**[Classification: A-Class Armed Mercenaries (Silencer-equipped)]**
From the shadows at the stair landing, three men emerged in server uniforms.
They weren't carrying serving trays.
They carried Glock 19s fitted with extended suppressors.
The scarred leader wasted no words, didn't even breathe audibly. His barrel rose, crosshairs locked dead center on Ethan's forehead.
A kill shot. No escape.
Above the fire door, behind the rectangular observation window, Roxanne had intended to follow and demand answers. Now she stood frozen by the scene unfolding below.
Guns.
As a top-tier attorney, she knew those cylindrical objects all too well.
Blood rushed to her head. Roxanne opened her mouth to scream a warning, but her throat felt stuffed with wet cotton—no sound emerged.
That madman Ethan.
His pretentious act had provoked forces that should never be crossed.
Now an innocent child would die alongside him.
"Two..."
Lily's counting had barely begun when Ethan moved.
No warning. No hesitation.
He slid half a step right, his leg whipping up in a blur, foot connecting precisely with the ancient electrical box mounted on the wall.
CRACK!
Sparks exploded.
The entire emergency stairwell plunged into death-black darkness.
The only remaining light came from the exit sign's ghostly green glow.
"Fire!"
The scarred man snarled.
Pfft, pfft, pfft!
Muffled pops echoed through the space.
Concrete chunks flew from the walls, debris clattering against railings like hail.
But that position stood empty.
"Three... four..."
Lily's voice rang clear and cheerful, completely unaware she stood in the mouth of hell.
Darkness was Ethan's kingdom.
Roxanne pressed her entire face against the cold glass, using the dim green light to witness something that would haunt her forever.
A shadow ricocheted between walls and handrails.
Physics-defying movement.
Inhuman speed.
CRACK.
Sharp. Piercing.
Not a branch snapping.
An adult male's arm bone twisted backward into a pretzel.
No scream escaped—only a brief gasp before the sound of impact swallowed it whole.
"Five... six..."
The nursery rhyme countdown became Death's metronome.
THUD.
The sound of a knee shattering ribs—dull, nauseating.
Behind the glass door, Roxanne covered her mouth, her body sliding down the frame in shock.
Violence glimpsed but not fully seen was more terrifying than visible blood.
This was systematic slaughter.
"Seven... eight..."
The last surviving scarred man completely lost it.
He flailed wildly with a tactical knife in the darkness, trying to drive back the invisible specter.
"Come out! What are you?! COME OUT!"
An ice-cold hand materialized from behind, clamping around his throat without warning.
Ethan pressed against his back, not immediately finishing him.
Those eyes, glowing unnaturally bright in the darkness, swept over the man's chest. His left hand explored, extracting a coin-sized metal badge and pocketing it.
Then his fingers closed.
CRUNCH.
Throat cartilage pulverized.
The scarred man's eyes bulged as he collapsed like wet cement.
"Nine... ten! Lily finished counting!"
The little girl yanked her hands away from her eyes, lashes fluttering.
In the same instant, Ethan hit the emergency lighting switch.
CLICK.
Harsh white light flooded the stairwell.
Ethan stood in the center of the landing, brushing an imaginary speck of dust from his sleeve, breathing as steadily as if he'd just returned from a leisurely stroll.
Behind him at the stair turn, three "servers" lay stacked like cordwood, limbs twisted at impossible angles, long unconscious.
Ethan's body strategically blocked the blood from Lily's line of sight.
"Wow! The bad uncles really disappeared!"
Lily clapped her hands, looking around in wonder, face glowing with worship. "Daddy's amazing! Even better than TV magicians!"
"Of course."
Ethan turned, scooping up his daughter, that familiar gentle smile spreading across his features.
If not for the lingering frost in his eyes, no one could believe this man had just neutralized three professional killers in ten seconds.
Roxanne forced her trembling legs to support her as she pushed through the fire door.
Her heels clicked unnaturally loud against concrete.
She glanced at the pile of bodies, then at Ethan, her lips bloodless. "You... killed them?"
Ethan tilted his head.
The murderous intent drained from his eyes, leaving only that infuriating devil-may-care attitude.
"Ms. Sterling, you can eat the wrong food, but you can't say the wrong words."
He gestured at the floor. "These service staff had too much to drink and tumbled down the stairs together. Perfectly logical, wouldn't you say?"
"Tumbled?"
Roxanne pointed at the scarred man's obviously caved chest, laughing bitterly. "Tumbling breaks ribs like that? Ethan, do you think I'm an idiot?"
"What else?"
Ethan stepped closer, Lily in his arms.
His towering shadow engulfed Roxanne completely.
He leaned down, bringing his mouth near her ear.
Male pheromones mixed with the faintest metallic scent invaded her nostrils aggressively.
"Counselor Sterling."
Ethan's voice was barely a whisper, yet carried the weight of a death sentence. "Tonight, you saw nothing. For Lily's peaceful sleep, and for... your chance to see tomorrow's sunrise."
Roxanne's breathing stopped.
This was a threat.
A naked death threat.
But facing those abyssal eyes, she found her courage completely drained.
Instinct screamed warnings: this man wasn't joking.
"We're leaving."
Ethan ignored the terrified woman, carrying Lily downstairs.
"Daddy, why isn't the pretty lady coming?" Lily asked from his shoulder.
"Her legs fell asleep. She wants to stand there and think about what she did."
Only after the father and daughter disappeared did Roxanne feel blood flowing again, her evening gown soaked with cold sweat.
She looked back at the three "servers."
A pistol had slipped halfway from one man's jacket, gleaming black under the lights.
Real professional killers.
They hadn't lasted one round against this bankrupt man.
Roxanne removed her fogged glasses, leaning against the wall, her expression impossibly complex. "Ethan Blackwell... where did you go during those missing five years?"
...
Downstairs, wind and snow howled.
Ethan tucked Lily into a taxi's back seat.
Standing outside the door, he opened his palm.
The black metal badge lay still, engraved with a closed eye.
"Abyss Gazer" consortium token.
His burner phone vibrated.
No incoming call.
Across his vision, a line of crimson warning blazed:
**[ALERT: "Abyss Beacon" extracted from target]**
**[Coordinates fully compromised]**
**[Enemy faction commander—codename 'Gluttony'—adjusting course at 125 mph]**
**[Estimated contact: 3 minutes]**
Ethan's fingers suddenly clenched.
The special alloy badge emitted tooth-grinding sounds of tortured metal before crumpling into scrap.
"Gluttony, hmm..."
Ethan tossed the twisted metal into a trash bin, opened the car door, bloodlust flickering in his eyes.
"Perfect timing. I'm still hungry, and dinner just delivered itself."