Four years ago...
...
"Have you heard the latest news from Midworld?"
Stella approached Jamie as he washed up, his body aching after getting his ass handed to him by the lieutenant in the desert.
"What news?"
"You clueless son of a bitch—Bray has gone back to the world of the living."
"Huh?"
Jamie gasped, his eyes widening as his heart began thumping wildly in his chest. Questions crashed through his mind like a sudden storm. When he had left Midworld, the third ga had been put on hold—so how did he escape without finishing the trials?
"It seems Alexander made so sort of deal with the goddess to let him go... I assu you know what that deal might be."
The implication struck almost imdiately.
"He promised to hunt down, didn’t he?"
"You got that right. Sorry, kid."
Suddenly—
A smirk crept across Jamie’s face, so misplaced it almost looked ironic. A man marked for death by his best friend should have recoiled, yet Jamie looked strangely relieved.
"It’s actually fine. If one of the three of us gets to live a normal life, I’m glad it’s him. He’s a good person. He deserves it."
...
PRESENT DAY: THE CONSTRUCTION SITE
"what do you think about the plan?"
Every eye in the room shifted toward Jamie. In that brief mont he beca the quiet center of the room. Everyone there knew the history between him and Bray, and the proposal hanging in the air was a burden they understood he carried more heavily than anyone.
"We go with it. The lives of demons matter more than my social life."
A trace of sadness slipped through his words. His voice remained steady, but inside sothing was beginning to fracture.
Jamie had always wanted Bray to have a normal life. If the demons approached him now, the goddess would inevitably notice—and Bray would beco another target of her brutality. That was why Jamie had stayed invisible all this ti, even though they now lived in the sa world again.
"But he lost his mories," Kasa said. "How are we even supposed to get him to secure the resources?"
It was the obstacle none of them could ignore.
Forcing him wasn’t an option—it violated everything they believed in. Appearing in front of him and demanding he acquire weaponized military resources was just as absurd. No sane person would agree to sothing like that.
Yet ti wasn’t on their side.
They had to act—and quickly.
"How are you sure his mories are completely gone?" Jamie asked, breaking the silence.
"When he appeared in Midgard, he was in a coma in the world of the living,Nothing that happened there was ever stored in his mind. Add Midworld’s restrictions on top of that, and the result is basically foolproof."
The female scientist replied.
Her tone was clinical, leaving little room for argunt.
Jamie let out a slow breath.
"Fine... I’ll go myself."
"But sir—"
"You all focus on moving the demons to another safe location."
"The traitor told us he revealed all our HQ locations to the goddess," soone pointed out. "We have nowhere else to go."
"Then spread them out," Jamie said. "So will stay at my house—actually, buy the entire building. Find rentals for the others, but keep them under protection. It’s temporary, but it should buy us enough ti to secure the nuclear material and the uranium."
The room fell silent as everyone processed the weight of his orders.
Kasa nodded, forcing a confident expression even as doubt stirred in his chest. Still, the commander’s earlier words echoed in his mind—trust Jamie.
A small thread of faith ford in his gut and slowly tightened.
"Alright, everyone knows what to do. I’ll talk to the others while you guys find the houses and handle the transactions."
He clapped his hands together, signaling the start of the work.
The scientists quickly filed out of the storage room, leaving only Kasa and Jamie behind.
"So," Kasa said, "where are you going to start?"
Jamie’s answer ca quietly.
"He’s a boy who grew up on the streets. Becoming governor doesn’t change that."
Kasa’s expression stayed blank for a mont before the realization settled in.
"You’ve been tracking him this whole ti... you actually cared about him."
Jamie didn’t respond right away.
"That doesn’t matter," he said at last. "What we do now affects the future of this entire operation. And I doubt the captains were the only ones sent after us. We need to do everything we can to make sure those demons reach Astro safely."
His voice carried a heavy weight, sharpened by quiet determination. For soone who claid to hate speeches, Jamie had a strange gravity whenever he spoke to people he trusted.
An introvert at his most sincere.
He turned toward the exit, but before he could leave, Kasa called after him.
"We’re in this together, Jamie. Don’t forget that."
It was sothing Jamie had a habit of ignoring.
Stella had paired them because they worked well together, yet Jamie still tried to carry everything alone, refusing to burden anyone else. His intentions were good, but Kasa needed him to understand that he didn’t have to do this by himself.
Jamie paused briefly.
"Thanks."
Then he walked out.
Kasa watched him leave, a faint smile forming on his face. It was the first ti since they’d t that Jamie had used that word.
.....
THE AFRICAN DESERT
The sand was pale and bone-dry, the sun hamring the ground without rcy. Endless dunes stretched in every direction, broken only by a massive crater carved deep into the desert floor.
At its center sat a giant sphere of solid rock.
A sharp crack echoed through the pit.
Clack!
The cracks widened, splintering outward until a slab of rock suddenly burst apart. A figure tumbled out and collapsed onto the scorching sand.
Fiona.
She could barely move. Her body was half-burnt, fire wounds crawling across her skin from her legs to her arms. Only her face had escaped the devastation.
A weak groan escaped her as she dragged herself across the heated sand, though the desert heat was nothing compared to the pain raging through her nerves.
"That fool sacrificed himself to save ," she muttered, her eyes twitching from the lingering agony. "He turned his body into rock at the last second just to cover ... shit. He was right. We underestimated him."
If the damage looked this bad even under protection, she would have been reduced to ash without it.
A faint chanical hiss suddenly filled the air.
Stsysts.
A strange frequency vibrated into existence as a golden screen shimred into view before her, flickering like a digital mirage.
It was a video call.
On the screen stood the captain of the Grid Lions—Captain Ron, Alexander’s uncle.
"He kicked your ass, didn’t he?"
His voice carried a calm so cold it bordered on indifference. Fiona’s burnt body clearly didn’t disturb him in the slightest.
"You fucker... Cain was killed."
"Don’t worry. You’ll be fine."
The mont the words left his mouth, a golden glow spilled across Fiona’s body.
Magic.
The light threaded through her burnt flesh, knitting skin back together and washing the pain away. It was the sa technique Jamie had once used to heal a girl monts before she could be devoured by a Genki.
Fiona slowly pushed herself upright, like soone relearning how to stand. She rolled her neck once, testing her body as if the trauma had never happened.
Still, the healing wasn’t perfect.
Deep in her bones, the echo of the blast still lingered.
"I’m not going back to Midworld until I get my revenge."
"Dont worry, I’ve seen what I needed to see,And frankly, I’m disappointed."
He paused briefly.
"It seems he’ll et his death much sooner than I expected."
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