Chapter 268: Team

Sora held him with desperate, crushing strength, her fingers digging through his jacket as if she were trying to anchor him to the earth. Two months of suffocating dread poured out of her in ragged, trembling gasps

Hide held her close without moving, letting the warmth of her breath against his neck wash away the lingering chill of Risa’s corpse.

Slowly, Sora pulled her face back.

Her eyes were red and swollen, tears tracking through the light dust on her cheeks. She reached up with trembling hands, her palms cupping his face, her thumbs brushing against the sharp line of his jaw and cheekbones. She looked at his silver hair, then deep into his ocean-blue eyes, searching every millimeter of his features as if needing physical proof that he wasn’t an illusion conjured by exhaustion.

“You’re real…” she breathed, her voice cracking. “You’re really here…”

“Of course,” Hide replied softly, his voice steady and calm. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

Behind them, hurried footsteps approached.

Ryan had abandoned his terminal. He walked over with his spectacles pushed hastily onto his forehead, his skin pale as he reached out, gripping Hide’s shoulder with an iron grip.

“Hide…” Ryan’s voice shook, an uncharacteristic tremor in his throat. “We thought you would need help. Maybe for once. Anyways, how did it come to this?”

“It was Walter,” Hide said, his tone cooling into iron.

Toma hurried over next, wiping his eyes with the back of his sleeve, sniffing loudly. “Welcome back, President… we were ready to raid the regional airbase tomorrow. Gideon and Evelyn went to secure munitions. We were going to hijack a cargo freighter and fly straight to the Central Continent to break you out or bring you home!”

A faint, bittersweet warmth touched Hide’s chest. They might have thought earlier that Hide had died but still they hadn’t given up on him, they had been preparing to wage war against the entire world just to find him.

Hide glanced over his shoulder toward the entrance.

Standing awkwardly near the heavy blast door, pulling her dark hood down to her collar, was Kiko. She stood with her arms crossed, looking at the tearful reunion with a mix of awe and deep, hesitant isolation. She had never experienced this kind of loyalty in Julian’s squad—where commanders threw their lives away for each other rather than discarding pawns.

“This is Kiko,” Hide said, gesturing for her to come closer.

Sora wiped her eyes, her gaze drifting toward the grey-haired girl. She knew her, they had met before.

“She was part of Julian’s unit in the International Corporation,” Hide explained plainly. “When Walter had me chained in an illegal underground laboratory, she broke in trying to get me out. She left everything behind. She’s with us now.”

Sora stepped forward without hesitation. She reached out, taking Kiko’s small, calloused hands into her own, looking into her eyes with fierce, unvarnished gratitude.

“Thank you,” Sora said, her voice rich with emotion. “I am sorry for whatever happened in past. You have a home here now.”

Kiko blinked, her cheeks flushing crimson. She stared down at their joined hands, her lip quivering slightly before she gave a small, respectful nod.

CLANG. CLANG-CLANG.

A heavy, deliberate series of metallic strikes vibrated through the blast door from the corridor outside.

Kai and Hide instantly stiffened, but Toma raised a hand. “That’s Gideon’s knock.”

Toma ran to the manual deadbolts, hauling the iron levers back. The two-ton blast door swung open with a muffled groan of hydraulics.

Stepping through the threshold, dragging two massive military supply crates across the concrete floor, was Gideon. His enormous, armored frame filled the doorway, A war hammer strapped across his broad back. Right behind him was Evelyn, her dark trench coat dusted with pulverized drywall.

“We managed to lift three crates of armor-piercing cores from the corporate depot in Sector Nine,” Gideon rumbled, wiping sweat from his bearded chin. “Security was light. The bastards are pulling all their elite hounds back toward the temporary base, using two of the remaining towers of NEA—”

Gideon’s voice abruptly cut out.

His massive boots froze on the concrete.

Evelyn, walking half a pace behind him, bumped straight into his back. “Gideon, what the hell? Why did you stop—”

She peered around his massive shoulder, and the heavy crate of ammunition slipped from her hands, crashing against the floor with a concussive metallic thud.

Hide stood in the center of the illuminated hall, looking back at them.

“Hey, Gideon,” Hide said quietly. “Evelyn.”

For three seconds, neither of the veteran fighters moved.

Then, Gideon let out a roar that shook the ventilation ducts.

He didn’t bother unclasping his shield. He lunged across the room with earth-shaking strides, wrapping his massive, bear-like arms around Hide’s shoulders, lifting the silver-haired young man completely off his boots in a ferocious, bone-snapping embrace.

“YOU BITCH!” Gideon bellowed, laughing so hard that tears spilled into his grey beard. “I KNEW IT! I TOLD THEM! I told them that bastard Walter couldn’t kill a demon like you!”

Hide wheezed a laugh, tapping the warrior’s massive pauldron with a strained grin.

Gideon set him down, slamming his hand with gauntlet against Hide’s shoulder so hard it would have shattered an ordinary man’s collarbone. Beside him, Evelyn was smiling through quiet tears, crossing her arms over her chest as she exhaled a long, shuddering breath.

“You look like hell,” she said softly, her voice thick. “It’s good to have you back.”

Kai pulled out a set of folding metal chairs, setting them around the central holo-table. “Everyone sit down. Hide has things to tell us.”

The mood in the room shifted instantly.

The joy of the reunion gave way to the reality of the war. Hide sat at the head of the table, Roxana’s midnight-blue katana resting across his knees. Sora sat directly to his right, her hand resting firmly over his, refusing to let go. Kai, Gideon, Evelyn, Ryan, Toma, and Kiko gathered around the perimeter, their eyes fixed on Hide’s face.

Hide took a slow, deep breath, and told them everything.

He didn’t sugarcoat a single detail.

He told them about the 4-Star meat grinder Walter had intentionally pushed them into. He told them about the S-Rank barrier being severed to let the Calamity horde spill into the continent. He recounted the brutal ambush by thr ten shadow assassins at the threshold.

And then, his voice dropped into an icy, hollow rasp that made the room’s temperature plummet.

He told them about Walter Bigiva stepping out of empty air. The invisible strike. Risa throwing her body in front of his.

How Walter had dragged their bodies to an underground laboratory, keeping Risa in a chemical stasis tube while preparing to extract their cores.

SLAM!

Gideon’s fist smashed into the steel table, bending the three-inch metal plate inward with a deafening crack.

“THAT ROTTEN, TREASONOUS OLD BASTARD!” Gideon roared, veins bulging across his neck, his teeth bared in murderous hatred. “Using her body like an animal?! Trapping you in a cage while parading on television as humanity’s savior?!” ⅇ

Sora’s knuckles were white as she clutched Hide’s fingers. Her head was bowed, tears falling silently onto the table, her breath shaking.

Evelyn maintained her composure, calculating it all in her mind.

None of them doubted Hide’s words. Not for a single fraction of a second.

Hide looked around the table. Then he was remembered of the missing people.

“Where are Claire and Elara?” Hide asked, his voice low and sharp. “And Rol? Why aren’t they here with you?”

Silence descended over the table. Kai and Sora exchanged a grim, strained look.

“They’re missing,” Kai said, his voice dropping into a somber, heavy rasp.

Hide’s brow furrowed tightly. “Missing? What do you mean missing?”

“Claire was still in a coma,” Sora explained, her fingers trembling against Hide’s hand. “Elara stayed by her side at the Hospital every single day.”

“Two weeks ago,” Ryan chimed in, pulling up a satellite topographical map of the capital on the terminal, “the coordinated cluster of 3-Star gates that ruptured right across the city core. One of the gates opened close to the hospital. The northern wing took catastrophic damage.”

“Elara managed to send one emergency comms ping,” Toma continued, clenching his fist. “She reported that she was trying to evacuate Claire’s pod down through the maintenance tunnels. But before any response team could reach them, a cave-in brought down the upper floors. The signal cut out completely.”

“We spent four days digging through the rubble,” Gideon said grimly, shaking his head. “We found smashed equipment and dead staff, but neither Claire’s pod nor Elara were there. They’ve been missing without a trace ever since.”

Hide’s chest tightened. Claire, still trapped in a coma, swallowed by the ruins alongside Elara.

“And Rol?” Hide asked, his jaw locked. “Did he disappear in the hospital too?”

“No,” Kai answered with a bitter scowl. “Rol is with the NEA.”

Hide blinked. “The NEA?”

“When that wanted broadcast went live labeling you an S-Rank terrorist, the remaining NEA directors ordered our immediate surrender and arrest. We told them to go to hell, packed our gear, and went underground. We asked Rol to come with us.”

Gideon shook his head. “He refused. The NEA headquarters in Area Five is half in ruins and currently operating as a refugee stronghold. Rol said somebody had to stay to keep the National Agency from breaking. He never believed you were a traitor, Hide. But he’s surrounded by corporate vipers, holding out on his own.”

Hide sat back slightly, the weight of the news pressing heavily into his chest. Risa dead. Claire and Elara missing beneath the rubble. Rol stranded in a compromised military fortress.

“What is our play, Hide?” Kai asked, his hand resting on the hilt of his staff. “The Black Shield Agency was flattened, but the people who mattered are right here in this room. We are still with you.”

Hide lifted his gaze, his eyes hardening into twin gems of unyielding resolve.

“We are hitting the International Exterminator Corporation,” Hide declared.

The room went completely still.

“Before Risa died,” Hide continued, his voice steadying, “she gave me her final words. In her bag, there was a ring and a letter that I need. Walter took them when he captured us.”

Hide looked at every single person around the table.

“Walter stole my friends’ lives. He stole her body. He stole that ring. We are going to breach his stronghold, tear down his empire, and take back what is ours.”

Gideon stood up, slamming his heavy gauntlet over his chest. “To the death, my friend.”

Evelyn clicked her tablet shut. “Count me in.”

Ryan adjusted his glasses, a dark, sharp smirk cutting across his face. “I’ll draw up the infiltration blueprints by morning.”

Beside him, Sora tightened her grip around Hide’s hand, looking up at him with unyielding devotion. “Wherever you go, Hide. Together.”

“Thank you. All of you.”