Chapter 182: Mistaken For An Intruder

For several seconds, he simply stared at her.

"You..." Ares began, his surprise obvious as he looked at her.

Aisha stared back. Of all the people she expected to see there, Ares was nowhere near the top of the list.

Before either of them could say anything else, one of the men behind Ares frowned and looked from Aisha toward the interior of the residence.

"Lieutenant, who is she?" the first Sentinel asked, his suspicion growing as he studied her.

The second Sentinel narrowed his eyes as he looked around the house. "How did she get inside the Admiral’s residence?"

Aisha’s brows lifted.

Neither man seemed to notice anything unusual about her. But they didn’t recognize her.

The first Sentinel’s suspicion deepened as he surveyed the room. "Don’t tell me she’s a burglar."

The second Sentinel’s expression hardened immediately. "She probably broke in while the Admiral was away."

Ares’s face darkened.

The two Sentinels were already convinced that they were dealing with an intruder.

The first Sentinel turned his attention toward Aisha again, and energy began to gather around his body. "Lieutenant, she’s trespassing inside the Admiral’s residence. We should restrain her and let the security division handle..."

"Stop," Ares commanded. His voice had become noticeably colder.

The two men moved quicker than his order.

Aisha’s eyes narrowed as their energy erupted almost simultaneously.

She knew she should avoid another fight in her current condition, but there was no time to explain herself before the first attack was already coming.

The first Sentinel rushed toward her, his fist already coated in concentrated power.

Aisha shifted sideways just before the attack reached her.

His fist cut through empty air.

The movement came naturally, guided by instinct rather than thought, and for a moment the startled Sentinel seemed unable to understand what had happened.

Before he could recover, Aisha stepped into his blind spot and kicked the back of his knee. His balance immediately shifted, and she crouched without hesitation, grabbing a handful of decorative sand from the planter beside the entrance before throwing it directly into his face.

The man shouted and staggered backward, covering his eyes.

"What the...!" the Sentinel yelled, wiping frantically at his face.

Aisha didn’t give him time to recover.

She hooked her foot behind his ankle and swept his leg out from under him.

The Sentinel crashed onto the floor.

The second man reacted instantly. His Sentinel aura exploded outward, and pressure immediately filled the corridor.

Aisha’s hair lifted slightly from the force, but she remained standing.

The B-ranked Sentinel’s expression changed when she failed to react as he expected.

He increased the pressure.

Still, nothing happened.

Aisha could feel his aura pressing against her, yet there was no overwhelming force driving her down. Her body remained upright, and her expression became more puzzled than frightened.

The Sentinel stared at her in disbelief.

How was she still standing?

He knew what his own rank meant. Even among Sentinels, a B-ranked aura was enough to suppress ordinary people with ease.

Yet the woman standing in front of him barely reacted.

At the same time, Ares’s eyes sharpened as his attention settled briefly on Aisha.

He already knew the answer.

The others did not.

The second Sentinel stepped forward again, intending to force her down before she could react.

Aisha prepared to move.

Then pain abruptly twisted through her chest.

She coughed hard and bent slightly, pressing one hand against the ache beneath her ribs. Her breathing became uneven as the weakness she had been ignoring finally caught up with her.

For once, she wished the answer were simple, but nothing around Zeke was.

Her body hadn’t recovered from the previous night, and she barely rested.

And now she had been dragged into another fight.

No matter how strong she was, her body couldn’t simply pretend that nothing had happened.

The second Sentinel saw her falter and immediately moved forward.

Ares finally snapped, face darkening with irritation.

His aura exploded outward.

The pressure slammed through the corridor so violently that both Sentinels froze where they stood.

Neither man could move.

Ares stepped between them and Aisha, his expression filled with anger.

"I told you to stop," he said, his voice low and dangerous.

The first Sentinel struggled to raise his head.

"Lieutenant, she’s a burglar," he said, trying to explain himself beneath the crushing pressure.

Ares’s gaze hardened. "And because of that, you attacked first?"

"We were trying to subdue a potential intruder," the Sentinel replied quickly, his voice strained.

Ares’s expression remained cold. "You didn’t even ask her who she was. What if she’s a civilian? You’re going to use your Sentinel power against a civilian, now?"

The second Sentinel swallowed before speaking. "Lieutenant, we..."

"You two are hot-headed bulls who can’t even follow a simple order." Ares cut him off, and there was no humor in his voice.

The two Sentinels fell silent.

Ares’s gaze moved between them before he spoke again.

"Both of you will report to the Black Tower when we return to the Association."

The reaction was immediate. Their faces drained of color and they both stared at Ares in disbelief.

The Black Tower.

Neither of them needed someone to remind them what that place was.

Every Sentinel in the Association knew what waited behind those walls.

The Black Tower was where newly promoted or newly recruited Sentinels were sent when they required additional conditioning, discipline, and control. It was also where those who had violated serious regulations were sent for punishment and reeducation.

The place had earned the reputation of a prison because, in many ways, that was exactly what it was.

The training there was designed to break the weaknesses in a Sentinel’s mind and body and then rebuild them through exhausting physical exercises and relentless mental conditioning. The lower one went, the worse it became, and leaving was never a matter of simply completing a scheduled period.

Someone had to approve their release or prove they were fit enough to go out of the tower.

The two Sentinels knew all of this.

That was why neither of them looked pleased.