CHAPTER 11: THE SERPENT IN THE BOARDROOM
The silver crystal's memory was a jagged, high definition nightmare. As Arga stood on the wind-whipped rooftop, the GPS coordinates burned into his mind like a branding iron. The signal wasn't coming from a basement or a hidden bunker. It was radiating from the top floor of the Wijaya Corporate Headquarters, the very heart of the empire he had just "saved."
A mole, Arga thought, his eyes narrowing into slits of molten gold. The Seven Heavenly Kings didn't just send Envoys. They sent a Parasite.
He didn't call for a car. He didn't wait for Yasmine. Arga stepped off the edge of the sixty-story building. Instead of falling, he glided on a platform of solidified Qi, a dark streak cutting through the neon-lit clouds of Jakarta.
The Wijaya building was a monolith of glass and steel, currently glowing with late-night activity as Siska's team worked to stabilize the company. Arga didn't use the front door. He smashed through the reinforced glass of the executive floor like a kinetic missile.
CRASH.
Glass shards rained down on the expensive Persian rugs. Security alarms began to blare, a high-pitched wail that tore through the silence of the office.
"Arga?"
Siska stood at the center of the boardroom, her face pale, a stack of folders in her arms. Beside her sat a man Arga had never seen before a tall, elegant figure in a charcoal suit, his hair slicked back with military precision. He looked like a high-level consultant, but to Arga's Divine Sense, the man was a black hole of stagnant, ancient energy.
"Siska, get behind me," Arga commanded. His voice was a low vibration that caused the glass water carafes on the table to shatter.
"Arga, what are you doing? This is Mr. Chen. He was sent by a private equity firm to help us restructure! He's the reason the banks opened their vaults so quickly!" Siska cried out, her voice filled with confusion and fear.
Mr. Chen stood up slowly. He adjusted his silk tie, a thin, mocking smile spreading across his face. His eyes, however, did not move. They were fixed on Arga, and for a brief second, they flashed with a familiar, sickly green light.
"The War Sovereign," Mr. Chen said, his voice smooth and devoid of human warmth. "You look smaller in this skin, Arga. More... fragile."
"And you look like a coward, hiding in the suit of a mortal," Arga replied. He stepped forward, the floor tiles cracking under his feet with every stride. "Which one of the Kings sent you? Was it the Jade Emperor? Or that traitorous dog, the Star-Slasher?"
Mr. Chen laughed, a sound like dry bones rattling in a jar. "Does it matter? You are a ghost, Arga. A remnant of a fallen era. We knew you would seek out your 'wife' eventually. She was the perfect bait. Every cent we poured into this company was a link in the chain we've wrapped around your neck."
Siska's eyes went wide. She looked at Mr. Chen, then at Arga. "Bait? Arga, what is he talking about?"
"Siska, move!" Arga roared.
He lunged. His hand, wreathed in the Nine Sun Current, shot toward Mr. Chen's throat. But Chen didn't dodge. He simply tapped the mahogany table.
A wall of emerald-colored thorns erupted from the floor, growing at a supernatural speed. They weren't made of wood; they were forged from Corrupted Qi, designed to drain the life force of anyone they touched.
Arga's palm struck the thorns. The collision created a shockwave that blew out the remaining windows of the boardroom, sending office furniture flying into the night sky. Arga felt a sharp, stinging coldness creeping up his arm the signature poison of the Emerald Wood Sect, a group of assassins loyal to the Heavenly Kings.
"You've grown weak, Sovereign," Chen hissed. He raised his hand, and the shadows in the room began to coil like serpents, wrapping around Siska's ankles and pulling her toward him. "You care for this mortal girl. That is a luxury you cannot afford."
Arga ignored the poison in his arm, forcing a surge of solar fire through his veins to incinerate the toxin. He looked at Siska, who was being dragged toward the broken window, sixty stories above the pavement.
"I told you, Chen," Arga said, his aura suddenly exploding into a pillar of blinding white light. "I don't have weaknesses. I only have targets."
Arga clapped his hands together. "Solar Pulse: Nova Burst!"
The light didn't just fill the room; it erased the shadows. The emerald thorns turned to ash, and the shadow-serpents holding Siska evaporated. Siska was thrown back against the wall, unconscious but safe.
Mr. Chen's suit shredded, revealing a body covered in glowing green runes. He let out a shriek of agony as the solar light burned his corrupted skin. He leaped toward the broken window, looking back at Arga with a face that was no longer human.
"The hunt has only just begun, Traitor!" Chen screamed. "The Star-Slasher is already crossing the void. By the time he arrives, this city will be a graveyard!"
Chen threw himself out into the night, vanishing into the clouds before Arga could strike again.
Arga stood at the edge of the broken window, his chest heaving. He looked down at the city, then at the unconscious Siska. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the silver crystal he had taken from the Envoy. It was glowing a dark, ominous red.
The Star-Slasher is coming, Arga thought. A Heavenly King is descending to the mortal plane.
He looked at Siska, then at the blood on his own palm. The poison hadn't been fully purged. It was a tracker a beacon for the enemy.
Suddenly, the red light on the crystal stopped blinking and turned solid. A holographic projection flickered into life in the middle of the ruined boardroom. It wasn't a map this time. It was a countdown.
00:59:59
"One hour," Arga whispered, his voice cold as the void. "One hour until the sky falls."