All Chapters of Guardian of Ruin: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The golden hues of the late afternoon sun spilled over the sprawling cityscape, washing the streets in light and shadow. Below, the city hummed with life—vendors shouting in the markets, children chasing each other between stalls, vehicles weaving through the congested roads. The air was thick with dust and heat, carrying the scents of grilled meats, freshly ground spices, and the faint tang of oil from the busy mechanics’ shops. Eden stood by the tall hospital window, her silhouette framed by the dying light. She watched the world she had fought so fiercely to protect, a city unaware of how close it had come to unraveling. The weight of recent battles pressed down on her, but beneath it, something steadied her heart—a fragile sense of victory, of survival. Behind her, the steady rhythm of a respirator filled the quiet room. Roman lay in the hospital bed, his chest rising and falling with the slow, labored breath of someone who had barely escaped death’s grasp. Bandages wrapped ti

Chapter Two: Ghost OperativeRain hammered the rooftop above them, fat droplets echoing against the rusted steel beams of the safe house. The storm had rolled in fast, smothering the city skyline in a sheet of grey, as though the world itself was mourning something long forgotten.Eden stood in the armory, her back to the others, fingers tightening the straps of her harness with quiet determination. The photo of Valeska was still sitting on the operations table, staring up at them like a ghost refusing to rest.“She trained him?” Eden asked again, this time more calmly. Her voice echoed slightly in the near-empty space.Her father, pacing along the far wall, nodded slowly. “Lucien didn’t come out of nowhere. He was made. Molded. And Valeska… she was the sculptor.”Roman leaned against the edge of the table, arms folded, the dim lighting throwing shadows across the angular cut of his jaw. “I thought she was executed in Prague. Core intel confirmed the body.”“That body wasn’t hers,” he

Chapter Four: Echo Protocol The vault burned behind them.Roman’s fingers gripped the detonator as they stood at a safe distance, the explosive charges having been carefully placed on every terminal, server, and failsafe hatch. When the shockwave rippled through the forest, birds scattered from the trees like shattered glass, and the earth rumbled with the sound of severed history.Ash and memory turned to smoke.Eden didn’t flinch as the flames reached the sky. She only turned away once the fire no longer burned in her periphery. Roman watched her for a moment, something unreadable in his eyes.“That place shouldn’t have existed,” she murmured.“It didn’t,” he replied. “Not anymore.”They drove in silence until dusk. The sun lowered itself like a bloodstain smeared across the mountains, and Eden’s thoughts turned inward. She kept seeing the screen in her mind—the words Target: Eden. Prime Initiated. Over and over.What did it mean? Cloning? Indoctrination? Psychological warfare?Why

Chapter Six: The Descent Zurich was a city that wore silence like a crown. From the snow-dusted rooftops of the financial district to the cold glint of its underground systems, everything hummed with an eerie precision—controlled, ordered, predictable.Except tonight.Tonight, chaos was circling beneath the surface.Eden stood on the rooftop of an old banking hall in Kreis 1, her breath fogging in the winter air, her eyes fixed on the ground below. From this height, the people looked harmless. Suits, coats, polished shoes. None of them knew that deep below their feet lay a ghost network—an echo chamber of psychological warfare, built from the stolen identities of those Valeska had once owned.Roman crouched beside her, adjusting the scope on a compact rifle. “The back elevator runs below the lowest security tier. It’s old tech—no biometric locks. But it’s buried behind a sealed boardroom. We’ve got five minutes before someone notices the breach.”Eden checked the chip drive Vos had g

Chapter Eight: Embers In The WindBy the time Eden made it back to the safehouse, Roman was pacing.He glanced up, jaw clenched. “You disappeared for almost an hour.”Eden tossed the silver thermal blanket onto the arm of the couch and met his gaze. “I found something.”Roman stopped pacing. His eyes narrowed, picking up on the tightness in her tone, the cold flame behind her words.She held up the drive.“You read it,” he said, a statement, not a question.“I had to.”Roman exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And?”“There’s someone else. Lucien Black.”At the mention of the name, Roman’s entire body shifted—shoulders tensing, expression falling into unreadable stone.“You know him,” Eden said.He didn’t answer right away.Then: “Not personally. But I’ve heard the name. Ghost stories, mostly. Supposed to be the man behind Tier Zero.”“Tier Zero?” Eden echoed.“The real command. The ones who pull strings even the intelligence community doesn’t know exist. People like Dormer were