Thorns Beneath the Crown
The rain didn't fall—it stabbed. Hard, fast, cold. It bounced off the metal shingles of the Deadly Six's hideout like tiny bullets. Cainen sat in the war room, alone now. The table was cracked. Maps were soaked. Screens flickered with distorted signals and static.
Everything was falling apart. Not from outside... but from within.
Kaito entered, soaked to the bone but still chewing chips. "Rekka's off chasing that lead you gave him. He ain't answering comms."
Cainen didn't look at him. "Then I'll assume the worst."
Kaito raised a brow. "Tch. That's dark. Even for you."
Cainen leaned back, staring at the ceiling. His voice was hollow, tired, but burning beneath. "The more power we get… the less I know who's really with me."
Flashback: Day After the Takeover
Just three nights ago, Cainen stood above a crumbled Forsaken outpost. Smoke choked the air, and bodies littered the street like trash. Victory was his—but only barely.
One of his own—Gantz—had turned mid-battle. He sabotaged a key bridge, nearly costing them half their forces. They'd found his body the next morning. No one knew who did it.
Cainen didn't ask. He just walked away, fists bleeding.
Present: Crack in the Armor
Rekka returned before dawn. One arm busted, the other dragging a half-dead spy through the mud.
"They knew our layout," Rekka muttered, collapsing in a chair. "They had maps of the entire sewer grid. Someone's been feeding them everything."
Cainen stepped forward, slow and silent. The spy barely looked up before Cainen's foot came down on his chest.
"You're gonna tell me everything," he said. "Or I make you regret coming out the womb."
The spy didn't scream when Cainen broke his fingers. But he talked when Lilith walked in.
She didn't ask questions.
She just smiled.
By the end of it, they knew there were still more moles—hidden, quiet, loyal to no one but themselves.
Shifting Dynamics
Later that night, the core sat around a fire outside the hideout. For once, there was no war—only quiet breathing and flickering flame.
Rekka tossed pebbles into the fire. "You think this all ends when you take the throne?"
Cainen didn't answer.
Lilith leaned into the firelight, shadows playing across her grin. "Power doesn't end wars. It breeds prettier ones."
Kaito nodded. "Truth. The stronger we get, the bigger the monsters chasing us."
Cainen looked at them. His team. His broken, messed-up, half-dysfunctional, war-cracked team.
His empire.
"Then I won't just wear the crown," he said. "I'll shove it down their throats."
Final Scene: The Assassin's Knife
Later that night, as Cainen stared out from the balcony of the hideout, an assassin crept close. Silent. Fast. Blade drawn.
Too slow.
Cainen spun without looking, catching the wrist mid-swing. He yanked hard—CRACK—and drove his elbow through the assassin's throat.
As the body dropped, Cainen whispered to himself, blood dripping onto the tiles:
"Everyone wants the throne... 'til it bites back."
End of Chapter 27 — Thorns Beneath the Crown