Chapter 163 WE ANSWERED
Benjamin's POV
Clarence wanted attention.
That was his first mistake.
I stood in the dark. My hands clasped behind my back. Watching the map projections fade in and out across the far wall. Ned adjusted the final calibrations without speaking. Dante leaned against the steel table, his arms crossed, his expression bored. But his eyes were sharp and focused. The three of us had done this dance too many times to need any words.
"Clarence thinks loud equals powerful. He thinks noise, makes kings." I said way too calmly.
"That explains the fireworks." Dante snorted. "And the title, rogue king. A bite on the ass." Dante said as he didn't even bother to look up.
I smiled slow and cold.
"I want something louder. But not messy. I want clean. Precise. Historic." I said, as I was nodding my head.
That got their attention.
I tapped the control pad and the projection shifted from Clarence's compound layout to the surrounding terrain, at the blind spots highlighted in soft blue. Patrol patterns looped and replayed. Sensor ranges blinked red. They went dark one by one.
"Undetectable. No alarms. No cameras. No witnesses who can explain how we were there." I said, as a wicked grin appeared on my face.
"Three men?" Dante tilted his head. He let out a low whistle.
"Three men. Less noise. Less chance we get caught." I confirmed. "We've tangoed together before. We don't need the extra company."
"And the message?" Ned asked as he finally raised his head and met my gaze.
I didn't answer right away. I left the silent stretch. I'll let it sharpen.
"Clarence wanted to announce he's back." I said finally. "I'm going to announce that he never left my shadow."
We moved just after midnight. No convoy. No signal chatter. No footprints left behind that mattered.
Clarence's compound rose out of the dark like a scar. It was an expanded warehouse with reinforced walls and guards who thought numbers made them safe.
They never saw us. They would never know how close we were.
Ned ghosted ahead. His fingers danced over a handheld unit. One by one the perimeter lights flickered. They didn't go out just, dimmed enough to feel wrong. Subtle and unsettling.
Dante chuckled under his breath. "Boy I sure love that part. It makes the hairs on their neck stand-up." he said as he watched in amusement.
We reached the inner Ridge. From here, the entire compound was visible. "On my mark" I say quietly. Ned nodded. Dante cracked his neck once. He was grinning like he was about to enjoy himself.
Fuck. Clarence was a fucking dumbass. He was dumb as a box of rocks. Why in the hell would you entice ones that lived for this shit?
I pressed the trigger. The sky ignited. No explosions. Just ART.
Light unfolded overhead in impossible precision. Blades of white and crimson cut across the clouds. Weaving symbols that burned bright enough to turn night in today.
Shockwaves rolled low and controlled. They rattled windows and was dropping men to their knees without shattering a single wall. Then came the sound. Deep. Layered. A pulse that hit the chest first, then the bones. Not panic noise. It was commanding. It was final.
Words formed in the sky. Massive and undeniable. Written in light so sharp it hurt to look at.
YOU CALL YOURSELF, KING. YOU FORGOT WHO BUILT THE THRONE.
Dante let out a small, low whistle. "That's definitely going to sting." He said as he chuckled under his breath.
The lights shifted again. 12 beams dropped from the sky like judgment itself. They slammed into the ground just beyond the compounds central yard.
When the light faded, the stakes were already there. 12 of them were placed and mounted on top of each one, unmistakable even from a distance were the heads of Clarence's 12 men. The same ones who thought a firework show made them untouchable.
No blood. No spectacle beyond the truth of it. Just finality.
Ned exhaled slowly. "They'll talk about this."
"Good. That's the point." I replied, as I admired my work one last time.
Guards we're screaming now. Confusion was everywhere. Clarence himself would've been watching. Between rage and realization.
I leaned forward just enough that if he were looking the right way, he'd feel it.
"This is what a message looks like." I said softly, more to myself than anyone else.
Dante checked the timer. "We're done."
We we're already gone before the echoes faded. No alarm. No pursuit. No answers.
Clarence’s POV
The night split open.
That was the only way to describe it.
Light, blinding and surgical, cut across the compound, carving symbols into the sky that burned straight into my skull. My men froze. Some dropped to their knees. Others reached for weapons like that would help against this.
Benjamin’s message wasn’t loud.
It was precise. Controlled. Mocking.
The lights shifted, layered, weaving shadows that bent and folded until one truth was impossible to ignore: I was standing in his world, not the other way around.
Then the beams dropped.
Twelve stakes.
Twelve heads.
My men.
Their faces were lit from below, every wound highlighted, every expression frozen in shock, pain, and realization. He hadn’t rushed it. He hadn’t been sloppy. This wasn’t rage. This was a lesson.
My stomach turned, hot and vicious. Around me, someone gagged. Someone else whispered a prayer. I didn’t move. I Couldn’t. The air felt too thin.
“He was here,” Stephan breathed, voice shaking. “Inside our perimeter.”
Gregory’s hands were fists at his sides. “This wasn’t retaliation. This was dominance. He lifted his leg and pissed all over us"
I laughed. It ripped out of me, sharp, cracked, wrong. “He wants me afraid,” I said, voice steady even as my pulse roared in my ears. “He wants me to hesitate.”
I turned to them, fury settling into something colder, sharper.
“He just declared me prey.”
I stepped forward, eyes never leaving the stakes. “Burn this image into your minds. This is the last night he makes an example out of us.”
My gaze hardened.
“We’re done hiding. We’re done waiting.”
I lifted my chin.
“Send the word.”
I smiled, slow and lethal.
“We’re at war.”