The scanner and the shadow in the corner sounded at the same time. The leader's gaze sharpened, and he tore off Nono's necklace.
She had not been carrying this necklace when she underwent the inspection to enter Harz Mountain Fortress.
The leader frowned deeply, seemingly sensing something wrong. Meeting Nono's gaze, with its trace of pride, mockery, and pity, he suddenly thought of something.
Word Spirit: Bronze Throne.
The muscles in his arms bulged, and he crushed the necklace with his bare hands. A sesame-seed-sized miniature signal transmitter fell out of a hidden compartment beneath the jewels. A faint indicator on the black square blinked at a steady frequency.
The leader's scalp instantly prickled. "Who are you calling?"
He hurriedly caught the transmitter between his fingertips and crushed it.
Although he was acting on the family head's orders, he had no doubt that if Young Master Caesar discovered all this, his own death by torture would be the family's first step toward appeasing Caesar's fury.
"On guard!" he shouted, reaching for his gun.
The leader's order diverted all the shadows' attention. Well-trained, they immediately established a perimeter around him and Nono, but they never imagined that the real danger came from their superior.
The shadows' leader had received direct orders from a senior member of the family to execute Chen Motong and everyone involved if necessary.
"You're finished." Nono merely smiled.
As her voice fell, fire descended from the sky. Every sound drowned in a hurricane, and concrete walls strong enough to withstand bunker-buster missiles shattered. Blazing red flames surged from the black cracks, flowing along the wind's path to form magnificent rivers. Nono stood amid the rivers of fire as the flames parted on either side, like Moses parting the Red Sea.
Everyone knelt before her, including the shadows'