Dante finally stood up and walked out. Viella and Lily watched from their cramped hiding spot as Alina slipped out after him. They waited a bit before following behind.

As they drove for hours, the city lights began to blur. The sun started fading away and it was nearly night.

"Where is he even going?" Viella muttered, her head leaning against the cool glass of the window. Her stomach was still growling, and the adrenaline from the morning had soured into a dull ache.

"I swear, Lily, if this isn’t the mission and he’s just going to another time pass, I am strangling you with my own hands."

Lily didn’t flinch. Her hands were locked at ten and two on the steering wheel. "I accept those terms, my lady. But look."

Suddenly, Dante’s car was going fast.

"Shit! What happened?" Viella bolted upright, her seatbelt locking against her chest. "Did he discover that someone’s following him? Did he see us?"

"No, my lady," Lily replied, her voice dropping. She signaled with a tilt of her head as a few dark, window-tinted cars drove past them at a terrifying speed.

The cars suddenly started attacking Dante’s car. One rammed into his rear fender, sending sparks flying across the asphalt.

Dante’s men leaned out of the windows and started firing. The night air was ripped apart by the sound of gunfire.

"Shit," Lily muttered, the first time Viella had heard her actually sound stressed.

Lily slowed down, keeping her distance to avoid the bullets, and lightly followed the chaos unfolding ahead. In the distance, Viella could see Alina’s car weaving recklessly through the lanes, trying to get closer to the crossfire

The scene was going insane as the chase veered off the main highway, driving deeper and deeper into the dense woods.

"I am not sure if we should follow them, Lily," Viella whispered, her voice trembling.

Lily didn’t answer, she just kept driving, her gaze fixed on the fading red glow of the taillights ahead.

Viella let out a shaky breath. She reached into her bag and pulled out her own gun, her fingers cold as she gripped the metal. She hadn’t expected to actually use it.

Finally, the sound of engines died down. They rounded a bend and saw Dante’s car parked crookedly near an abandoned, crumbling stone structure. The doors were flung wide open, and the silence that followed was even more terrifying than the gunfire.

They slipped out of their car moved through the underbrush. Faint, muffled sounds of a struggle and low, mocking voices led them toward the back of the ruins.

They peered around a jagged wall, and Viella’s heart nearly stopped.

Dante was there. The powerful Mafia of the city was tied to a rusted metal chair. His silk shirt was torn, his arm was badly bruised, and a steady trickle of blood was coming from the corner of his mouth, staining his jaw. He looked battered, but his eyes were cold.

Lily and Viella looked at each other, stunned into silence.

"Guess your plot is working?" Lily whispered, "He’s... actually captured."

"Aha... ha... I guess..." Viella whispered back, her eyes wide. She herself couldn’t believe it. This was the exact "Vulnerable Moment" she had scribbled down to draw Alina into her final, tragic sacrifice.

The man stood towering over Dante, a jagged, ugly smirk stretching across his face.

"This is the man our boss wanted to kill?" he sneered, circling the rusted metal chair.

"The ’Great’ Dante Velerio Moretti? The most feared man in the underground? Ahahaha! It was so easy to capture you. You were as easy to bag as a stray kitten. Where’s all that legendary power now, huh? Tsk, look at you bleeding on the dirt like a common beggar."

Dante stayed silent, his head hanging low, shadows obscuring his eyes. He didn’t even grunt at the insults, his body slumped as if he had finally reached his limit.

Suddenly, the man reached into a heavy tool bag and pulled out a rusted sledgehammer.

Viella’s eyes widened, and a wave of nausea hit her. She had read a lot of murder scene also torture scenes but actually witnessing it, was different. Even though she knew she was inside a novel, the metallic scent of blood made it feel horrific.

She glanced frantically toward the other side of the clearing. Where is she?! She expected Alina to step in by now. This was the moment! This was the peak of the Heroine’s Sacrifice she had plotted out! But that coward was still huddled behind a thick oak tree, her eyes wide with terror, frozen in place.

CRACK.

The sound of the hammer connecting with Dante’s head echoed through the quite forest.

Dante’s head snapped back, and a fresh spray of blood splattered across his torn white shirt. He let out a low, guttural groan, blood now dripping steadily from a gash on his forehead, pooling in the dirt beneath his boots.

The man tilted his head, resting the hammer on his own shoulder with a mocking pout. "Aww, what a loser. Is that all? I thought you’d at least scream for me. Where’s your pride, Moretti? Tell me, does the dirt taste as expensive as your wine?"

Dante kept listening, his breathing ragged but it looked liked as if he were waiting for a specific signal.

Lily and Viella watched the whole scene from the shadows, their bodies tense. Viella’s heart was beating so hard she thought it would give their position away.

"Why is that damn Alina not stepping in?!" Viella hissed under her breath, her knuckles white as she gripped her gun. "She’s supposed to run out now! She’s supposed to be the martyr!"

The man leaned in, the stench of grease and sweat rolling off him. He used the head of the hammer to tilt Dante’s chin upward, forcing the captive man to face him.

"This is the face everyone is dying for?" the man sneered, his voice dripping with envy.

"Indeed, I have to say, you have a beautiful face. No wonder you’re rolling two women at once around your finger. What was that, a maid? Yeah... Alina. That was her name, right? She’s indeed a pretty cute chick, I have to say."

Dante remained motionless, his breathing shallow, his eyes hooded by the shadows of his hair. He didn’t flinch at the mention of Alina.

But then, the man’s grin widened into something far more evil. "And what about the other chick? Your fiancée... the famous Lady Viella~ or should I say..." He leaned in until his breath hit Dante’s ear. "Celestine."

The effect was instantaneous. Dante’s head snapped up. His dark hair was matted with blood, and a crimson trail ran down his cheek, but his eyes were wide, fixed, and deathly still.

He looked dead into the man’s eyes with a gaze so piercing it seemed to physically shove the thug back a step.

"Celestine...?" Viella muttered from behind the crumbling stone wall, her brow furrowing in genuine confusion.

"That is your first name, my lady," Lily whispered, her eyes never leaving the clearing.

"Oh, yeah," Viella breathed, a small realization hitting her. "I got too used to the name ’Lady Viella.’ I forgot I actually had a first name in this mess."

Back in the clearing, the thug recovered from his momentary shock. He gripped the hammer tighter, his knuckles turning white. "Oh! So you still have some strength left in you, huh?" he sneered, though his voice wavered just a fraction. "Does the name of your little princess wake you up? Good. I want you awake when I start on her."

The night air was suddenly ripped apart by a deafening BOOM. A nearby crate exploded into a cloud of splinters and black smoke, sending a shockwave.

The thug whipped his head around, his eyes wide with sudden, frantic terror. That split second of distraction was all Dante needed.

With a force dante’s muscles surged. The frayed ropes snapped. Before the man could even turn back, Dante was on him. He moved like a shadow, grabbing the thug’s throat with one hand and twisting the hammer out of his grip with the other, pinning him against the jagged stone wall.

From the dark perimeter of the woods, dozens of red laser dots appeared on the thug’s chest. Dante’s men emerged from the shadows like ghosts,their weapons leveled. They hadn’t been late, they had been waiting for his signal.

Dante leaned in, his face inches from the man who had just mocked his fiancée. Blood smeared across his cheek, and his eyes were dark with a predatory cold glint

"Now," Dante whispered, his voice a dangerous, low vibration that made the thug’s knees buckle. "Let’s hear what you wanted to say about Celestine. I’m all ears."

The man shivered, the hammer he had been so proud of now clattering uselessly to the dirt. He tried to speak, but only a pathetic, wet wheezing sound came out.

The distance between the ruins and the bushes made the voices sound like muffle, but the violence was crystal clear. From their hiding spot, Viella and Lily watched as Dante turned into a madman of controlled rage, his fists colliding with the thug in a sickening thud.

Then, the scene took a sharp turn.

A scream pierced the night air. One of the hidden attackers lunged out, grabbing Alina by the hair and jerking her backward. The man Dante had been beating scrambled away, crawling through the dirt to grab a fallen pistol.

He leveled it shakingly at Alina’s temple.

"If you don’t let us leave right now, I will blow this girl’s head off!" the thug shrieked, his voice cracking with desperation.

"L-Lord... Lord Dante..." Alina stuttered, her face pale.

Viella held her breath, waiting for the moment she had written,the moment where Dante would drop his weapon, or Alina would heroically twist away. But instead, the air in the woods turned to ice.

Dante didn’t point his gun at the thugs.

Slowly, he shifted his stance and pointed his barrel directly toward the dense thicket of shadows where Viella was crouching. His eyes were cold, tracking the exact spot where she was hiding.

"Fine," Dante said, his voice a low, "I will empty this whole gun to show my ’goodwill’... and you can leave. Just don’t touch her."

Viella’s heart stopped. The sacrifice scene! This was supposed to be the part where someone gets shot to save the lead! But why was the barrel staring her in the face?!

"Lily," Viella hissed, her voice barely a breath.

"If he fires... I’m the first one to die! Why is he aiming at me?!"

"Don’t move, my lady," Lily whispered, her body tensed. They were pinned. Dante’s men were everywhere in the perimeter, one wrong move to esc

ape the line of fire and they would be discovered by both the assassins and Dante’s personal guard.

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TO BE CONTINUED