novelraw Chapter 525
Chapter 525
"That’s impossible," Quinn Thorne said flatly. "Marcus would never betray me and defect to the Company."
She gripped her phone, disbelief tightening her jaw.
She knew Marcus better than anyone. Even if he started doubting her, even if someone tried to poison him against her, he would have come back to confront her first. He would never have gone straight to the Company.
Something had changed.
Something she hadn’t anticipated.
She strode to the window and looked down.
Her blood ran cold.
The entire complex was already surrounded.
Armored vehicles. Tactical units. Mystic response teams positioned on rooftops and intersections.
"Damn it..."
If her elite operatives were still here, she might have forced a breakout. But she had just sent them all to Biyou Village.
With only a skeleton crew left, escaping a full Company containment zone with modern weapons and heavy mystic support was nearly impossible.
Even disguising herself wouldn’t work.
If Marcus had defected, the Company would already have countermeasures prepared.
"You look like you’re in trouble," Rowan Mercer said calmly, rising from his chair.
"Care to finalize our deal now?"
He studied her with mild curiosity.
"I can take you and your people out of here. Clean. Silent. The Company won’t even realize you vanished."
Rowan had expected this outcome the moment Marcus recovered his memories.
The Company would never ignore someone like Quinn Thorne once her real agenda came to light.
This wasn’t him setting her up.
This was just bad timing for her.
Quinn hesitated for half a second.
Then she made her choice.
"Fine," she said crisply. "Get us out safely, and I’ll give you the Dual Ascension technique."
Rowan nodded. "Gather your people. Bring only what matters."
Minutes later, Quinn assembled her core staff and stripped the office of all critical documents and data drives.
Marcus knew pieces of her operation.
But not the real secrets.
Those couldn’t fall into Company hands.
As long as she escaped now, she could rebuild. It would hurt. It would take years. But it wouldn’t be fatal.
"Hold on," Rowan said.
A luminous spatial sigil unfolded beneath their feet.
The room folded inward.
And vanished.
They reappeared inside a dense forest clearing.
Cool air. Pine and wet earth.
No sirens.
No helicopters.
No mystic signatures.
Quinn exhaled shakily.
"Thank you, Mr. Mercer. Without you, I’d already be in a Company interrogation room."
Rowan waved it off.
"A deal’s a deal. Now pay up."
Quinn’s eyes flicked sideways.
She covered her mouth and laughed softly.
"There’s something I forgot to mention. Dual Ascension isn’t a learnable technique. It’s encoded into my genes. Even if I write it down for you, you won’t be able to use it."
She stepped closer and traced a finger lightly across Rowan’s chest.
"But we could have a child together. The child would inherit my genetics. You’d get Dual Ascension that way."
Her gaze lingered.
"If you want."
Rowan’s expression didn’t change.
He caught her wrist in a blur and pressed his palm against her forehead.
"Not necessary. I can take it straight from your mind."
Quinn’s pupils shrank.
"What are you doing?!"
She felt an overwhelming pressure crash into her consciousness as Rowan’s psychic force invaded her mental defenses.
She activated Dual Ascension instinctively, erecting layered barriers inside her mind.
It was useless.
Rowan tore through them like wet paper.
Her subordinates rushed forward.
Rowan glanced at them once.
"Gravitational Field."
The air collapsed.
They were slammed flat into the ground, bones creaking, unable to move.
Rowan finished reading Quinn’s memories and released her.
She collapsed to one knee, gasping.
"Hm," he said thoughtfully. "You’ve lived an interesting life. And this technique is even better than I expected."
He had seen everything.
How her mother had created Dual Ascension.
How she’d been imprisoned and used as a breeding tool by a powerful family.
How Quinn had awakened both aspects of the technique.
How she’d built her organization by rewriting minds and turning broken mystics into loyal servants.
And how she’d manipulated Marcus from the moment his family was taken.
Rowan dispelled the gravity field.
Her people slumped to the forest floor, trembling.
"From your perspective," he said calmly, "you’re not wrong. The world did this to you."
He met her eyes.
"But trying to play games with me was a mistake."
He turned away.
"I’ve got what I came for."
Then he vanished.
...
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