It was different from the quest he had received so far. Xavier wondered if he had triggered the quest since he was thinking of killing Velkhar during their eting, but the rewards were also different.
'I have never gotten two rewards for completing a quest. Heck, I have never gotten rewards of this kind.'
Completing the quest already gave Xaveir one point which would help him upgrade his UMS. However, this wasn't a reward, but an opportunity.
Xavier looked at the penalty.
"Even if there was no reward for this quest… I was going to kill that bastard. I have seven days to finish the quest, so let's start working on it."
The doors slid open and Xavier stepped out, already sorting paths, assets, and leverage in his head. Velkhar had eyes on him now. That was fine. Eyes could be fooled. Systems could be bent. People made mistakes when they thought they were in control.
'Honestly… this is beyond what I could have thought of. Had I known there would be an enemy like Kylus on Jupiter, I would have made sure to stay with Reva and the team. Coming to Jupiter via the portal had always been my backup plan.
And although I needed to be in the prison to access the old mines, that was not the only way to do that. Well, it worked out just fine, and I found Bull's treasure, and even have a rough approximation of the next treasure location.
What I didn't expect was Kylus. And although that's sothing I had no way of knowing, I should have expected sothing like that. I am not worried about them getting caught by Kylus. They are more than capable.
Not to ntion, Viola is a master hiding and changing identities. Still… I can't help but get worried about Reva.'
"Is this… what love does to a man? It's a weakness…"
It was at that mont when Xavier recalled Zyphyrus' words 'Love… Love is the cruelest rcy. It gives you warmth so you can rember what the cold feels like. It makes eternity bearable, but never kind.'
anwhile, there was chaos on Kylus' ship.
Three walls were alive with feeds, each one running a different angle of the sa hunt. Street cams ripped from public grids, private security loops bought with favors, thermal overlays from drones he didn't officially own, and still fras from bounty hunters who wanted to prove they were useful. Nas, faces, coordinates, tistamps, all stacked and refreshed every two seconds.
The center display held the call grid.
Dozens of voices. Dozens of teams. So in cramped cockpits, so in dirty safehouses, so in expensive offices pretending they weren't rcenaries. Every one of them talking over each other, arguing, bargaining, throwing excuses into the air like excuses were currency.
To Kylus's left, reports kept updating in clean blocks of text.
Sightings. False sightings. Paid tips that led to empty alleys and dead ends. Snatches of chatter that sounded promising until they didn't. All of it tied to the sa damn thing.
Lyra and the team.
A handful of people who weren't even from Jupiter, and yet they'd managed to vanish into it like they'd grown up here.
It had been days since he posted the bounty.
Days since he'd dragged every hungry killer on the planet out of their holes and pointed them in one direction. Days of watching the net tighten, watching pressure rise.
And still, nothing.
Kylus sat forward in his chair, eyes burning at the screens like staring harder could force them to produce results. His hands rested on the table, thick fingers spread, knuckles scarred, the kind of hands that looked like they'd ended more argunts than they'd started.
A voice on the call tried to speak up again.
"We're close, boss. We're—"
"Close?" Kylus snapped, and the word hit the room like sothing thrown. "You've been close for three days. You know what close ans? Close ans I don't have to keep hearing your voice."
The man on the feed flinched, mouth opening, then closing.
Another voice cut in, fast, defensive. "They're moving through underpass routes, they've got help, they've—"
Kylus slamd his palm down hard enough to rattle the device beneath it. "They're not gods. They're not ghosts. They're people, and they're bleeding sowhere, and you're telling you can't find them?"
Kylus stared for one second longer, like he could punish the pixels into becoming useful, then he whipped the report aside and stood so abruptly the chair skidded back.
"You're wasting my ti," he said into the call, voice carrying across the grid. "Every one of you is wasting my ti!"
A hunter on-screen tried to laugh it off. "Co on, boss, it's a big planet, and—"
Kylus grabbed the main control unit off the table and hurled it down with both hands.
The device hit the floor and exploded into shards, lights dying in a stuttering flicker as half the feeds glitched, froze, and dropped into black. The call grid cut into static. The ship's hum didn't change, but the room felt suddenly wrong, like soone had yanked the spine out of it.
Silence held for a beat. Then the door behind him opened.
A female assistant stepped in like she'd been invited, even though no one invited her into Kylus's temper.
Red-skinned, tall, lean in the way that ant her body didn't waste anything. Her hair fell dark and heavy down her back, glossy enough to catch light with every step. She wore a fitted uniform that wasn't trying to be seductive, but it still hugged her shape like it had been tailored to make sure nobody forgot she existed. Her eyes were sharp, gold-toned, and calm in a way that didn't match the chaos he'd just made.
She looked at the wreckage on the floor, then at Kylus.
"It's damaged," she said.
Kylus's breathing was heavy through his nose. He didn't look at her for long. He looked past her, like the whole ship was disappointing him.
"Get it repaired," he said. "Now."
"Yes, Commander," she replied, already tapping her wrist display, sending orders without asking who should receive them.
Kylus stepped away from the table and walked toward the back of the command area. He didn't slow until he reached his private chamber.
The sensors turned on and scanned him. The door recognized him and opened.
Kylus stepped inside.
The assistant followed without hesitation, the door sealing behind them like it understood this wasn't a place people entered unless they were ant to.
Kylus turned slightly, finally letting his eyes settle on her.
"What?" he asked.
The assistant held his gaze, unshaken, waiting for the next order like she already knew he wasn't done breaking things yet.
"Connect to the chairman of AIL."
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