Chapter 54: The Final Judgment

The opulent main hall of the Casson Manor was a tableau of carnage and silence. The scent of fresh blood, sharp and metallic, hung heavy in the air, a grim perfume that clung to the velvet curtains and seeped into the polished marble floors. Bodies of elite guards lay scattered like broken dolls, their formidable presence in life reduced to nothing in death. At the center of this grim stage, Byron Qualls stood, his black trench coat unstained, his presence an abyss of calm that absorbed all the...