RSantini

In the glittering skyline of Rome, power wears a tailored suit and hides a loaded gun.

Lucien Ricci is more than a billionaire CEO. He’s the ghost in the machine, the hidden ruler of the Ricci Syndicate Europe’s most powerful and secretive underworld empire. Cold, calculating, and untouchable, Lucien controls fortunes, whispers, and fates from the shadows. No one suspects the truth behind the polished façade until her.

Yuna Kim is a brilliant financial analyst from South Korea, brought into the company for her sharp mind and clean record. But when she stumbles across anomalies in the ledgers deep black funds, covert transfers, and something called Project Phoenix she becomes a threat no one planned for. Especially not Lucien.

What begins as a corporate red flag spirals into a war of secrets, bloodlines, and betrayal. Yuna is pulled into a world of assassins, underground labs, and coded identities where every glance has weight, and every truth could cost her life. But she isn’t just another asset. She’s something more. Something forgotten.

As old enemies resurface and inner circle alliances fracture, Lucien must choose between the empire he built and the one woman he never meant to care for.

Because in a world ruled by silence, love is the deadliest weapon of all.

The Silent Syndicate

Smoke still curled in the morning air above the wreckage of the Ricci-controlled safe house in Samseong-dong. Seoul's skyline blinked hazily through a heat shimmer, scorched debris still too hot to approach. Emergency services had already combed the site and left with more questions than answers. But the real mess, mess-the one that couldn't be documented in an incident report, was only beginning.

Lucien Ricci stood in the shadows of a half-toppled construction crane across the street, the rim of his coat dusted in soot. His eyes locked on the twisted steel skeleton where walls had once hidden weapons, intel, and a temporary haven for his inner circle. All of it now reduced to smoldering silence.

Behind him, Min-Jae adjusted the settings on a handheld scanner, watching for electromagnetic residues that might confirm Drevin's tech was used in the blast.

"EMP traces are faint," he said. "Someone scrubbed the area post-detonation. Either they're highly trained or they don't want us finding what tech was planted."

Lucien didn't respond immediately. His jaw clenched as he reviewed the timeline in his head. The safehouse had been compromised at 3:02 a.m. Explosives were wired into the lower support beams. Internal surveillance blacked out ten minutes prior. A precision hit too clean for a typical syndicate rebellion.

"Escorted out with Elena just before the second wave of attacks," Min-Jae replied. "They're secure at the Nomad Cellar. Kazuo's guarding them personally."

Lucien nodded once. Relief was a tight knot in his chest, but it didn't reach his expression.

Nomad Cellar, Gyeongbokgung District – 10:48 a.m.

The underground bunker reeked of cold metal and concrete, but to Yuna, it was safer than any penthouse she'd lived in. She paced the corridor outside the server room, watching as Elena Vescari worked furiously on decrypting the remaining files retrieved from the Jeju compound.

Kazuo leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "You should rest."

"No time," Yuna snapped. "The files mention something called The Chrysalis. It's not just Phase Two of Project Phoenix, it's something else."

Elena chimed in, eyes still on her monitor. "It's a transformation protocol. Genomic rewriting via neural override. But it's not just for soldiers, it's for legacy carriers."

Yuna stilled. "Legacy carriers like... me?"

"Exactly." Elena spun her monitor around. A DNA strand lit up on screen, its base pairs glowing with an unnatural sequence. "And possibly your brother."

Kazuo shifted uneasily. "We confirmed Hyun-Ki is alive. But there's more, he's not operating independently."

Yuna stared at the screen. The Chrysalis. It felt like a warning.

Florence, Italy – Ricci Estate, Midnight Local Time

Viola Ricci stood before a long-forgotten vault in the crypt beneath the chapel. The old Ricci seal cracked as she turned the twin keys. Dust erupted into the air.

Inside, rows of scrolls and hand-bound ledgers lined the walls. At the center sat a leather-clad codex.

The title, hand-etched in Latin: Ignis In Aeternum Fire Forever.

Seoul Underground – 11:32 p.m.

Lucien returned to the Nomad Cellar, blood still on his collar. Min-Jae debriefed the moment he stepped in.

"We tracked the blast signatures to a rogue tech cell operating out of Gangnam. They had Sable implants. It's Drevin's people."

Lucien looked at Yuna, whose face had paled. "Then it wasn't just sabotage. It was a message."

She nodded. "And the message is clear. They're coming for the carriers. For all of us."

Lucien's eyes hardened. "Then we burn them first."

As the lights flickered in the cellar, and a coded alert blared from Elena's laptop, another facility in Tokyo had just gone dark.

Chapter 23: Eyes in the Ashes