Next Day.
"I always wanted to believe Vega had something planned," the man on the rooftop murmured. "When I told him he was going to die… I wanted to believe that even knowing I'd be the one to end him, he would still pull off something impossibly brilliant. Something that would make him legendary all over again."
Silver: I know. I wanted to believe that too. I still don't understand why he didn't fight. Why he didn't try to take any of us down with him.
The mysterious man closes his eyes. A memory rises — sharp, vivid.
Vega stands exactly where the man is standing now, wind dragging at his black suit, sun fading behind him.
Vega: You know, Darhua… I once dreamed of conquering the world. Making it remember the name Vega. But when I look back at my life, all I see is blood. Families—happy families—begging for mercy. Screams. People crying, "Please don't kill me, I have a wife… a child…" And every time, I pulled the trigger like some machine. A damn robot.
Dahua: When you first joined the Darima family, you were stunned to learn how this world really works. Shocked that something existed above governments, above nations. And that's why you wanted to rule. That hunger, Vega… that's desire. The lust for absolute power. It's so intoxicating you'd throw away your humanity for it.
Vega: Maybe… no. You're right.
He steps toward the cliff's edge. The wind whips his coat around him as the sun melts into gold behind the buildings. Darhua watches in silence.
Vega: But I'm going to create a world where the family system doesn't exist.
He smiles faintly, eyes locked on the horizon.
The memory fades.
Silver: A world with no family system, huh. To make that happen… he'd have to fight the entire world.
Darhua: You really think he couldn't?
Silver: He might've tried. But there are Pillars and Fathers like you—stronger than Vega. Far stronger.
Darhua: He could've grown stronger.
Silver: Maybe. But how strong do you have to get to take on the whole world?
Darhua: You'd have to be a god.
Darhua tilts his head toward the sky, as if the memory is still painted there.
Darhua: Guess he wasn't a god after all.
Silver: And what do we do with his son?
Darhua: Let him stay. Not as a member… but as family.
A soft smile.
---
Later…
Silver: Come on, kid. Looks like you've got a new home now.
Bond: And who the hell are you to decide that?
Silver: Let's go.
Bond steps out of the car. They enter the tall building; the lobby is empty, the air too still, too clean. Inside the lift, it's just the two of them. Silver taps a card against the camera. A scanner drops from the ceiling, sweeps the card, and suddenly the panel lights up — hidden floors.
All of them underground.
Bond stares, breath caught somewhere between fear and awe.
Silver selects the lowest floor.
The lift drops fast — fast like a train slicing through the night. Another lift clicks into place above them as theirs sinks deeper and deeper beneath the world.
When it finally stops…
Bond's eyes widen.
Because this isn't a basement.
This is a city carved under the earth.
Air vents thrumming.
Cafeterias glowing with soft lights.
Barracks. Rooms. Gyms. Training halls.
Rows of weapons.
Guards moving like shadows.
Everything a person needs to live… or to wage war.
Bond stands there, overwhelmed, his world cracking open for the second time in two days.
Something this massive… hidden beneath a whole city. Bond couldn't breathe for a second.
"This… this big? Under the city? I— I can't believe it…"
He swallowed hard.
"H-How did you even build a place like this?"
Silver didn't blink. Didn't hesitate.
"It was always here. Long before you, me, or your father were even born. This place holds the secret of how this entire country works."
A proud smile tugged at his lips.
"Darima stands above the government, Bond. Always has."
"And my father… was part of this?" Bond asked, voice trembling.
Silver shook his head slowly.
"No. He wasn't a part of it. He was the reason Darima became what it is."
His voice carried something between pride and sorrow.
"Before Vega, Darima was weak. Even with Darhua as the founder. Vega… made Darima powerful."
"So my father… was a bad guy?" Bond whispered, tears forming.
"He was… for a long time. But he changed. For something. For someone. And the only memories I choose to keep of him now… are the ones where he was the kindest man in this whole damn world."
Bond lowered his head, crying silently as they descended deeper into the underground abyss. The ceiling lights slid past them like falling stars.
Silver glanced at him with a soft, fleeting smile—almost human.
Then he turned sharply and shouted:
"Do the thing, Charley!"
A siren erupted through the vast underground city.
People from every corner—cafeterias, gyms, weapon bays, dorms—poured toward the central hall.
Silver and Bond walked down the long staircase. Four chairs waited below, but Silver didn't sit.
"I have something to announce," he declared.
Two figures stepped out of the crowd—the other pillars.
One was a towering giant, muscles bulging like carved stone. The other… thin, twisted, his mouth stretched unnaturally wide, held together by harsh metal wiring. Their presence sucked the air out of the room.
"What are you announcing without us?" the giant rumbled.
Silver raised a hand, a deadly smile spreading across his face.
"Vega is dead. The Human Machine is dead!" he roared.
A smirk crept across the giant's face.
"And I am the one who killed him. With my own two hands."
Bond froze.
His world went mute. Tears ran down silently, burning his cheeks. But what could he do?
He had no powers.
No weapons.
Only a tightening resolve to kill Silver one day.
"So you really did it, huh, sword guy?" the giant asked.
"Yeah, Doccaro," Silver replied.
Silver scanned the crowd.
Some faces stayed blank—hardened.
Others clenched their fists, shaking with contained rage.
Those were Vega's people.
The Painkillers.
"As you must have guessed," Silver continued, pacing slowly, "there will be a new pillar in Vega's place."
A murmur rolled through the crowd.
"But Painkillers is not the team getting a new pillar."
"What?!" voices burst out.
"I will be your new leader from now on," Silver said.
"What?? But sir— you're already our leader!" a man from silver's team shouted.
"I was," Silver replied coldly. "Team Guardian is the one receiving the new pillar. I will handle the Painkillers myself."
He pointed toward the entrance.
"Welcome your new leader… Noir."
A thin shadow stepped forward.
A man in a white suit, long-legged, sharp-eyed, his presence quiet but unsettling.
"That's our new pillar? What did Darhua even see in him?" Guardians muttered.
Noir walked down the stairs, hands in pockets, speaking calmly.
"You're wondering… really? A guy like me? As a pillar? Someone who looks like he can't kill a fly?"
He smiled lightly.
"And to spice the dish— yeah, I can't. I've never killed anyone. Never even tried. I'm not a criminal… and I never will be."
"What is he saying? How did he become a pillar then?" someone whispered.
"A fair question, Mr. Billy," Noir answered without looking back.
"You… know my name?" Billy stuttered.
"I know the name of every member of Guardians," Noir replied.
Silence flooded the hall.
"Maybe that's the reason. I'm not strong. I don't kill. I never will. But I have something far beyond muscle."
He tapped his temple.
"The strongest muscle in the human body."
Everyone listened—like students before an elder.
Noir sat at the table meant for him, crossing one leg over the other, arms stretched, face calm and confident.
"I am the brain of Darima. The one who decides its future. I am Noir. Noir b— eh, leave it. Noir is enough for today."
He smiled at the pillars around him.