Victoria hurriedly drove her car toward Harry's house with the Truth Fairy beside her. At that moment, her mind was fixed on one single goal—to obtain that artifact at any cost, so she could prove before Lysandra that choosing her had not been a mistake.
Meanwhile, Umbraxos had already set out for the thieves' market in the chief's car, taking Harry along with him, where Cheng and his boss were preparing to meet buyers from the dark web."Cheng, do one thing—leave this artifact here. If the police are searching for it and we get caught, we'll lose the artifact and get trapped ourselves," the boss said, looking at Cheng.
Following his boss's words, Cheng hid the artifact right there and left with him to meet the buyer.
At the same time, Umbraxos—disguised as Kathrina—was moving rapidly toward the thieves' market with Harry. Harry had absolutely no idea that the beautiful girl he was flirting with was, in reality, a demon who could take his life at any moment."So, since when have you been a part of this security team?" Harry asked Kathrina, simply to keep the conversation going.
Kathrina only wanted to obtain the artifact as quickly as possible and had no interest whatsoever in talking to Harry. Still, thinking that she shouldn't let him grow suspicious, she replied, "It's only been five years for me. Until now, I had a desk job—this is my first time coming out of the office for field duty." Saying this, Kathrina smiled.
On the other hand, inside Victoria's car, the Truth Fairy asked her, "Is it really necessary for Harry to go there? Can't we go directly to the place where the artifact is?"
"Truth, I'm not going to meet Harry just to ask how he's doing," Victoria replied while driving. "The thing is, Harry still hasn't told me the location where the artifact is, and that's why I'm going to his place—so I can gather some information from his computer. After all, Harry must have already left with the security team by now to head toward that location."
"But are you sure that going there will help us find out where the artifact is?" the Truth Fairy asked again.
"Look, Truth, I can't say it with complete certainty," Victoria answered, "but one thing is certain—if we go there, we'll find at least some clue about the artifact's location."
After that, a silence settled between Victoria and Truth.
On the other side, Harry and Kathrina had also come very close to the artifact."Kathrina, the artifact is somewhere around here. From here on, we'll have to move ahead on foot," Harry said, signaling her to stop.
Kathrina immediately parked the car, and then both Harry and Kathrina stepped out and began looking around.
"Which direction do we go now, Harry sir?" Kathrina asked, looking at him.
"Kathrina, please just call me Harry, and we need to go toward the east side," Harry said, pointing toward an alley.
Meanwhile, Cheng and his boss had also arrived beneath Jack's apartment to close the deal with the buyer.
"Cheng, Jack—the man who lives here—is the one who'll handle the deal for this artifact with the dark web buyers for us. Do one thing: stay down here, and I'll go meet Jack," the boss said as he headed into the building.
But ignoring his boss's words, Cheng followed right behind him. When the boss noticed Cheng coming after him, he snapped angrily, "Are you crazy? I told you to wait for me right here. I'll talk to Jack and come back."
"Boss, whatever discussion happens will have to happen in front of me," Cheng said, lowering his head. "I know that if you meet Jack alone, you'll decide on a different price for the artifact and then tell me a lower amount, which will put me at a loss."
Hearing this, the boss felt a surge of anger, but then he thought that if he said anything to Cheng right now, Cheng might get furious and inform the police about the artifact, which would cause the boss double the damage. So he gave in to Cheng's demand and started heading toward Jack's apartment upstairs with him.
Just then, the boss's phone rang. He picked it up, brought it to his ear, and said, "Jack, I was just coming to meet you. I'm right below your apartment."
But from the other side, Jack replied, "I'm standing outside your shop. I thought maybe you wouldn't come to meet me, so I came here instead—and there's a buyer with me who's ready to pay a huge amount in cash. Come back quickly." Saying this, Jack disconnected the call.
Meanwhile, Harry and Kathrina were unable to find the artifact's real location and were unknowingly circling around Cheng and his boss's shop. At the same time, Victoria had reached Harry's house with the Truth Fairy.
"Truth, hurry up," Victoria said as she stepped out of the car and moved toward the main door of Harry's house.
The Truth Fairy flew over to Victoria's side. When Victoria rang the doorbell and no one answered, she peered inside through the glass panel beside the door.
"What happened, Victoria?" Truth asked.
"What I was afraid of," Victoria replied, looking around the door. "Harry has already left the house, and everything is locked."
"So what do we do now? Why don't you use your powers and break the door?" the Truth Fairy suggested.
"Truth, I can break this door even without using my powers," Victoria said, "but if there's an alarm system in Harry's house, the local police will be notified of a forced entry within minutes, and then we'll both be trapped right here."
"Then what are you going to do now?" the Truth Fairy asked, sounding confused.
As soon as Truth said this, Victoria began moving the things kept near Harry's door, shifting them from their places and checking carefully.
"Victoria, why are you cleaning around Harry's house?" the Truth Fairy asked in surprise.
"Truth, I'm looking for a duplicate key to Harry's house. Usually, people hide a spare key somewhere outside their home, so if they ever forget their keys, they can still get inside using the duplicate," Victoria said, lifting the mat placed outside Harry's door and looking underneath.
Hearing this, the Truth Fairy also began searching among the nearby objects for Harry's spare key. Just then, her eyes fell on a flowerpot that was slightly raised, and inside it lay a key. The Truth Fairy picked up the key and handed it to Victoria.
"Is this the key you were looking for, Victoria?" the Truth Fairy asked as she handed the key to her.
Victoria immediately took the key from the Fairy's hand and tried to unlock the door. The very next moment, the door opened. Victoria quickly stepped inside and began checking Harry's table.
"Victoria, at least tell me what we're supposed to be looking for so I can help you," the Truth Fairy asked, looking at her.
"Truth, see if you can find Harry's laptop anywhere," Victoria said to the Truth Fairy.
The next moment, the two of them began thoroughly searching Harry's house, though Victoria didn't know that Harry had taken his laptop with him when he left. Just then, Victoria's eyes fell on Harry's desktop computer, and she tried to turn it on.
She soon saw that the computer was password-protected. She glanced toward the desk and noticed that Harry had written the password on a piece of paper and stuck it inside the desk. Victoria quickly read the password from there, typed it in, and unlocked the computer, then called the Truth Fairy over to her.
After that, Victoria began trying to trace Harry's location from the computer.
"What are you doing, Victoria? Sorry if I'm disturbing you," the Truth Fairy said, making an innocent face.
"I'm trying to track Harry's phone location through his Gmail," Victoria replied while rapidly accessing the computer. "Because Harry will be wherever the artifact's location is—and if we find Harry's location, we'll find the artifact's location too."
After a short while of trying, Victoria finally managed to get hold of Harry's location.
"Bingo! I got it. I know where Harry is. Truth, let's go—quickly," Victoria said as she shut down the computer.
Then Victoria and the Truth Fairy both hurried out of Harry's house. Victoria locked the main door exactly the way it had been before and, handing the key to the Truth Fairy, said, "Put it back exactly where you found it."
Hearing Victoria's words, the Truth Fairy placed the key back inside the flowerpot. After that, Victoria and the Truth Fairy walked back toward their car. They quickly got inside and drove off toward the location where Harry was currently with Kathrina.
Meanwhile, Cheng had also returned to his hideout with his boss, where Jack was waiting for them along with a Russian mafia member.
"You people are very late. You do know the client is a Russian mafia, right? If you had delayed a little more, he would've killed me along with you," Jack said as he approached Cheng's boss.
After that, Cheng's boss and the Russian mafia sat down to finalize their deal. Cheng took out the artifact and showed it to the Russian mafia.
"Wow! Incredible! I like it—but what's written on this box?" the Russian mafia asked, looking closely at the artifact.
"Sir, whatever deal is to be made will be for the artifact itself. We don't know what's written on it. If you want to buy this artifact, you'll have to pay ten million dollars," Cheng's boss said, looking at the Russian mafia.
"No… no, ten million is far too much for this. I'll give you eight million. If the deal is acceptable, say so," the Russian mafia said, negotiating.
Cheng's boss looked at Cheng, and Cheng nodded in agreement. Then Cheng's boss replied, "Alright, sir, we accept this deal. Have you brought the money?"
"Yes, but I'll give you only six million right now. The remaining two million will be given to you by Jack once I safely leave this country—because it's possible you might double-cross me and, after taking the money, inform the police about this deal and about me," the Russian mafia said, signaling one of his men to hand over the bag of cash to Cheng's boss.
But at that very moment, Harry entered the shop with Kathrina after pulling up the shutter, and Kathrina immediately held everyone at gunpoint.
"No one moves from their place, or I'll put a bullet through your head. Hand over the artifact to me," Kathrina threatened, pointing the gun at everyone.
"You betrayed me—you brought the police here?" Cheng's boss shouted, aiming his gun at the Russian mafia.
But the very next moment, Jack pointed his gun at Cheng's boss and said, "You're the one who called the police to get us caught, because we didn't call them here."
At that moment, complete chaos broke out inside Cheng's hideout. With the sudden entry of Harry and Kathrina, everyone began turning on one another, holding each other at gunpoint. Kathrina's eyes, however, remained fixed solely on the artifact, while poor Harry was trembling with fear at the sight of so many armed men. Meanwhile, on the other side, Victoria was racing rapidly toward the same location.
But the question was—would Victoria reach there in time, or would Athena's demon once again succeed in obtaining the artifact?