The entire chamber seemed to disappear around him. “My mother?” Alexander nodded. “She was pregnant with you when the Order first detected the energy.” Ethan stared at him. “What did they do to her?” Alexander didn’t answer immediately. Ethan’s voice rose. “What did they do to Mom?” “She disappeared.” Ethan’s expression hardened. “You said she died.” “I thought she did.” “You thought?” Alexander’s eyes filled with tears. “I searched for her.” “For how long?” “Years.” “And?” “I found nothing.” Ethan clenched his fists. “Then how did the Order know about me?” Alexander looked toward Adrian. “Because someone told them.” Adrian’s face changed. “I didn’t.” “I know.” Alexander looked at the old man. “He did.” Everyone turned. The old man didn’t deny it. Ethan stared at him. “You knew my mother.” The old man remained silent. “You knew she was pregnant.” Silence. “You knew about the fragment.” The old man finally answered. “Yes.” Ethan’s voice became dan

Ethan looked around.Only she remained.“Where are they?”“They’re gone.”“Gone where?”She looked at Ethan.“They followed the Origin.”Ethan froze.“What?”“The moment you attacked it…”She struggled to breathe.“The remaining Keys disappeared.”Adrian’s eyes narrowed.“They didn’t disappear.”The woman looked at him.“What?”“They went after their masters.”Ethan frowned.“Why?”Adrian’s expression darkened.“Because the Keys are connected to them.”The First Key holder lowered her head.“We can feel them.”Ethan stared.“You can?”She nodded.“Every Key holder can.”“Then what are they doing?”Her face became pale.“Fighting.”Ethan’s eyes narrowed.“Against the Origin?”She shook her head.“Against each other.”A cold silence filled the chamber.Alexander slowly stood.“Why?”The First Key holder looked at Ethan.“Because the Origin took control of them.”Adrian cursed under his breath.Ethan’s chest tightened.“So the twelve Keys aren’t gone.”“No.”“They’re being used.”“Yes.”

Ethan immediately grabbed his wrist.“No.”Adrian looked at him.“You don’t want them following us.”“I don’t want you killing anyone.”Adrian stared at him for several seconds.Then slowly lowered his hand.“You’re different from me.”Ethan released him.“I know.”Adrian smiled faintly.“That’s why I’m following you.”Alexander looked toward the checkpoint.“We need another plan.”Ethan watched the soldiers.Then he noticed something.A group of civilians was being escorted away from the area.Medical staff surrounded them.None of the civilians appeared injured.They were simply confused.One man kept asking what had happened.A soldier told him,“Gas leak.”Ethan’s eyes narrowed.“They’re already lying to them.”Alexander nodded.“The Order’s cover story.”“Gas leak?”“They need something ordinary enough to keep people calm.”Ethan looked toward the city.In the distance, entire blocks were dark.One district.Then another.Power outages spread across the skyline.But beneath the d

The apartment smelled of dust and old wood. Most of the furniture had been covered with white sheets, and a thin layer of dust covered almost every surface. There was no electricity, but Alexander found an emergency generator in a storage room and managed to get a single lamp working.For the first time since leaving the underground facility, Ethan finally allowed himself to stop.He sat heavily on the old sofa.His entire body ached.The moment the adrenaline disappeared, every injury seemed to return at once. His shoulder throbbed, his ribs hurt whenever he breathed too deeply, and the skin around his chest still burned where the Thirteenth mark had appeared.Elena noticed immediately.“Take off your jacket.”Ethan looked at her.“I’m fine.”“You’re bleeding.”“It’s nothing.”“Elena’s right,” Alexander said from across the room. “You need to let her look at it.”Ethan sighed and removed the jacket.Elena sat beside him and carefully pulled his shirt upward.She immediately frowned.

For several seconds, Ethan simply stared at the message on the damaged screen. The words seemed to burn themselves into his mind, refusing to disappear no matter how many times he read them. Don’t trust Alexander. He slowly lifted his eyes toward his father, and something in his expression had changed. It wasn’t anger alone anymore. It was doubt, and Ethan knew that doubt was more dangerous than anger because once trust began to crack, every memory attached to it could become suspicious. Alexander seemed to understand exactly what was happening. He took a slow breath and stood from his chair, but Ethan immediately raised a hand.“Don’t come any closer.”Alexander stopped.“Ethan—”“No.” Ethan’s voice was quiet, but there was a sharpness beneath it. “You knew my mother was investigating the Order. You knew she had evidence. You knew the Order experimented on me, and you still told me that you gave me to them because you had no choice. Now her last message tells me not to trust you. S