Marcus stood in the rubble of the destroyed city block, his back to David, his mind racing. Sister. Alive. Captive. The words echoed through him like thunder.He walked back to his army without looking behind him, without processing what he'd just learned.Valentina found him first. She took one look at his face and stopped whatever she'd been about to say."Marcus. What happened?"He couldn't answer, he could only shake his head and keep walking.Elder Chen appeared at his side, studying him with ancient eyes. "The battle went well. You controlled the rage. That's progress.""David told me something." Marcus's voice was hollow. "About my sister."Elder Chen's expression didn't change, but something in his eyes shifted. "Your sister died in the car accident. Years ago. Before your imprisonment.""Apparently not." Marcus stopped walking and faced the old man. "David says she's been with the syndicate this whole time, experimented on and trying to awaken abilities she was never supposed

Marcus stood on the estate's highest tower, watching the horizon darken with incoming forces. Helicopters blackened the sky like a swarm of locusts. Ground troops poured from transports, their enhanced bodies moving faster than any normal human. And beneath the earth, sensors showed tunnels being dug, syndicate forces emerging from below.Valentina stood beside him, her face a mask of controlled grief. Her father's final transmission played in her mind, but she pushed it aside. There would be time to mourn later. Now there was only battle."Three hundred soldiers on the surface," she reported, her enhanced senses reaching across the estate. "Maybe fifty more in the tunnels. Twenty aircraft circling. They're not holding back.""Good," Marcus replied. "Neither will we."Alessandro Romano had prepared for this moment. Hidden throughout the estate were defenses accumulated over centuries—artifacts collected by his ancestors, barriers woven into the very stone, weapons designed to kill sup

Marcus felt it through the nexus inside him, a wave of agony that spread across every continent. Supernatural beings everywhere, collapsing as their abilities were ripped away. The drain was relentless, global, inescapable.He stood at the edge of the Romano estate, watching his army fall. Berserkers who had fought with godlike strength now lay helpless on the ground. Dreamwalkers whose spirits had roamed free now trapped in failing bodies. Mayan shamans whose death magic had protected them for centuries now barely breathing.Only the strongest remained standing. Elder Chen, his ancient power fighting the drain with every technique he knew. Valentina, her shields flickering but holding. Dr. Martinez, whose borrowed healing energy pulsed weakly but refused to die.And Marcus. The drain pulled at him constantly, but his transcended state pushed back. The nexus inside him roared, a storm of divine power that refused to be harvested."We need to move," he said. "Now. Every second we wait,

The device pulsed before them, a mechanical heart beating with stolen life. Every second, more supernatural beings around the world collapsed as their abilities were drained. Every second, the council grew stronger.Marcus stared at it, feeling the weight of the choice before him."If I destroy it," he said quietly, "the explosion kills everyone in this facility. Possibly for miles.""If I don't destroy it," he continued, "every enhanced being on Earth loses their powers. Millions die. The survivors become slaves."Valentina stood beside him, her face pale. "There has to be another way."Elder Chen moved forward, his ancient eyes studying the device with centuries of knowledge. "There might be. A third option."Marcus turned to him. "Tell me.""The device was designed to harvest abilities, yes. But it was also designed to store them. To hold them indefinitely. The council planned to use this stored power to ascend to godhood." Elder Chen pointed at the pulsing core. "That core contain

The facility collapsed around them, but Marcus barely noticed. His attention was fixed on something far larger. Reality itself was tearing apart.He felt it through his new connection to every supernatural being on Earth. Rifts opening in dimensional space. Boundaries dissolving. The normal world and the supernatural world, separated for millennia, were crashing together."What's happening?" Valentina shouted over the chaos.Marcus struggled to his feet, Maria supporting him on one side, Valentina on the other. "The energy release. It's too much. The original owners of many abilities are dead. Their power has nowhere to go."Dr. Martinez pointed at the sky, visible through the collapsing facility's roof. Colors that didn't exist in nature swirled above them. Lightning flashed in impossible patterns. The air itself felt wrong, stretched thin, ready to break."The dimensional barriers are failing," Elder Chen said, appearing beside them. His form flickered, more spirit than body now. "I