The harbour was never quiet, not even at midnight. Ships groaned as they shifted with the tide, chains rattled against iron, and the smell of brine, oil, and sweat clung to the air. Michael walked the length of the pier at a measured pace, the hood of his jacket down, the cold night breeze brushing across his face.He had spent most of the past month beneath the Ocean View Hotel in the Libertas Aeterna headquarters, training until his body ached and his abilities pressed the limits of his control. What had once felt like a gift now revealed itself as an art form, one that demanded discipline as much as instinct. His fight against Crysta still burned fresh in his mind. He had thought himself strong but the truth had been quite humbling. He now knew that he would need to get a lot stronger if he hoped to be able to go against heirs who would no doubt be on Crysta's level or most likely even higher.Training had sharpened him, but the city never waited for a

“Rose Armitage,” Michael repeated the name under his breath, tasting it as though the syllables themselves might give him meaning. “Who is she?”Commander Cane folded his arms. “I'm not surprised you haven’t heard of her. She’s not from Whitewood.”Erin’s Data Sphere drifted closer to her shoulder, flickering to life in slow rotation. Its pale purple glow illuminated her sharp features as she spoke.“Rose Armitage,” she began, “is the only daughter and heiress of Lord Vernoux Armitage — head of the Armitage Family. They’re not a local power; their roots are in Europe, mostly operating through the old Families’ consortium over there. They’ve made their fortune on biotechnological and botanical research. I would even say over a third of the breakthroughs the Families, and the world to some extent, enjoy today came from their labs.”Michael tilted his head slightly. “And what’s someone like that doing here?”Cane answered this time, his voice low. “They arrived in Whitewood about four ye

The hum of machines filled the sterile silence of the laboratory with a constant, low vibration that seemed to echo inside the glass walls and inside Erin Lassette’s mind. It was past dawn, but the underground levels of the Libertas Aeterna headquarters were untouched by daylight. Erin stood before the containment cell, her lavender hair glowing faintly under the sterile lights as her strands extended outward like the cords of a living instrument. Each filament shimmered with faint static pulses as she guided the machines with perfect telepathic precision. Her eyes were fixed on the restrained mutant that lay before her.The mutation had not only reconfigured its anatomy but had fused mechanical elements deep within the organic mass. She had already mapped out three distinct technological augmentations — all crudely bonded at the cellular level with plant matter that had grown from inside the body itself. It was grotesque, and yet, fascinating.

The air around the water tower shimmered with the haze of early sunlight and industrial dust. The skyline of the area stretched below like a fractured skeleton of concrete and steel, the morning fog tinted with faint green light from the mutated growth spreading across the lower industrial districts. Rose Armitage stood at the tower’s edge, the breeze teasing the strands of her red hair as her eyes swept across the distant horizon. Below her feet, the cracked surface of the tower hummed with vibration. From the vast cavity beneath her facility—the “garden”—came a chorus of movement: the sound of claws scraping metal, of heavy bodies pushing against one another as they poured into daylight. The mutants she had cultivated for months now climbed from their birthing chambers in a steady, coordinated surge, spreading outward like roots from a wound in the earth.Victor leaned on the railing beside her, his arms crossed, a look of strained admiration shadowing his

The ground where Michael had fallen cracked under him as he stood again, dust still rising in faint clouds around his feet. His clothes were torn at the shoulder and along one arm, but he hardly noticed. His eyes remained fixed on the shape moving behind the tree line, on Rose who had her hand extended outward, guiding the movement of the giant wooden construct that had struck him moments before. The air around her shimmered faintly with life energy, and every motion she made caused the earth to stir and the vines to twist more violently.The construct shifted, its tangled limbs reconfiguring into something far larger. The creaking of wood filled the air as branches fused together, forming a massive torso and long arms that scraped against the ground. Its head emerged last, carved from the bark itself, with hollow eyes that glowed green. In moments, the treant stood twice the height of the nearby trees, roots digging deep into the soil for stability.Mich