The smoke still hung over Dubai like a curse. The morning after the massacre, the sky was the color of ash and iron. Helicopters circled in the distance, searchlights sweeping over a city that would never sleep the same again.Ethan stood alone on the terrace of a ruined suite overlooking the Persian Gulf. His black coat fluttered in the wind, the once pristine marble now cracked beneath his boots. The city stretched endlessly before him—burning, bleeding, breaking.It had taken him less than a day to lose everything he’d built.Behind him, the surviving members of his circle were silent. Wren leaned against a pillar, her arm in a sling, her face pale but still sharp as glass. Camille was wrapping bandages around Kael’s shoulder, her fingers trembling as she tried to hide the tears she didn’t want anyone to see.Ethan didn’t turn to them. His eyes were locked on the horizon, on the endless stretch of red sun that looked like blood spilled across the sea.“Cain wanted this,” he said at

The world outside Ethan’s window was a blur of ash and neon. Rain streaked the glass like silver veins, tracing the ghost of a city that once gleamed with ambition. Now, it pulsed with fear. The Cipher network had spread across every screen, every system, every machine still breathing electricity. Cain’s whispers rode those circuits like parasites.Ethan sat at the center of it all, hunched over a glowing terminal. His eyes were rimmed red, the golden veins of Cipher light flickering beneath his skin. Every keystroke sent a faint tremor through the room.Wren stood nearby, silent. She had stopped trying to talk him out of using the Cipher. Words didn’t reach him anymore. Not when his fingers hummed with a power that bent steel and burned code.Camille entered with a report clutched in her shaking hand. “We found the Ghost Market hub,” she said. “Just like you predicted. Hidden under the old Al Jazeera towers. They’re running Cain’s data stream through there.”Ethan looked up. “How sec

The storm had not ended since Dubai burned.Skyscrapers glowed like wounded gods in the distance, fire eating their glass bones. Smoke choked the skyline, curling into the heavens as if hell itself had surfaced. Ethan stood on the edge of a collapsed helipad, his black coat whipping in the wind. His reflection flickered in the mirrored glass at his feet—a face too pale, eyes too sharp, veins glowing faint blue. Cipher had changed him again.Wren’s voice trembled behind him. “Ethan, stop using it. You’re not built for this power.”He didn’t turn. “Built for it?” His voice was calm but wrong, like a melody gone sour. “Wren, I am this power.”Helena stood a few feet away, blood on her sleeve and guilt in her eyes. “You’re not,” she whispered. “You’re just what we made you to be.”Ethan finally turned. His eyes burned with Cipher light. “You made a weapon. Now live with it.”A flash of memory cut through the chaos—Cain’s grin at the Dubai Summit, the massacre, the screams. Cain’s voice ha

The desert wind howled through what was left of Dubai. Once a shining jewel of glass and gold, now it looked like a god had punched it through the sky and left it bleeding. Sand swallowed the ruins inch by inch, and the only lights that still glowed came from Cipher echoes — haunted fragments of code still flickering like dying stars.Ethan walked through the rubble, coat torn, boots grinding over broken glass and carbon. His reflection shimmered faintly in a shard of blackened steel: his eyes weren’t human anymore. Not fully. The silver glow pulsed with the rhythm of the Cipher — a living, breathing network still clawing inside him.Behind him, Wren trudged quietly, her gun holstered but her guard never down. Helena followed a few paces back, her movements slower, softer — no longer the ice-cold general she once was. They looked less like a team now and more like ghosts dragging themselves through a graveyard of their own making.Wren finally spoke. “You haven’t slept in two days.”E

The air in the bunker felt heavier than usual. It carried the scent of ozone and blood — remnants of Cipher energy that still clung to the concrete walls like ghosts refusing to fade. Ethan stood in the middle of the room, shirt torn, hands trembling faintly as he stared at the flickering holographic map in front of him.Every red dot represented a city in chaos. Every one of them was his responsibility.Helena leaned against the doorway, arms crossed. “You should rest.”“I don’t have time,” Ethan muttered. “Cain’s moving faster than I thought.”“You won’t stop him by breaking yourself.”Ethan’s head lifted slowly, eyes cold and glowing faintly silver. “I don’t have the luxury of rest. Not anymore.”Helena sighed and stepped closer. “That’s exactly what he wants. You burn yourself down, and he wins without lifting a hand.”Ethan turned away, his jaw tight. “He’s already winning.”Wren entered quietly, her boots soft on the steel floor. She looked pale, dark circles under her eyes. “Th