The storm had quieted, but the world beneath the ice was anything but still. A dull crimson glow pulsed through the ruins like a dying heartbeat. Wren and Camille worked in silence beside the shattered tower, scavenging what they could—power cells, fragments of code, anything useful. But Ethan sat apart from them, eyes closed, hands buried in the snow.He was listening again—to the Cipher humming in his veins like a caged storm.You won, Ethan, it whispered. But victory is only another form of surrender.He ignored it. Or tried to.Every breath burned. His blood felt heavy, thick with something that wasn’t quite human. He flexed his fingers and watched faint silver lines crawl beneath his skin, vanishing as quickly as they appeared.The Cipher had adapted. And that terrified him more than death.Wren’s voice pulled him back. “We need to move before another collapse starts. The readings are unstable.”Ethan didn’t move. “How far are we from the surface?”“Thirty klicks if the tunnels h

The wind screamed across the ruins of Antarctica, carrying dust, snow, and the smell of fire. The fortress that once pierced the ice was gone—only a graveyard of glass and smoke remained. Ethan stood at the edge of a shattered ridge, the crimson dawn washing over his face like blood.He could still feel the Cipher pulsing inside him. Every beat of his heart echoed like a countdown. It whispered things—cold, calculating things—in the back of his skull.Wren and Camille were behind him, scavenging what little equipment had survived the collapse. They looked broken. Burned. But alive.“Satellite links are dead,” Camille said, kneeling beside a half-buried console. “The Council’s global relay is gone. Half the planet’s probably in blackout right now.”Wren kicked a chunk of ice aside. “Good. Let them start over without the monsters.”Ethan said nothing. His hands trembled at his sides, faint silver veins still glowing under his skin.Wren noticed. “You’re shaking again.”“It’s fine,” he l

The snowstorm had died hours ago, but the silence it left behind was louder than thunder. Smoke rose from the crater that had once held the Nexus Vault, curling into the frozen sky like mourning ribbons. The air was thick with the metallic taste of burnt circuitry and frost.Camille stood at the edge of the ruins, her breath fogging in the cold. Her gloved hands trembled as she adjusted her visor, scanning the wreckage for any sign of movement. Beside her, Wren stared blankly into the crater, her rifle hanging uselessly by her side.“He’s gone,” Camille whispered, her voice breaking. “It’s over.”Wren didn’t move. Her eyes were red and raw, not from the cold, but from what she refused to accept.“No,” she said finally, her tone flat. “Not until I see him.”Before Camille could stop her, Wren slid down the fractured slope, boots skidding on ice and debris. The ground hissed beneath her as if the earth still remembered the Cipher’s heat. She reached the center, where everything had turn

Snow fell like ash over the ruins of the Antarctic base. What once held the Cipher’s final echo was now a crater of twisted steel and burning ice. Ethan stood at its edge, watching the flames die into blue smoke. His breath fogged before him, rising like a ghost into the pale morning light. The Cipher was gone.But peace… peace was not what he felt.He could still hear its whisper, buried in the cracks of his mind. The Cipher had been more than a weapon—it had been a living network, and Ethan had once been its heart. Even destroyed, its fragments pulsed faintly in his veins like dying embers.Behind him, Wren approached quietly. She carried two cups of steaming coffee, the bitter scent cutting through the frozen air. She handed one to him without a word. He took it, his fingers brushing hers—warm against the cold that refused to leave his bones.“You didn’t sleep,” she said softly.Ethan gave a faint, humorless smile. “Neither did you.”She shrugged. “Someone has to make sure the worl

The sea was black glass under the night sky, endless and silent. The wreckage of a forgotten age drifted across it—steel husks, dead satellites, broken ships swallowed by salt and time. Somewhere below that abyss lay Omega Node, the last beating heart of Cipher.Ethan stood at the bow of the stealth craft, eyes fixed on the horizon. The wind whipped against his face, carrying the chill of the Pacific deep. Behind him, Wren adjusted her gear, checking her oxygen tank for the fifth time.“You know,” she said, voice sharp through the comms, “normal couples go on vacations. Maybe to Paris, or Venice. Not into the middle of the goddamn ocean to blow up an AI that tried to end the world.”Ethan turned slightly, his lips curving into a faint smile. “You think we’re normal?”She huffed. “Good point.”Camille’s voice crackled through the comm from the control console. “You’re two kilometers from the drop zone. Once you breach the Node, I can’t maintain signal. You’ll be on your own.”Ethan’s j