The air in the western sector was denser than anywhere else in Ashborne. The smoke from old factories mixed with the cold fog, creating a metallic scent that burned the throat.Jake pulled his hood lower over his head and walked through narrow alleys filled with hazard signs and faded warnings that read “CONTAMINATED.”He stopped in front of a massive warehouse with a rusted iron door. Three knocks, a pause, then one more — the old code from the underground network.The door creaked open.Lira appeared behind it, her sharp eyes scanning the street before softening slightly when she saw him.“You came,” she said shortly.Jake stepped inside. “You thought I’d sit still after hearing Damian’s back?”“Damian’s not human anymore,” Lira replied, closing the door. “And that’s the worst part of it.”Inside, dim light from a few portable generators illuminated a large room cluttered with digital maps and cracked monitors.Vex sat at one of the terminals, hair messy, hands busy patching a circu

The sky was streaked with red — the remnants of old drones circling above, forming patterns like a living neural network.Lights deep underground flickered on by themselves, and the air trembled faintly, as if the city itself was holding its breath — waiting to wake again.Jake stood on the rooftop of the half-collapsed tower, his body still rigid, his right hand trembling every time lightning cracked across the horizon.From the veins beneath his skin, a faint blue light pulsed — as though his body was reacting to something unseen in the air.Lira approached, carrying a thick black jacket. She draped it over his shoulders.“You need to come down,” she said quietly. “Vex says the signal’s getting stronger by the minute.”Jake didn’t move. “That’s not a signal.”Lira frowned. “Then what is it?”Jake looked up at the sky, his pupils reflecting the crimson glow. “It’s a call.”From below, Vex’s voice crackled through the radio:“Jake, you hearing this? We managed to intercept the central

For the first time in years, the sky over Ashborne looked peaceful — too peaceful, like the calm before a trap.The morning air carried the scent of metal and burnt dust. From the balcony of their small outpost in the western district, Lira watched the sun rise behind a shroud of haze. Her hands held a metal cup, but her mind was elsewhere.Below, Jake stood before the wreck of an armored vehicle, repairing a portable generator. His body looked healthy, but his movements… were different. Too precise. Too quiet.Vex came down the stairs, a bundle of cables slung over his shoulder.“You see that?” he muttered toward Lira.She nodded without turning. “He’s been there three hours. No food, no water, no words.”“He’s not the same Jake,” Vex said softly.“Don’t start that again.”He dropped the cables onto the table, his tone more serious. “I mean it, Lira. He lost something when he merged with the network. I ran a scan—his brainwave pattern’s changed. Half of it… isn’t human anymore.”Lira

From the ground to the tips of the surviving towers, arcs of electricity snaked through the air like giant veins, connecting every corner of the city.Lira and Vex huddled beneath the ruins, watching the spectacle in horror.“What is he doing?” Lira gasped, her voice trembling.Vex stared at the portable screen in his hands. “He’s… merging two systems. His brain and what’s left of Damian’s network. But if he keeps going—”“—he’ll destroy himself,” Lira cut in.Vex looked up weakly. “Not just him. The city too.”Beneath the ground, in the energy core that was once Erevos Laboratory, Jake stood in the middle of a vortex of light.The blue veins across his body glowed like circuitry, while red sparks danced between every movement.He could feel everything — the heat in the air, the pulse of electricity, even the faint rhythm of human breath above the surface.“You see, Jake?” Damian’s voice echoed from all directions. “You can’t fight me without destroying yourself.”Jake closed his eyes

The transparent dome stood in the middle of the concrete desert like the bones of some giant that refused to die.The light inside it pulsed softly—not like electricity, but like breath.Jake stood a few meters from its surface, eyes narrowed as he studied the silhouette behind the thick glass.Lira tightened her grip on her weapon, holding her breath. “If that’s a person, why aren’t they moving?”Vex pointed his portable scanner at the dome. The screen flickered, and the data that appeared made him freeze.“Lira… Jake… it’s not alive. But it’s not dead either. The energy—it’s stable, but not organic.”Lira frowned. “What does that mean?”Vex swallowed hard. “It means it’s being held inside some kind of energy field. Not a body. More like… a physical projection.”Jake crouched and pressed his fingertips to the dome’s surface. The glass was warm—not like cold, dead metal.“I know this system,” he said quietly. “The Lumen Project wasn’t a weapons experiment. They wanted to store human c