The monster roared in fury, launching micro-missiles from its shoulders."Nova! Get down!"Nova hit the deck. Desmond spread his arms wide. He didn't block the missiles. He used Technomancy."Halt."Desmond's brain signals hijacked the missiles' guidance systems in mid-air.The projectiles froze just a meter from his face, buzzing confusedly like flies."Return to sender," Desmond commanded.The missiles spun around, rocketing back toward the Chimera.BOOM! BOOM!Explosions ripped through the monster's chest. Black smoke billowed. Flesh and metal scattered.The monster staggered, but it wasn't dead yet. Its cybernetic regeneration system kicked in, knitting wounds with nanobots."Look at that!" Valerius exclaimed from above, sounding impressed. "It can heal itself! You can't beat the march of progress, Desmond!""March of progress?" Desmond scoffed. He walked through the smoke

"So, let me get this straight. I traveled across time, fought tigers, ate an angel, and fell into a dumpster... just to find out that my Father isn't a supervillain, but a giant Duracell battery?"Desmond stared at the blue hologram floating above the bunker's strategy table. It displayed the structure of the Helix Tower, with a pulsing red dot at its base: The Core."Not just a battery," Yoana corrected. She had swapped her stiff office suit for a tactical combat bodysuit provided by Nova. "He is a Filter. Without him processing the dirty Mana from the earth into clean energy, Valerius would have no power. But now..."Yoana swiped her hand. The hologram turned a warning red."...Valerius is bored of being a CEO. He wants to be God.""A Digital God," Nova added, typing furiously on her virtual keyboard. "I just tapped into Helix's internal comms. Valerius is prepping Project Ascension for tonight. He's going to transfer his consciousness into the City Network, using the last of your F

"Size isn't everything, Valerius. But that toy of yours is just pathetic compensation."Desmond leaped aside just as the colossal energy sword slammed into the floor.VWOOOM-CRASH!The titanium-reinforced metal floor split like paper. A wave of plasma heat singed the tips of Desmond's hair."Compensation?" Valerius's voice boomed from the Godslayer's speakers. The giant machine moved with terrifying agility, spinning its body without pausing. "This is the pinnacle of evolution! Your flesh is archaic, Desmond. Obsolete. Fragile!"The robot's left hand, equipped with a hydraulic claw, snatched Desmond out of the air.Desmond tried to block, but the momentum was too great.BAM!Desmond was flung into the wall of monitors. Glass shattered everywhere. His back felt crushed."Cough!" Desmond fell to the floor, spitting blood. His regeneration was working slowly due to the signal interference in the room."Sabrun! Hack the system! Kill the drive motors!""Can't do it, Boss! He's using Analog

"Don't get cozy, Old Man. You just woke up from a nap."Desmond pulled his hand away roughly after helping his father sit against the base of the empty stasis tube. His tone was sharp, but his hand still steadied the old man's back to keep him from sliding onto the cold metal floor."Cough... Cough!" His father hacked violently, expelling the remaining blue stasis fluid from his lungs. His body was skeletal, his skin pale and translucent like paper, revealing a network of blackened veins from excessive Mana usage.Where was the arrogant Architect from the wanted posters? Where was the god-like figure smirking from the dimensional rift?Before Desmond was only a broken man."Water..." his father rasped, his hand trembling as it reached out."Here," Yoana quickly handed him a water bottle from her tactical belt.His father drank greedily, water dripping from his unshaven chin. After his breathing steadied slightly, he look

"Don't move. That ship is scanning the area."Desmond pressed Nova and Yoana into the oily mud. Above them, the sleek black Arbiter aircraft hovered silently, sweeping the wasteland of trash with thin blue laser beams.Desmond's father lay unconscious behind a stack of used tires, his breathing weak but steady."They're looking for life signs," Nova whispered, her robotic eye spinning wildly, trying to mask their body heat signatures. "If that laser touches us, we'll be atomized.""They won't see us," Desmond said calmly. He activated the remnants of his *Dark Veil*, wrapping their small group in a shroud of shadow. "Get in there. Fast."Desmond pointed to the wreckage of a giant cargo plane that had split in two, lying on its side about ten meters from their position.One by one, they crawled quickly under the cover of the heavy rain. Into the dark, rust-smelling belly of the aircraft."Safe," Yoana sighed, leaning her back against the cold metal wall. She slid down to a sitting posi