"Die in the pit of disgrace you dug yourself, Axel!" Gery roared as he drove his metal fist toward Axel’s face.Axel tilted his head by a fraction. The massive punch sliced through the air with a deafening hiss like a jet turbine. Gery’s strike missed and slammed into a streetlight pole, shattering thirty centimeters of concrete into fragments. Sparks from severed cables danced across the wet asphalt, casting a grotesque silhouette over Gery’s face, now venting hot steam. The stench of burning metal and forcibly regenerating flesh stung Axel’s senses with a sharp ozone tang."You’re no longer human, Gery, just a broken machine waiting to explode," Axel replied coldly.Gery answered with a straight kick that crushed the hood of a parked car, folding the metal like paper. Axel leapt back, feeling violent vibrations ripple beneath his feet. The digital display in his retina began showing worsening instability in his opponent.[ SUBJECT ANALYSIS: OVERHEAT IN BIONIC NETWORK ][ OPPONENT ST

Chapter 84. Biological Contract"Did you hear that? Someone just broke our door, Axel!" Elara’s voice came out in a strained whisper amid the suffocating darkness. Her body trembled violently as her fingers clutched the black shirt Axel was wearing. The apartment felt oppressive, leaving only the howl of wind raging beyond the ten-centimeter-thick glass walls.Axel did not move. The muscles in his arms tightened, ready to strike whatever emerged from the bedroom door. A faint blue glow shimmered within his pupils as his thermal sensors scanned every corner of the room. He heard the hissing sound again, like ice cracking when doused with boiling water. His steps were slow and silent as he approached the doorway, one hand still holding Elara behind his back."Stay here, Elara. Don’t let go of my hand, not even an inch," Axel whispered, his voice heavy.His steps stopped right in front of the apartment’s main door, now left ajar. A flash of lightning from the large living room window str

"Do you realize that reviving a completely destroyed corpse violates the most basic laws of nature, Father?" Mr. S asked as he stared at the massive cylindrical chamber before him.His voice echoed against the sterile, frigid laboratory walls. The sharp scent of ozone and chemicals stung the air. Mr. S stood with his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the gigantic figure floating inside a dense purple liquid. The fluid bubbled softly, releasing a cold vapor that crept along the porcelain floor.The old scientist he called Father did not turn at all. His wrinkled yet nimble fingers continued to dance across a glowing blue holographic control panel. The monitor’s light reflected off his thick glasses, concealing eyes filled with manic ambition. Inside the chamber, Goran’s body, which should have long since decayed, was submerged in a mixture of cellular growth serum and microscopic liquid metal. Fine silver cables pierced every joint, spine, and major nerve of the massive man. Several time

"You arrived faster than my system calculated, Axel," Vayu’s voice greeted softly as the hydraulic steel door at the end of the corridor hissed open.Axel stepped inside, his breath still ragged. His black clothes were drenched by the pounding rain outside the old building. He ignored the water dripping from the tips of his shoes onto the porcelain floor, which was far too clean for an abandoned structure. His dimly glowing golden eyes locked sharply onto Vayu, who stood in the center of the sterile white room. The former officer wore a dark gray lab coat, his hands calmly folded in front of his chest. There was no police badge, no weapon at his waist, only a cold aura that felt unfamiliar."Cut the nonsense, Vayu. Where is Gery?" Axel growled, suppressing the painful throbbing in his chest.Vayu only smiled faintly, an expression that looked disturbingly mechanical under the flickering neon lights. He did not answer directly. His hand moved to touch a hol

“You’re wasting what little energy you have left just to curse the man holding the key to your wife’s survival, Axel,” Vayu’s voice cut through the suffocating silence of the basement.Axel gripped the electrified steel bars despite the thin smoke rising from his palms and the stench of scorched flesh. He no longer cared about the pain from the static current. The golden glow in his eyes dimmed as he stared at Vayu with naked hatred blazing inside them. He tried to speak, but his voice box produced only a horrifying metallic rasp. Forcing every circuit in his throat beyond its limits, he finally managed to force out a single word.“Traitor,” Axel hissed, his voice hoarse and broken.Vayu merely straightened his gray lab coat with casual ease, as if the word were nothing more than dust on his shoulder. He stepped closer to Axel’s cell and held up a tablet screen displaying a fetal growth chart from Elara’s wom