The stealth VTOL cleaved through the night sky toward Mirage City at Mach 3. Inside the cabin, Silas stood near the sliding cargo hatch as it glided open. Gale-force winds at an altitude of thousands of feet battered his crisp black shirt, yet he stood entirely immovable. His slate-gray eyes, now rimmed with striking bands of gold, pierced downward through the clouds, locking onto the massive crater where The Obsidian Casino once stood.Over the intercom, Nova’s voice crackled with palpable tension. "Boss, the thermal readings are insane! The glacier is completely shattered. Malachi absorbed every last drop of Seraphina's residual Yin Qi to regenerate. A one-kilometer radius around the ruins is currently flooded with a necrotic poison mist. Anyone entering that zone without high-tier Qi protection will melt into a puddle of blood in seconds."Silas scoffed dismissively. "Good. That will keep the other insects from interrupting our extermination process."Rex, securing his tactical har

The air inside the electromagnetic dome boiled. Julian Mercer’s human face twisted into a maniacal grin as the Viper reactor on his chest spun up to maximum capacity."Die, you bastard!" Julian roared.The cannon on his right arm unleashed a torrent of dense green plasma. The lethal beam cleaved through the distance between them in milliseconds, carrying enough concentrated heat to melt tungsten steel. It struck Silas dead-center in the chest, erupting into a massive globe of toxic green fire that completely swallowed the Grandmaster's figure.Julian threw his head back and laughed, his cybernetic vocal cords echoing metallically across the crater. "Ahahaha! Grandmaster? Divine Healer? You're nothing but a pile of radioactive ash now!""That is profoundly disappointing, Julian."Julian’s laughter choked in his throat. His cybernetic eye whirred frantically, scanning the slowly dissipating fireball.Silas Thorne was still standing in the exact same spot, having not shifted a single mil

Four minutes had passed since Silas Thorne’s voice echoed through the VVIP boardroom.The Zenith Facility was on high alert. Sirens wailed, mixing with the deafening roar of Phalanx anti-air cannons spitting thousands of rounds into the night sky. Warlord Kael paced like a trapped tiger, cold sweat dripping down his burn-scarred face."Send a Hundred Death Squads to the roof right now!" Kael roared into his comms. "Activate the plasma shields! Do not let that bastard's ship land!"Across the marble table, the Envoy of the Olympus Vanguard remained perfectly still. The white-cloaked figure was even casually swirling the last of the red wine in his crystal glass."You panic too easily, Kael," the Envoy stated, his voice muffled beneath the cowl. "The VTOL is merely maneuvering over the ocean. They can't breach the roof of this bunker. The Zenith Facility was designed to withstand a tactical nuclear strike. Let him try; he'll only break his own neck."Outside, however, suspended over the

The air inside the VVIP boardroom felt as if it had frozen solid.Silas Thorne didn't scream. He didn't vent his fury with a roar. Instead, the absolute silence radiating from his eyes, now pitch-black abysses ringed with burning gold, was far more terrifying than any nuclear detonation.Beneath his shoe, the wingless Vanguard Envoy let out a grating, mechanical laugh. "You're too late, Doctor. Your father and your Ice Queen are already—"CRUNCH!Silas stomped his foot down. The Envoy’s titanium-alloy skull shattered into a million pieces like cheap glass. The mechanical laughter was cut off forever.Without wasting a single millisecond, Silas dropped to one knee and plunged his left hand directly into the ruined remains of the Envoy's neck. He violently ripped out a blue crystal cylinder slick with synthetic blood, the Archon's Neural Core.Silas jammed his golden needle into the core, letting his bio-electricity hack into the enemy's final memory fragments. Images and data flooded h

The ruined VVIP ICU of the Aegis Sanctum slowly returned to silence. The hum of the life-support machines inside Jonathan Thorne's cryogenic capsule beat in a steady rhythm. The Primordial Ember within the old man's veins was safe.Silas Thorne stood before the capsule for a moment, ensuring the cryogenic temperature was back to normal. Once certain his father was unharmed, he turned around. His gold-flecked gray eyes looked at Seraphina and Rex, who were sprawled on the concrete floor.Silas walked over to Seraphina first. The Ice Queen was shivering violently, her lips blue from the extreme depletion of her Yin Qi. As Silas knelt, Seraphina tried to lower her trembling head."F-Forgive me, My Lord..." Seraphina whispered hoarsely, tears of regret welling in her eyes. "I... I failed to protect him—""Shh," Silas interrupted gently. His index finger, glowing with a golden light, touched Seraphina's cold lips. "You stood before three fake Sacred Realm monsters and didn't take a single