"Don't go out alone, Caleb! Let me shoot them from the crack of this door!"Isabella Vane's scream was drowned out by the roar of the Antarctic snowstorm. The woman cocked her assault rifle with trembling hands. The minus fifty-degree temperature made the metal of her weapon feel like it was burning her skin.Caleb Thorne did not look back. The Shadow Emperor raised his left hand, giving a very firm tactical signal telling Isabella and Viktor to remain sheltered inside the bunker. The snow-white-haired man kicked away the remains of the steel door blocking his path, stepping out to face the storm.The polar wind slammed directly into his face. Caleb's black coat fluttered wildly. His brown eye stared sharply at the three advanced fighter jets that had just landed on the expanse of ice.The cargo doors of the three jets opened simultaneously with a hydraulic hiss.Caleb focused the remaining energy within his soul. He could not make a soun

"My King. Run. Leave this dog here and run as far as you can."Viktor Krum's roar thundered amidst the Antarctic snowstorm. The Russian giant pressed his massive body against the metal chest of the Nullifier cyborg, holding back the killing machine's advance with his pure remaining strength. Blood spurted heavily from his severed left shoulder, freezing the snow beneath his feet into a deep red.Caleb Thorne did not move to run. His one brown eye stared sharply at Viktor, who was sacrificing his life for a single second of extra time. The Shadow Emperor felt no emotion or sorrow. His emotional capacity had been chewed to nothing. His military brain merely processed Viktor's sacrifice as a very narrow tactical window."You are a stupid dog, Viktor," thought Caleb coldly. "But your stupidity gives my logic room to work."Caleb crawled backward quickly, dragging his shattered body to hide behind a thick ice wall beside the bunker entrance. The extrem

"Radar detects our Nullifier jet returning to base, Director Aris. But there is no voice communication response from inside the cockpit."The radar operator's voice sounded incredibly tense, cutting through the hustle and bustle in the United Nations underground headquarters in Geneva. Thousands of monitor screens glowed blue inside the giant command room."Send a battalion of elite troops to surround the runway right now," ordered Director Aris from behind his console desk. The sociopathic scientist's face looked pale but filled with curiosity. "Perhaps our killing machines managed to bring home the corpse of the Shadow Emperor."However, Aris was completely unaware that the bloody message Caleb wrote in Antarctica was not an invitation for his family. That writing was an absolute declaration of apocalypse. Caleb had left Isabella, Viktor, and his comatose mother inside the safe ice bunker. He hijacked one of the UN forces' advanced jets and flew across continents alone. The God of D

"B-Brother..."The hoarse whisper slid from Lisa Thorne's trembling lips. The young girl fought desperately. Her hand holding the plasma sword shook violently. Tears streamed down from her eyes, which were slowly regaining their focus. The memory of the worn-out wooden necklace around her brother's neck became the key that breached the firewall of the killer algorithm in her brain."To hell with this anomaly! System, take full control! Force her muscles to move!" roared Director Aris with a deathly pale face. His fingers pressed the tablet screen frantically.The red light on the neural chip on Lisa's neck blinked rapidly, electrocuting the girl's spinal nerves with high voltage. Lisa let out a stifled scream. Her body stiffened, her hands forced to swing the plasma sword towards Caleb's face once again.However, human love and trauma proved to be far stronger than a string of laboratory-made binary codes.With the last remaining ounce of

"You truly are a pathetic loser, Arthur. Just jump if you really dare. Your company is already mine. Your wife is also mine."The voice of the incredibly arrogant man's laughter echoed, spinning wildly inside the pitch-black void. "Don't look at me like that, Arthur. You were the one who was too stupid to give all those asset transfer signatures to me. Now get down from that balcony, or jump and end your suffering."A second voice followed. This time it was a woman's voice whose tone was filled with incredibly thick disgust.Caleb Thorne heard those foreign voices tearing at his consciousness. The antimatter explosion at the UN headquarters in Geneva should have vaporized his soul and physique into sub-atomic dust. He should have already been in the deepest hell. However, that absolute darkness suddenly tore open."Where am I. Whose voices are these." Caleb thought to himself.The blinding light of city streetlamps suddenly pier