The sharp metal blade pressed hard against Adam’s throat. A single drop of warm, red blood ran down his neck. Adam was completely blind. The toxic gray Null-Metal dust burned his eyes like hot acid. His heavy, dense body felt like a mountain of lead. Without his dark magic to support his superhuman muscles, he was incredibly weak. He could not fight back. "Keep quiet, surface rat," the raspy voice hissed in Adam's ear. The man holding Adam did not smell like a dirty thief. He smelled like polished iron, gun oil, and cold leather. Adam felt the man’s arm wrapped around his neck. The arm was covered in thick, heavy metal plates. This was not a rogue mercenary. This was a highly trained soldier. Suddenly, bright, magical flashlights clicked on inside the dark ventilation shaft. The bright beams cut through the thick gray mist. Adam could not see the light, but Catherine could. Catherine gasped in pure terror. Standing in the narrow metal tunnel were ten massive soldiers. They wore

The giant, bloody hand of the Synthetic God reached down toward Adam Cook. But suddenly, the heavy iron chains on the floor rattled loudly. Old Kaelen’s body began to shake. A horrible, grinding laugh erupted from the old man's mouth. "I do not need a puppet anymore," Marquis Valerius laughed. The blinding, sick yellow light inside Kaelen’s eyes shot out of his head. The bright light flew up into the air and went straight into the single, giant red eye of the Synthetic God. Kaelen’s body went completely limp, finally dead. High above, the eighty-foot monster of meat and metal roared. Marquis Valerius had taken total control of his ultimate creation. But Valerius did not want to fight Adam as a giant clumsy machine. The thick, dark red soul-matter in the monster’s chest twisted and bubbled. The black metal wires wove together. In a few seconds, a brand new body stepped out of the giant machine's chest. It was an avatar of Valerius. He looked like a dark, terrifying King. His bod

Adam Cook fell through the freezing, pitch-black air. The wind roared in his ears like a screaming monster. Falling rocks and heavy blocks of black obsidian rained down around him. The Frost-Spire castle was breaking apart, dropping thousands of tons of debris into the giant hole. Below Adam, Catherine was falling. She was still chained tightly to the heavy black stone altar. The two-ton rock was pulling her down faster and faster. She could not escape. Above Adam, Marquis Valerius was falling. The ancient King was screaming in pure, absolute panic. He was tied to Adam by an invisible rope of heavy, pitch-black gravity. Every time Valerius tried to grab a passing rock to stop his fall, Adam’s heavy weight pulled him right back down. "You crazy fool!" Valerius roared, his yellow eyes burning in the dark. "We are all going to die!"Adam did not listen to the monster. He did not care about his own life. His hollow, cold mind calculated exactly one goal. He had to save Catherine. Adam

The dark air rushed past Adam’s face. He fell faster and faster toward the dead, white city at the bottom of the True Void. Adam did not feel the wind. He did not feel the broken bones in his arms and leg. The "System Overchange" had completely turned off his human pain. He watched the massive, pale stone buildings grow larger. He stared at the giant black obsidian throne in the center of the city. The figure standing on the throne looked exactly like him. It was a perfect copy of Adam Cook, wearing a torn black coat and a jagged iron crown. The copy smiled a wide, starving, crazy smile. A few feet away from Adam, Marquis Valerius screamed in the empty air. "Who is that?!" Valerius roared. The ancient monster flailed his heavy iron arms. "Why does he look like you, Sovereign?! Where are we?!"Adam did not answer. His hollow, calculating mind focused on a brand new, terrifying problem. The air in the deep abyss was changing. It was no longer just empty. It was becoming incredibly

Adam stared at the man in the glowing black mud. The thick, sticky sludge of the Primordial Crust bubbled around them. The pressure was crushing. Millions of unborn souls screamed inside Adam’s brain. But Arthur’s hand held Adam’s wrist tightly. “I am Subject Zero-Omega,” Arthur’s sad voice echoed inside Adam’s mind. “I was built before you. I was built before the boy with the iron crown.”Adam could not speak. The heavy raw matter filled his mouth. His crushed leg throbbed. His broken arm burned with blinding, terrible agony. The human pain was tearing his mind into pieces. “I failed,” Arthur whispered gently. His body was slowly dissolving into the glowing silver and purple mud. “Valerius threw me away because I refused to let go. I wanted to keep my human heart. I loved a girl once. I wanted to remember her face. But the Void does not share, Adam. If you hold onto