ZRRRNNNGGG! CRATTT! CRATTT!The deafening shriek of a high-speed industrial laser drill ripped through the bunker, shattering its oppressive silence. Slowly but relentlessly, the massive machine began cutting through the thick steel plating that served as their only protection. Brilliant showers of sparks burst through the tiny seams around the sealed door, illuminating every corner of the dim bunker. The heat was overwhelming. The air around the doorway warped, causing the military green paint coating the steel walls to blister, curl, and peel away in blackened flakes."They're using a heavy-duty plasma cutter!" Kael shouted at the top of his lungs, struggling to be heard over the mechanical roar assaulting their ears. He instinctively raised his injured left arm to shield his eyes from the spray of molten metal. "This one-meter tactical steel door won't hold them for more than five minutes, Sloane!"Sloane didn't waste time answering. She sprinted toward the corner of the room where

Heavy rain poured over the public cemetery in Sector Five that night, washing over the three fresh corpses that had just been violently forced from their graves. The three lifeless figures stood rigid atop the muddy ground, their bodies caked in wet earth, rotting flesh, and writhing earthworms crawling beneath their burial clothes.Meanwhile, inside the underground bunker one hundred and fifty meters away from the cemetery, Elias groaned under unimaginable neurological agony.His physical brain was now operating far beyond human limits to process the simultaneous multi-possession of three corpses at once. The strain was made even worse by the phantom pain caused when the wild dog's head, the relay point for his transmission, had exploded above ground. The necrotic consciousness signal reaching his brain stuttered and crackled like a dying radio broadcast. His vision flickered violently, shifting back and forth between the dim bunker and the rows of cold gravestones in Sector Five Cem

The acrid stench of ozone and charred flesh spread rapidly throughout the bunker, poisoning every breath in the suffocating underground chamber. The room had been swallowed by darkness after the main generator died completely, leaving only the rhythmic crimson glow of emergency lights flickering from the ceiling.Across the wet concrete floor lay the three lifeless bodies of the Lazarus soldiers. Every mechanical component, every strand of fiber-optic wiring, and every Artificial Intelligence (AI) chip implanted inside their skulls had completely melted under the devastating surge of electricity.Yet there was no relief or satisfaction on Sloane's face."Kael..." she whispered, her voice trembling violently as it shattered the deathly silence filling the bunker.The former paramedic let the empty Glock slip from her hand, allowing it to clatter across the concrete. She immediately crawled toward him in a panic, ignoring the agony in her knees as shards from the steel caltrops tore int

he icy sea wind, heavy with the scent of salt, pierced straight to the bone, slicing through the silence of the night at the secret dock in Saint-Bastian's Eastern Sector.Floating atop the black waters was a massive Soviet-era heavy icebreaker cargo ship, rocking gently with the tide. The aging steel vessel appeared on no official harbor manifest anywhere in the city. Its existence had been kept completely off the books, chartered solely with the remaining cash stolen from the Obsidian vault that once belonged to the late Camilla.On the deck, now coated with a thin layer of frost, Kael Thorne stood in a thick fur-lined winter coat, handing over a medium-sized steel briefcase. Inside were neatly stacked millions of dollars in hundred-dollar bills, the price of this insane mission.The man receiving it was the ship's smuggler captain, a burly Russian with a rugged face and a thick beard whitened by frost."I don't want a single question out of your mouth," Kael said in a hoarse voice,

Outside, the storm winds howled with increasing fury, their deafening roar resembling a pack of starving wolves crying into the night.Kael Thorne carefully lowered himself down the impossibly steep, ice-slick cliff, planting each foot with extreme caution while using every ounce of strength he had left to pull Elias' hover capsule by its harness without letting it tip over. After enduring the brutal descent, the two of them finally reached the bottom of the isolated basin, the exact location where the thermal sensor had detected the strange biological anomaly.The former street detective immediately dropped to one knee in the snow. With both hands protected by thick tactical gloves, he began digging aggressively through the frozen ground. White flakes scattered into the air with every forceful motion.It took only a few inches before his fingertips struck something solid beneath the snow. Kael brushed away the remaining frost with his palm. A moment later, the rigid face of a Caucasi