========================================= SOVEREIGN CITADEL ASSET SEIZURE[TARGET]: The Sovereign Syndicate (Tiers 1, 2, 3, and 4)[SEIZURE STATUS]: 100% COMPLETE[ACQUIRED ASSETS]:Central Sovereign Bank & Regional Reserves: ACQUIREDTier Three Commercial Trade Houses: ACQUIREDTier Two Executive Property & Real Estate: ACQUIREDTier One Imperial Fortress & Military Arsenal: ACQUIRED[EXECUTIVE ACTION]:The Sovereign Syndicate is hereby LIQUIDATED AND DISSOLVED.All trade monopolies are ABOLISHED.All fiat credit notes are replaced by CAL SOVEREIGN NOTES.========================================="You... you bought our entire Citadel..." Valerius whispered, his voice broken."I didn't buy it," Caleb corrected smoothly, stepping up to Valerius Stone's throne. "I audited it. And you failed the audit."Caleb reached out his hand, grabbing the diamond crown from Valerius's head and tossed the crown casually over his shoulder. It hit the floorboards, rolling down the stairs and clinking

Caleb’s light eyes widened slightly.His heart slammed against his ribs with a sickening jolt of horror.The Malice System had rigged every single infected body like a biological landmine. If Caleb tried to heal their minds from the outside, the dark system would destroy their brains before letting them go "Chairman!" High Auditor Valerie yelled from the rear archway, her voice filled with panic as she pointed toward the grand entrance gates. "Look at the hallway!"[BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!]The thirty-foot double obsidian gates at the entrance of the Imperial Chamber were vibrating violently under immense external blows.Outside in the grand corridor, thousands of screaming voices echoed down the mountain transit shafts.It wasn't just the two hundred people in the throne room.The dark neurological signal broadcast from the Zero-Core had exploded through all four tiers of the Sovereign Citadel in less than thirty seconds.Down in Tier Two, hundreds of executive strategy consultants, luxu

"We don't fight them," Caleb said softly. "We heal them."Caleb took a deep step forward, raising both of his bare hands into the air.He ignored the crackling purple mist swirling around his ankles and the deafening, metallic chant echoing from thousands of throats.He focused his mind entirely on his Positive System — Active Healing.[PING!]========================================= POSITIVE SYSTEM ACTIVATION[ABILITY ENGAGED: ALTRUISTIC ACTIVE HEALING (MASS PURGE)][TARGET AREA: 30-METER FRONT LINE][SYSTEM WARNING: CONTAMINANT IS A HIGH-DENSITY NEUROLOGICAL ENGINE. PURGING WILL REQUIRE MAXIMUM SOVEREIGN VITALITY OUTPUT.]=========================================A brilliant, dazzling wave of pure golden light erupted from Caleb’s palms.It was warm, soft, and radiant—like the morning sun breaking over the red-brick roofs of the Southern Sector. The golden light expanded in a vast, thirty-foot arc, washing over the front rank of the charging mob.The golden energy seeped directly

"Take Valerie, Jurl, and every Guild enforcer left in Tier One," Caleb commanded, his tone flat, sharp, and absolute. "Fall back through the rear emergency transit tunnels to the outer mountain pass. Take every uninfected survivor you can find, lock the titanium blast doors behind you, and do not open them under any circumstances."Thomas blinked, his voice trembling. "B-But Chairman! What about the people down in Tier Two and Three?! What about the fifty thousand clerks?!""There is only one way to save the ones who are still breathing, Thomas," Caleb said, looking directly into the dark, steaming granite fissure in the center of the room. "And that is to kill the thing that is holding their leash."Jurl looked up, his bloodshot eyes widening. "Caleb... that machine down there... it turned thirty people's brains to ash in one second when you tried to heal them! If you go down into its nest, it will unleash that full frequency directly on your mind!""Let it try," Caleb said smoothly.

[BANG! BANG!]The collision shattered the biomechanical conduits, spraying dark, corrosive violet fluid across the black floorboards. The acid sizzled against the metal floor, but when a drop splashed onto Caleb’s sweater, his Active Healing instantly repelled the chemical burn, leaving his skin completely smooth and unblemished."IMPOSSIBLE!" the Malice Engine roared, its central core pulsing frantically. "YOUR PHYSICAL STRENGTH EXCEEDS HUMAN LIMITATIONS!""I'm not using human limitations," Caleb said coldly.He charged straight toward the center of the bio-metallic heart.His boots blurred against the black floorboards, leaving trail marks of compressed golden air behind him as he covered twenty feet in a microsecond.The dark parasite panicked. It concentrated its entire defensive array, firing a massive, ten-foot-wide beam of concentrated dark purple Aetheric plasma directly from its central core.[BZZZZZZZZZT!]The purple plasma beam carried enough raw thermal heat to melt solid