Freezing nitrogen vapor blasted from the hydraulic pipes along the ceiling, weaving a thin mist that heavily obscured the perimeter inside the fiftieth-floor hall. The emergency steel blast doors that had sealed the room now felt like the claustrophobic walls of a monolithic coffin for anyone trapped within. 13 Days, 01 Hour, 42 Minutes.The digital countdown on Axel’s wrist ticked with relentless, mechanical constancy. Meanwhile, on Adrian Vince’s wrist, the numbers of absolute immortality, which had previously showcased hundreds of unyielding years, began to flicker a volatile crimson, plummeting drastically as the central Time Bank systematically drained into public sub-channels. 45 Days, 12 Hours, 03 Minutes... 29 Days, 08 Hours, 55 Minutes...“You’re... you're robbing me, Axel!” Valen shrieked from behind a marble pillar. His battered, swollen face was now a mask of sheer, unadulterated panic as he watched his own digital countdown bleed away to a mere handful of days. “You’re di

Residual nitrogen vapor from the fiftieth-floor explosion blasted into the emergency maintenance shafts, coating the vertical steel ladders they clung to in a slick, freezing frost. 13 Days, 00 Hours, 01 Minute.The digital numbers on Axel’s wrist flickered faintly beneath the shroud of steam. Every single step he took felt as heavy as lead. His vision blurred once more into a digitized distortion, with red static shattering his depth perception for several grueling seconds before he violently shook his head to force himself back into consciousness.“The freight elevator control systems have been completely vaporized by Adrian's automated purge protocol,” Rhea gasped, her voice laced with anxiety behind her respirator mask as she scrambled down the iron rungs directly beneath Axel. “We can’t descend through the internal shafts, Axel. Our only exit is to breach the emergency bulkhead of Sector 42 on the tower's exterior wall.”“The exterior?” Axel let out a sharp, ragged cough, fightin

Bzzz-klank.A wave of oppressive air pressure greeted them as Axel and Rhea slid down through a rusted iron maintenance hatch, landing heavily on a concrete walkway slick with toxic moss. The acrid stench of molten metal, sulfur, and chemical runoff saturated the subterranean darkness of Sub-Sector 9, a colossal labyrinth of drainage pipes winding beneath the underbelly of the Lower District. 12 Days, 22 Hours, 41 Minutes.The neon-green numbers on Axel’s wrist continued their unyielding countdown. In the dim, flickering amber glow of the failing fluorescent lights overhead, Axel leaned his back against the damp concrete wall. His chest, framed beneath his black tactical frock coat, rose and fell in jagged, irregular breaths. His muscles screamed in protest, and the searing agony in his lungs from the Chronos Decay intensified with every heartbeat.“Axel, hold still...” Rhea whispered in a sudden panic, dropping her cyber-logistics bag onto the ground. Her nimble fingers slid out a ha

HISSSS, KLANK!The ten-ton steel bulkhead sealed automatically behind Axel and Rhea, completely isolating them inside the Core Anchor Reactor. The air in the chamber reeked of an ionized ozone stench so dense it tasted metallic on the tongue, saturated by the low-frequency hum vibrating from a colossal glass cylinder at the center of the room. 12 Days, 15 Hours, 22 Minutes.Inside the thirty-meter glass cylinder, pure, golden liquid Core Time swirled like a trapped kinetic tempest. This was the mechanical heart feeding the immortality of the Upper District’s elite, relentlessly siphoning away every precious second of life from the citizens of the Lower District.“Axel... look at this,” Rhea whispered, her eyes wide as she stared at the primary diagnostic readout mounted on the chamber’s reinforced steel wall.Axel stepped closer, his soot-and-blood-stained black tactical coat brushing softly against the console edge. His hawk-like eyes rapidly digested the lines of raw code and biolo

WHIRRRR, CLACK!The double-decker express cargo elevator linking the bowels of the earth to the apex of Eternity Tower groaned heavily as its magnetic levitation drives accelerated through the concrete shaft. Through the thick glass panelling behind Axel and Rhea, the sprawling vista of the Lower District steadily shrank, replaced by the towering steel megaliths and opulent lights of the Upper District shrouded in dense night fog. 12 Days, 12 Hours, 00 Minutes.Precisely half a day had elapsed since they neutralized the mass purge transmitter at the Core Anchor.Axel stood erect in the center of the elevator cabin, his partially singed black tactical frock coat swaying gently in the draft from the ventilation shafts. The golden-black bruisings running down his neck and arm, the permanent scars of Core Time conduction, pulsed faintly, casting a dim luminescence in the darkness of the cab.Beside him, Rhea was hastily sorting through her tactical satchel, retrieving two spare magazines