2026-07-16 13:03:15The digital timer on Axel’s right wrist flashed a menacing red within the pitch-black concrete corridor on the 50th floor of the Eternity Tower. 00 Days, 00 Hours, 03 Minutes, 14 Seconds.
Axel’s chest felt as though it had been struck by an iron sledgehammer. Chronos Decay—the biological cancer that preyed upon lifespan—was relentlessly wringing out the very last beats of his heart. His breath came in ragged, desperate gasps, leaving dark stains of blood upon the collar of his torn black tactical frock coat. The tightly buttoned, high-collared garment was now nothing more than a shroud ready to wrap his corpse.At the far end of the corridor, the heavy steel door of the main vault slid open. The rhythmic thud of combat boots echoed, shattering the freezing silence of the night.
“You’re two minutes late, Brother.”
Axel looked up through strands of hair drenched in sweat. There stood Valen. His half-brother looked immaculate in a luxurious, spotless white suit, a stark, mocking contrast to Axel, who was drenched in blood. Behind Valen, a dozen muzzles of automatic rifles held by the central elite squad locked instantly onto Axel’s head.
Axel did not flinch. His trembling left hand tossed a heavy silver cylinder onto the floor. It rolled forward, coming to a dead stop right before Valen’s boots. Within it lay pure Time Core, containing ten thousand years of human lifespan that Axel had just single-handedly wrested from a lethal infiltration into the outer district.
“Mission... accomplished,” Axel whispered, his voice hoarse as he fought the searing agony in his lungs. “Allocate that lifespan quota to the lower district clinic. As per our agreement, Valen.”
Valen stared down at the cylinder, his lips curling into a sinister smirk. Instead of picking it up, he casually ground his boot heel into it.
“Lifespan quotas for the lower district rats? You must be joking,” Valen sneered. He stepped forward, violently wrenching the Life Reaper Gun from Axel’s waist. “Father has already signed a new directive. The entirety of tonight’s haul is transferred under my name as a performance bonus. And for a traitor like you... there is no quota.”
Axel’s heart sank. Inside his mind, old memories began to spin like a damaged cassette tape. He remembered the endless, sleepless nights spent designing the blueprints for the very weapon Valen now held. He remembered starving himself, giving up his own lifespan-soup rations just so his half-brother could grow up healthy. Even the white suit Valen wore at this moment had been bought with blood money Axel earned risking his life on the battlefield.
Yet tonight, on the highest floor of the tower they had built together, the brother he had protected looked down at him like a piece of filth.
“Valen...” Axel clutched his chest, his eyes wide with disbelief. “I’m the one who dragged you out of the gutter. I’m the one who taught you how to hold a weapon!”
“And that was your greatest mistake,” a heavy, commanding voice cut through from the darkness behind the squad.
A middle-aged man carrying a suffocating aura of intimidation stepped into the light. Adrian Vance. The CEO of Eternity Corp, and the biological father who had never once acknowledged Axel's existence. On Adrian’s wrist, a digital watch glowed with a brilliant golden hue, displaying the symbol of infinity, an eternity plundered from the blood of others.
Adrian didn't even deign to look Axel in the eye. He merely cast a cold glance at the silver cylinder on the floor.
“You are far too naive to lead the Liquidator division, Axel. You possess a genius mind for creating systems, but you inherit a weak heart from your mother,” Adrian said, his tone flat and devoid of emotion. “Did you truly think I remained blind to you secretly donating your remaining seconds to that slum clinic?”
“Mother died because you drained her entire lifespan to extend the years of this godforsaken corporation!” Axel snarled, forcing himself to stand even as his knees trembled violently.
“Your mother died because she was no longer useful,” Adrian replied cruelly. He turned his back on Axel, giving a lazy wave of his hand to Valen. “Punish him on charges of dereliction of duty. Leave thirty days on his clock, and cast him down to where he belongs.”
“With pleasure, Father,” Valen grinned maliciously.
Valen aimed the lifespan extractor at Axel’s wrist. A brilliant blue light flared, forcibly siphoning Axel’s biological time through the air. The agony was excruciating. Axel let out a strangled groan as the numbers on his wrist spun violently backward, finally locking onto a terrifying countdown: 29 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 00 Seconds.
“One month, Brother,” Valen whispered directly into Axel’s ear as two burly guards dragged his limp body toward the disposal hatch. “Let us see if your proud tactical coat can save you when the time on your wrist runs out.”The disposal hatch slammed open. Axel’s body was thrown mercilessly out of the tower, plummeting through the pitch-black night and a torrential downpour toward the slums of the lower district far below.
As he hurtled downward, Axel’s hand tightly gripped the sole object he had managed to pickpocket from Valen when they were close: a silver necklace bearing a lily emblem, the necklace of his late mother.
Axel stared up at the receding lights of the tower above. The agonizing pain in his chest vanished, replaced by a searing, cold fury that set his very soul ablaze. He would not die tonight. He had thirty days left, and he swore that every single second would be weaponized to tear down his father’s golden empire.
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12. THE LOGIC BEHIND THE AGONY
Thin, ash-gray vapor crept down from the ventilation grates in the ceiling, blanketing the white marble floor like a toxic winter mist. The pungent stench of ozone mixed with synthetic sulfur compounds began to claw aggressively at Axel's lungs. 13 Days, 01 Hour, 08 Minutes.Axel’s heartbeat felt like the heavy thud of a sledgehammer slamming against his ribcage. A sharp cough forced its way out of his throat, leaving a smear of fresh, crimson blood across his left palm. The Chronos Decay, working in lethal tandem with the atmospheric purge gas, was brutally eroding his physical defenses.“Twenty seconds before your lungs freeze solid, Axel,” Adrian Vince said. His voice remained chillingly level despite the tactical pistol muzzle still pressed firmly against his forehead. “Even your prized black tactical coat cannot filter these nano-purification particles. Release me, and utilize the emergency elevator behind this desk to descend.”“I didn't climb up here to walk away alive, Adrian,
11. RESIDUAL DUST AT THE NEEDLE'S END
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
THE FINAL SECONDS IN THE ISOLATION ROOM
The sharp hiss of the hydraulic steel blast doors sealing the fiftieth floor gradually died down, leaving behind a suffocating, heavy silence within the sterile grand hall of the Eternity Tower. The emergency crimson hazard lights rotated constantly, casting sinister red reflections across the blood-slicked white marble.13 Days, 00 Hours, 05 Minutes.Axel’s heart hammered violently, pumping the rapidly depleting remnants of his biological energy into his straining muscles. The muzzle of the Life Reaper Gun in his right hand remained absolutely steady, aiming dead center between Adrian Vince’s eyes.Around them, twenty elite Liquidators stood frozen. Their laser rifles were locked onto Axel’s head, yet not a single one dared to pull the trigger. They knew that within this close proximity, Axel’s reflexes were faster than a blink. A single stray round from their vanguard would trigger an instantaneous catastrophic detonation of the reactor core, whose codes had been tightly locked down
THE GRIM REAPER'S FINAL STRIDE
The high-speed freight elevator groaned heavily, cutting through the darkness of the vertical shaft of the Eternity Tower at hundreds of kilometers per hour. Inside the cramped, metallic box, there was only Axel and a suffocating, deathly silence. 13 Days, 01 Hour, 42 Minutes.The searing pain in Axel’s chest from the flare of Chronos Decay now felt like a white-hot iron rod twisting inside his heart. The biological side effects of rerouting Rhea’s time-drain load earlier were pushing his physical endurance to its absolute limits. Yet, Axel’s face beneath the dim elevator light remained as rigid as a forged steel mask.He slid the magazine out of his tactical pistol, verifying the remaining rounds with a rhythmic tap of his fingers, before slamming it back into place with a solid, definitive click.Axel pulled at the high collar of his black tactical frock coat, buttoning the very top link tightly to wrap around his neck. The heavy, dark kevlar fabric felt like a suit of armor, comple
THE STOLEN HEARTBEAT
“Valen, authorize the Vampire Drain protocol on that woman’s clinic sub-sector. Do not siphon their lifespans instantly. Do it systematically, in increments. Let the digital timer on that woman's wrist bleed out one hour for every ten minutes that pass.”Valen snapped his head up, his eyes widening as the sheer sadism of his father’s strategy sank in. “You want to torture her from a distance just to shatter Axel’s focus during the hack?”“Precisely,” Adrian murmured, returning his gaze to the glass window. “Axel wears that rigid black coat to conceal the reality that he still harbors a residual scrap of humanity in his chest. And that very humanity will be the noose that hangs him.”Adrian’s inner monologue echoed through the suffocating silence of the room: Did you honestly believe you could defeat him with weapons, Valen? No. Axel can only be destroyed if you make his own choices feel like a mistake. I am the one who molded him, and I know the exact frequency required to make him cr
EXECUTION IN THE DARK
To an ordinary person, darkness is blindness; but to Axel, it was a tactical map.The moment the hall plunged into blackness, Angga’s panicked shriek shattered the silence, instantly followed by the frantic clatter of automatic weapons as Valen’s enforcers attempted to blindfire into the void.“Activate night vision! Fast!” Valen barked, his previously arrogant voice now pitching into a frantic, high-strained panic.It would take them exactly four seconds to boot up the infrared tactical visors on their helmets. To Axel, four seconds was an eternity.SWISH!Silently, Axel burst from behind the marble pillar. He moved like a phantom, his black tactical frock coat slicing through the air without a sound. His first target was the gunman on the right flank. Extending the tactical blade CNC-machined into his sleeve, Axel severed the external power cable of the enforcer's helmet before the infrared sensors could even initialize.In one fluid, pivoting motion, Axel spun the disoriented guard
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