2026-02-10 15:30:42The bunker was silent, save for the hum of the lead-shielded walls struggling to deflect the city's heavy electronic smog. Michael sat on the floor, his back against the cold metal, staring at his trembling hands. The name Zoltan was a jagged glass shard in his mind. It didn't matter if it was the same man or a descendant; the bloodline of the betrayer was still ruling the world he had once tried to protect.
"Michael?"
Lyra’s voice was small. She was huddled on a crate, her medical student uniform torn and stained. She looked at him with a mixture of hope and terror that made his Heart Circuit ache.
"They're coming for us, aren't they?" she asked.
"They're coming for what they think you are," Michael replied, his voice a low rasp.
Before she could answer, the room’s air filtration unit groaned. The fans slowed, and a red light on the console began to pulse.
"Silas!" Michael shouted.
Silas Graves stumbled into the room, his face pale beneath the grime of the slums. "It's started. They've bypassed Cassian’s perimeter sensors. The Draken Estate just authorized the Stardust protocol."
"Explain," Michael commanded, standing up despite the protesting scream of his muscles.
"It’s an atmospheric purge," Silas said, his hand white-knuckled on his kinetic pistol. "Dispersal drones. They saturate the air with weaponized nanites. To anyone with a corporate ID chip, it’s just harmless mist. But to those without? It’s a molecular acid. It liquefies the lungs in minutes. They’re going to bleach this entire district just to find one girl."
Michael felt a surge of cold fury. This was the Draken way. Total erasure.
"How long?"
"Twenty minutes until the clouds reach the lower levels," Silas replied. "We have to move her, Michael. Now."
"No," Michael snapped. "If she steps out of this lead shielding, the drones will lock onto her bio-signature in seconds. Moving is a death sentence."
"Then what? We sit here and wait to melt?"
Michael didn't answer. He turned to the mobile lab equipment Cassian had provided. His mind was a battlefield of medical data and ancient runes. He didn't have the strength for a grand spell, but he had the knowledge of a surgeon.
"I need to open the Third Circuit," Michael muttered.
"Michael, no!" Lyra ran to him, grabbing his arm. "You just performed a three-hour neural-sync surgery on Hammer. Your heart hasn't even stabilized! You'll burn your nervous system to ash!"
"If I don't," Michael said, looking her in the eyes, "there won't be a nervous system left to burn."
He grabbed a vial of silver-laced Aether-saline—a raw, unstable conductor. Without a second thought, he jammed the needle into the base of his own neck, injecting the fluid directly into the primary neural junction.
The scream stayed trapped in his throat.
Third Circuit: Nervous System. Initialization.
It felt like his skin was being peeled off and replaced with live wires. His vision exploded into a kaleidoscope of purple static. The pain was so intense it became a physical weight, crushing him against the floor.
Synchronization: 0.05%... 0.08%... 0.12%.
Suddenly, the world changed. He didn't just see the room; he felt the vibrations of the entire city above him. He could 'hear' the data flowing through the cables in the walls. He could feel the cloud of nanites descending through the vents—a shimmering, gray death.
"Silas," Michael gasped, blood beginning to trickle from his nose. "The terminal. Give it to me."
He laid his palms flat on the terminal. He wasn't typing code. He was using his nervous system as a bridge, forcing his mana into the city’s digital veins. He searched for the drones, his mind screaming under the pressure of the Aether-Net’s firewall.
"Stop them..." Lyra whispered, her hand on his shoulder.
Michael found the command frequency for the Stardust drones. It was encrypted with the Draken's 128-bit quantum key. To a normal hacker, it was a mountain. To an Archmage, it was a flaw.
Audit Protocol: False Target.
Michael didn't shut the drones down—that would trigger a manual override. Instead, he rewrote their sensory logic. He made the drones believe the "Biological Asset" was located three miles away, in the heart of the government’s military district.
"What are you doing?" Silas asked, watching the data-stream.
"I’m giving the Drakens a new enemy," Michael said, his teeth gritted.
Far above the slums, forty gold-plated drones suddenly pivoted. Their dispersal valves closed, and their sensors recalibrated. They began to drift toward the upper spires, toward the halls of the Oakhaven Internal Security (OIS).
"Michael, stop! You're shaking!" Lyra cried.
Michael didn't stop. He pushed further, sending a ping—a deliberate, mocking signal—to the Draken’s private server. It wasn't a virus. It was a signature. A purple medical diagram of a human heart with a single bone-deep crack.
"There," Michael whispered.
The feedback hit him like a physical blow. The terminal exploded in a shower of sparks, throwing Michael across the room. He hit the back wall and slumped down, his eyes rolling back in his kepala.
"Michael!"
The Third Circuit slammed shut, the sudden loss of energy making his body feel like it was made of cold stone. He couldn't move. He couldn't speak. But as he lay there, he heard the roar of heavy engines from the sky.
OIS Interceptors. The government was reacting to the Draken drones entering their airspace. The "Silent War" between the city's two masters had just been ignited by a boy in a basement.
Silas ran to the door, peering through the security camera. "The drones are retreating... Michael, you did it. The OIS is grounding everything!"
Michael didn't hear him. He was staring at the ceiling, his consciousness flickering. He had bought them time, but he knew the cost. The Drakens wouldn't just send drones next time. They would send a person.
"Pack the gear," Michael managed to groan as Lyra pulled him into her lap. "The OIS... they'll be here in minutes. They'll want to know who redirected those drones."
"You want to talk to the government?" Silas asked, shocked.
"I want a deal," Michael said, his eyes glowing with a faint, dying purple. "I'm tired of being the prey. It’s time to join the hunt."
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
10
The black OIS sedan cut through the rain-slicked streets of the Upper District like a scalpel through silk. Inside, the cabin was a vacuum of silence, insulated from the neon chaos of Oakhaven by layers of lead and soundproofing. The air smelled of expensive leather and the sharp, clinical scent of a military-grade air purifier.Michael sat in the back seat, his hands resting motionless on his knees. To a casual observer, he looked like a corpse in a suit; his skin was a deathly gray, and the faint purple veins on his neck were still pulsing with the residual heat of the Third Circuit. Across from him sat Major Kincaid, a man who looked like he had been carved out of granite. Kincaid didn't have glowing cybernetics or visible ports—he was a "Natural," a rarity in a world that preferred titanium to bone."You're lucky the OIS needs a ghost, Dorian," Kincaid said, his voice a low, rhythmic growl over the hum of the engine. "If it were up to the Draken family, you’d be a red smear on the
9
The bunker was silent, save for the hum of the lead-shielded walls struggling to deflect the city's heavy electronic smog. Michael sat on the floor, his back against the cold metal, staring at his trembling hands. The name Zoltan was a jagged glass shard in his mind. It didn't matter if it was the same man or a descendant; the bloodline of the betrayer was still ruling the world he had once tried to protect."Michael?"Lyra’s voice was small. She was huddled on a crate, her medical student uniform torn and stained. She looked at him with a mixture of hope and terror that made his Heart Circuit ache."They're coming for us, aren't they?" she asked."They're coming for what they think you are," Michael replied, his voice a low rasp.Before she could answer, the room’s air filtration unit groaned. The fans slowed, and a red light on the console began to pulse."Silas!" Michael shouted.Silas Graves stumbled into the room, his face pale beneath the grime of the slums. "It's started. They'
8
The holographic feed in Cassian’s office flickered with the image of Lyra’s face. The label "Biological Asset" felt like a cold blade pressing against the back of Michael’s neck. Beside her image was a crest—a golden dragon coiled around a sun.Michael’s new heart gave a violent, painful thrum.It wasn't a medical anomaly. It was a resonance. For a split second, a flash of memory that wasn't his own—a memory of a silver-armored sky turning black—seared through his mind. He didn't know the name of the man who owned that crest in this world, but his soul remembered the scent of the blood on the blade that had carried it."The Draken Estate," Cassian muttered, his mechanical jaw clicking. "You’ve stepped into a giant’s shadow, boy. To the Ivory Tower, you’re a thief. To the Drakens, you’re a fly in the ointment. They don't just want her back; they want to know who helped her run."Michael forced the tremor in his hand to stop. "Why do they want her, Cassian? She’s just a student.""The D
7
Michael awoke to the sound of dripping water and the hum of a malfunctioning air purifier. It was a rhythmic, annoying sound that felt like someone was tapping a rhythmic needle against his skull.He didn't move. He didn't even open his eyes. Instead, he performed a silent audit of his internal systems.Heart Circuit: Stable. Synchronization: 0.002%. Energy reserves: Depleted.His body felt like it had been put through a trash compactor. The biological reconstruction had held, but the price of his escape was a systemic exhaustion that made his muscles feel as heavy as lead. Every breath he took tasted of ozone and cheap synthetic grease."You're finally awake," a voice whispered.Michael opened his eyes. He wasn't in a cell, but he wasn't free either. He was lying on a makeshift cot in a room that looked like a graveyard for dead electronics. Bundles of fiber-optic cables hung from the ceiling like weeping willows, and the only light came from a cracked holographic terminal in the cor
6
The humming of the medical equipment didn't just stop; it died with a choked metallic rasp.Michael stood in the absolute dark, the silence of the corridor pressing against his eardrums like deep water. The Mana Pulse hadn't been a blast of light; it was a vacuum, an invisible scythe that had ripped the digital soul out of every device in a fifty-meter radius. Emergency strobes, biometric locks, even the tactical HUDs of the guards—all rendered into useless scrap in a single heartbeat.A few feet away, Kaelen Reign let out a sound that wasn't quite a scream. It was the grunt of a man who had suddenly become a prisoner inside his own skin. His exoskeleton armor, a multi-million credit marvel of Oakhaven technology, had become a tomb. Without power, the hydraulic joints locked, pinning Kaelen’s limbs in a rigid, frozen stance. His mechanical eye, once a glowing red threat, was now just a dull piece of glass staring at nothing.Michael didn't wait for them to adjust. He didn't have a spe
5
The emergency lights in the underground corridor flickered red, reflecting off the damp concrete walls. Michael walked past the bodies of the two wardens without looking back. In his hand, he twirled the electric baton he had seized, feeling the remnants of static charge tingling against his palm."You’re crazy, kid! You actually made it out!" Silas shouted from within his cell. The sound of keys rattling against the concrete floor followed.Michael paused for a moment, his back to Silas’s iron bars. "Use the keys quickly if you don't want to be fried when full security protocol activates.""Wait! Where are you going? The elevator doors at the end are locked automatically!""I don't need an elevator," Michael replied shortly.He wasn't lying. Michael could feel the electrical current in the corridor walls as if they were giant veins. His new heart beat heavily, demanding more intake. That punch earlier had been effective, but his mana circuits were still starving.Michael pressed his
You may also like
Destroyer of the Dao
Evanscapenovel24.8K viewsThe Overpowered Grass Magician
Shame_less00745.1K viewsHoly Demon God
LuoFeng91520.5K viewsSwordbound Chronicles
Jimmy-Chuuu27.5K viewsLegend Of The Young Warlock
Zuxian8.6K viewsAurelius Chronicles: Lord of the Mountain (Book 1)
Mahilla303 viewsNexus: New World
Little LYTA2.5K viewsTHE DRAGON SWORD
Godspower Gab1.1K views