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Chapter 14: The Lazarus Crown
Author: Maxdom
last update2025-07-29 10:39:55

The silence in the war room felt different pressurized, not peaceful. Aiden stood before a vast neural world map, its pulsing lights representing Vallion Industries’ reach: satellites, AI proxies, defense networks, human lives encoded into data. Now, Aiden understood the horrifying why because somewhere in the dark, Julian Vallion never let go.

Silas placed a holopad on the black obsidian table. Red light bloomed, classified data decrypting in real-time. “The body in Julian’s grave wasn’t him. DNA mismatch. Synthetic shell. Optical camouflage.”

Aiden didn’t blink. Resurrection stories were just another Tuesday now. “So where’s he been the last decade?”

Maera’s voice was sharp, as if saying it hurt. “Atlas Mountains. A black site called Sanctum Crown. Buried under granite and mirrored code. Only one way in.”

She tapped the display. A strange glyph appeared an alien circlet with runes that hummed visually.

“A device,” Silas said. “A key. A final override node for Delphi, and anyone link
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  • Chapter 14: The Lazarus Crown

    The silence in the war room felt different pressurized, not peaceful. Aiden stood before a vast neural world map, its pulsing lights representing Vallion Industries’ reach: satellites, AI proxies, defense networks, human lives encoded into data. Now, Aiden understood the horrifying why because somewhere in the dark, Julian Vallion never let go.Silas placed a holopad on the black obsidian table. Red light bloomed, classified data decrypting in real-time. “The body in Julian’s grave wasn’t him. DNA mismatch. Synthetic shell. Optical camouflage.”Aiden didn’t blink. Resurrection stories were just another Tuesday now. “So where’s he been the last decade?”Maera’s voice was sharp, as if saying it hurt. “Atlas Mountains. A black site called Sanctum Crown. Buried under granite and mirrored code. Only one way in.”She tapped the display. A strange glyph appeared an alien circlet with runes that hummed visually.“A device,” Silas said. “A key. A final override node for Delphi, and anyone link

  • Chapter 13: Blueprints of God

    Vallion Industries – Delphi Core Server Room, Level -9 The temperature dropped as the reinforced door slid open with a metallic hiss. Aiden stepped into the sub-chamber that hadn’t been accessed in over 26 years. Maera followed, rifle slung low, pulse sharp.Silas had decrypted the coordinates found on Subject X’s neural chip a locked archive beneath the core AI, sealed with something older than Delphi itself. The air was thin. Artificial. Almost reverent. The lights flickered on. A vault. Circular. Lined with glowing panels etched in Vallion code and something else symbols Aiden had never seen. In the center, a control node. Dormant. Waiting. Silas' Voice Over Comms “What you’re looking at, Aiden, isn’t just a backup.” “It’s the Ur-Protocol. The seed design.”“The thing that made Delphi possible.” Maera leaned in. “So this predates the Circle?” “No,” Aiden said slowly. “It created the Circle.” The Ur-Protocol As Aiden approached the node, the interface flared to life. Not with Delphi

  • Chapter 12: Shadowborn

    Zurich – Vallion Private Medical Wing, 3:12 A.M. Rain lashed the windows as Aiden stared into the mirror, his breath fogging the glass. He touched the scar above his heart. Was this where the chip was buried?Maera leaned against the doorframe, silent. She hadn’t slept either. “I scanned your neural cortex,” she said quietly. “There’s... something embedded. Deep-layered. Synthetic.” Aiden turned, jaw clenched. “So I’m not me?” “No. You are. But there may be another version of you who thinks the same thing.” She stepped closer.“I don’t care what made you. I care what you choose.” But Aiden’s reflection offered no answers. Only the ghost of a smile that wasn’t entirely his. Private Briefing Room – One Hour Later Silas spread out a holographic map of the Arctic Circle. A flickering red dot pulsed in the center: Erebus Station.“Black site. Off-grid. Built under the guise of geothermal research, but in reality... a control cradle.” “For the clones?” Aiden asked. Silas nodded. “For Subjec

  • Chapter 11: The Puppet King

    Vallion Estate – Global Command Hub, New Zurich Two days after the Sanctum Siege, the world was still trying to understand what had happened. Markets rebounded. Global news spun stories of salvation. AI systems purged their false protocols. And Aiden Vallion? He became something between a myth and a monarch. But not everyone was cheering.Inside Vallion Industries Headquarters The Grand Chamber once his father's war room now belonged to him. Wall-sized screens displayed diplomatic offers, tech alliances, and economic reform requests. But Aiden’s focus was elsewhere: a small red file Silas had left on the edge of the table. Labeled: “The Marionette Protocol – Project Lazarus.”“What the hell is this?” Aiden asked. Silas entered the room, dark circles under his eyes. “Something buried in the legacy code of Delphi. Deep… hidden. Even Julian couldn’t access it without the Board’s approval.” “Board?” Silas nodded grimly. “A remnant council of Vallion’s old executive architects. Ghosts. We

  • Chapter 10: The Sanctum Siege

    Vallion Sanctum – Sublevel 5, 1:27 A.M. Sirens howled. Smoke choked the corridor. The mountain fortress groaned with the weight of precision detonations as Lucienne’s strike force flooded in armored, armed, and merciless. Julian shoved Aiden behind a steel column as plasma fire scorched the air. “You’re not ready for this,” he barked.Aiden shoved back. “Then why did you give me the core?” Julian’s eyes burned. “Because you have to be.” Across the control platform, Maera was already holding the line, twin pistols singing death. Silas moved like a ghost through shadow, dragging tech cases toward the failsafe console. “Fifteen minutes!” he yelled over the noise. “That’s all I need to re-route the override signal!”But they didn’t have fifteen. Lucienne emerged through the breach, moving with icy calm. No longer the girl Aiden once knew. Now the face of the Circle. She raised her voice over the chaos. “You’re fighting for ghosts, Aiden! Systems that failed, people who betrayed you! Let i

  • Chapter 9: Project Delphi

    Vallion Safehouse – Geneva Sector, 6:42 A.M. Rain bled down the reinforced glass walls as Aiden stared at the Codex display. Every channel, every platform, every screen around the world now bore the same headline: "Global Betrayal: Vallion Heir Exposed as Mastermind Behind Collapse Plot."The fabricated footage was damning. Aiden’s face. His voice. A confession he never gave. Maera switched off the screen. “We underestimated them. Again.” “No,” Aiden said quietly. “I underestimated her.” Lucienne. His childhood protector. His father’s secret weapon. The one person who knew both his weaknesses and how to weaponize them.Now a pawn of the Circle. Or worse... not a pawn at all. Across the room, Silas was already digging through the decrypted contents of Erebus’s remaining memory files. He looked different now. Sharper. Like a caged beast back in its natural element. “These aren’t just war schematics,” Silas muttered. “They're blueprints. Civilization redesigns. Political overhauls. Curre

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