2025-09-08 14:34:24
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 80: The Secret Letter
The void in Markus's rooms was a tangible presence, thick and suffocating. It was the silence of the tomb, or a temple to a dead friendship. The fight with Ken echoed through the room, the ghost of their shrieked accusations seeming to vibrate in the air itself. The look on Elara's face—that combination of contempt and profound disappointment—was seared on the backs of his eyelids.He had relived the scene a hundred times. Ken's face, contorted in a rage Markus had never seen. The feel of Ken's hands pressing him into the glass. The harsh, ugly truth of the accusation: You called the GHD. He had denied it, but the denial was ashes in his mouth. Ken knew. And in knowing, he had stripped Markus of the last remnant of his moral high ground. Markus paced the brief span of the room, a caged animal. All his mathematics, his careful plans, had exploded in his face. He had sought to remove a rash leader and had instead ushered in a cruel occupation. He had sought to save the institute and had
Chapter 79: The Cure's Blood
The proof was undeniable. It poured in over the next three days, a torrent of miraculous, impossible results. They ran the tests again, with a different Blight sub-strain. Then again. Each time, the result was the same. Sophia's immune system didn't just resist the Blight; it nullified it. It was the perfect, living antidote.The upper-echelon personnel—the ones who could still be trusted—were gathered in the main laboratory. The mood was electric, a bizarre combination of triumphant success and ominous portent. Aris Thorne announced the findings, his voice trembling with excitement.“It’s her plasma,” he said, pulling up a holographic model of Sophia’s blood. “Specifically, a unique class of immunoglobulin her body produces. We’re calling them ‘Theta-class antibodies.’ They don’t just bind to the Blight’s proteins; they unravel them at a fundamental structural level. It’s a catalytic reaction. A single Theta-cell can neutralize thousands of viral particles per second.”He summoned an
Chapter 78: The Fever Tests
The hush in the maximum containment lab was complete, broken only by the hum of equipment and the soft, rhythmic whoosh of positive-pressure airlocks. It was a silence of high tension, a held breath counted in days. The world outside—De Vries's tyranny, the stranglehold of the GHD, the fractured institute—had receded to a dull, background din. Here, in the sterile, neon-lit heart of Level Sigma, there was only science. And the girl.Sophia lay on a biocontainment bed, a clear polymer shell encasing her from the neck down. Sensors were dispersed across her skin, tracing thin lines of light across her temples, her torso, the inner curve of her wrists. They delivered a constant, whispering stream of data to the rows of monitors that arced around her. Heart rate, respiration, neural activity, cellular metabolism, immune response. Every flicker of her biology was tracked, recorded, and analyzed.Around the shell, Dr. Aris Thorne—usually Markus's most eager protégé, but now, under Elara's i
Chapter 77: The Knife at the Back
The fight was not a battle. It was worse, more intimate. It was the brutality of a friendship on its dying breath. Markus's rush was met by Ken stepping aside and catching his arm, allowing him to use his own energy to crash him into the observation window's shock-resistant glass. The crash resonated throughout the room.They battled, a tangled mess of white lab coats and pure fury. No blows were exchanged in the classical way. It was a fight of leverage and contempt—a knee jammed into a thigh, an elbow pushed into a ribcage, foreheads pressed together as they shoved against one another, teeth exposed, hot angry breaths in each other's faces."You've ruined us…" Ken groaned, trying to pin down Markus's arms. "You did that…before I ever did…" Markus panted back, squirming loose.They slammed into Ken's desk, data-slates and forgotten cups of cold coffee scattered to the floor. The sound of their combat—the grunts of effort, the scratch of feet across the floor, the thud of flesh agains
Chapter 76: The Confrontation
The atmosphere in Ken's office was one of syrupy thickness, a stale mixture of sweat, fear, and silent accusation. The GHD "audit" had escalated to full-scale takeover. Commander Valerius's men now occupied every third terminal, their very presence a silent, sneering rebuke. Research on the Chimera vector hadn't merely come to a halt; it had been actively reverse-engineered into oblivion, stamped "too volatile" for further study. The remedy was suffocating in its cot, and the workers at the institute were being forced to push the pillow.Ken stood in his observation window, his back to the room. He wasn't viewing the city below; he was staring at his own reflection—a gaunt, skeletal ghost of the man who had dreamed of saving the world. Ash had fallen on his shoulders, and now it appeared to be settling in his soul.The door swung open with a hiss, no chime. Ken didn't need to turn. He knew the step, the particular cadence of rage that appeared to hum in the air about Markus Thorne.“T
Chapter 75: Broken Glass
The fear was a live wire in Sophia’s chest, buzzing constantly, its current amplified by the forced silence and the watching eyes. For three agonizing nights, the increased patrols had made the risk of venturing out untenable. Drones, their insectoid forms black against the moonlit sky, swept the perimeter with a new, predatory rhythm.Each night she spent trapped inside, the memory of Leo—the near-touch of his fingers, the rough warmth of his jacket, the kaleidoscopic glow of the lantern—became more vivid, more essential. He was the antidote to the poison of De Vries’s world. On the fourth night, the drone patterns shifted. They became more predictable, settling into a wider, more lazy loop. It was a calculated risk, but her need to see him, to confirm that their sanctuary still existed, overrode her caution. She slipped into the conduit, her heart a frantic bird beating against its cage of ribs.In her pocket was a small, precious offering: a fresh apple, its skin a shocking, vibrant
You may also like
The Dark King of London
Lil Chloe2.6K viewsCatalyst
Zerequiel1.8K viewsKingdom of the Weak
VicL29.5K viewsThe Max Level Hero: Strike Black
John Smith6.9K viewsThe Hibernating Beast
Hander Pake6.4K viewsSon of the Lalan hero
Maguire351.3K viewsStarship Hellbent
Marissa1.1K viewsFire & Flame
starrynight1.8K views