ZERO NEXUS

Chapter Twenty One ( THE TOWER OF HIM)

The air was thick with dust and heat. The sky hung low, red like a warning light that never turned off. Lena coughed and pulled her jacket tighter around her. The wind carried a strange humming sound, like machines breathing under the ground.

They had arrived. But not where they expected.

Not in the past.

Not in safety.

This was the future.

And it was already dying.

Kai helped the Zero Child stand up. Her knees were shaking, and her eyes were wide.

“Where… where are we?” she asked softly.

Kai looked around with a tense jaw. His eyes locked on the tall black tower in the distance. It glowed with red lights, like veins pulsing through the metal.

“That symbol on the tower,” Eli said, pointing. “It’s the Nexus symbol. But warped. Like it’s been burned into everything.”

“It’s him,” Lena whispered.

Kai nodded once. “The copy. He won.”

The Group Moved

The city around them was broken—unfinished buildings, cracked streets, and glowing wires crawling over the ground like snakes. Some pulsed, re