The world burned from within.

  One explosion—then twelve—ripped through what remained of the Old Earth foundations. Odryix command towers went dark, black smoke choking the skies. Surveillance shattered. Static roared across their comms.

  Underground, humans were no longer hiding.

  Adelpha Rae stood before a crackling console in Earth’s deepest tunnels, her voice slicing through the static like a blade:

  “To any bastards listening, this isn’t resistance.This is revenge.”

  And above them, the Odryix felt it: Earth was breathing again.

  “Move!”

  Rizer dove behind a crumbled tower fragment, psionic pressure bursting from his chest. Odryix soldiers convulsed, eyes bleeding, skulls popping like crushed fruit.

  Beside him, Elias moved like a shadow. A glowing one.

  They were no longer just surviving, they were erasing the enemy.

  The latest mission: breach a siphoning chamber. Save the human prisoners. Shut it down.

  They hit the target hard. Yuna’s squad planted charges. Elias kicked in the gate, and what waited inside twisted Rizer’s gut: dozens of human bodies, suspended, barely alive, drained like batteries.

  Too late to save them.

  Too late for mercy.

  Elias stood silent. Then something snapped inside him.

  The Odryix commander laughed, until his lungs froze. His entire body was lifted off the ground, spasming violently. No one touched him.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  His ribcage bent inward.

  His scream stopped short.

  His blood hit the walls like paint.

  Rizer blinked.

  Elias’ eyes—white-hot. His bracelet scorched his wrist.

  “I didn’t mean to,” Elias whispered. “It just… happened.”

  “You didn’t see him, Rizer,” Elias murmured. “He was inside me. His voice. His hunger. I felt what he wanted from us, he didn’t even hate us. He enjoyed it.”

  “You killed him,” Rizer replied. “That’s what matters.”

  Elias turned his hand over, staring at the veins.

  “But what if I’m becoming something worse than them?”

  Commander Lyra stood in the central tower of Gaia-9, staring at the fractured sky dome. The Odryix had tested their outer defences twice this week. Just scouts—but they were getting braver.

  Then the power flickered.

  Screens lit up with static and a symbol appeared: twisted roots surrounding a glowing eye.

  Sabotage.

  She slammed her fist down.

  “Someone inside is feeding them information.”

  The traitor wasn’t caught. Not yet. But they'd left a name in a cracked server line:Project Hollow Root.

  Lyra closed her fist.

  “We either dig them out, or we burn with them.”

  Beneath the deepest tunnels, Adelpha opened a steel lockbox. Inside: a hand-drawn star chart, coordinates, Odryix anatomy schematics and a cracked photo of a man.

  “Your grandfather,” she said.

  Rizer felt like his chest split open.

  “He worked with us before he died. Modified your pod. Hid this map. Told us someday his grandsons would finish what he couldn’t.”

  Elias stepped closer. The bracelet on his wrist pulsed brighter than ever.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  Adelpha stared at the map.

  “Not just where they came from,” she said. “But how to kill them all.”

  Lord Ankura watched the grainy footage of Elias obliterating the commander. No hesitation. No mercy.

  He spoke slowly, venomously:

  “He’s not just gifted.He’s unstable.Good.”

  Zuron cracked his knuckles. “Let me take them.”

  But Garter, cold and composed, whispered:

  “No. Let them believe they’re winning. Let them burn bright.”

  He smirked.

  “Then we make them watch the world go black.”