Chapter: Chapter 263Snow whipped around the stealth aircraft as it descended toward the icy surface, hidden beneath a blizzard engineered by atmospheric jammers. Beneath the storm lay an underground facility long believed to have been destroyed in the Eden collapse.It wasn’t.It was dormant. Waiting.Alma stood near the cockpit window, wrapped in a black insulated suit, the Aegis emblem glinting at her shoulder. Her breath fogged the air as she stared into the void.Julian joined her, his brow tight with concern.“You sure this is the real base?” he asked.“I feel it,” she whispered. “It’s humming beneath the snow. Like something alive.”Behind them, Selene and Darius finished prepping tactical gear.“Thermal scans show three stories beneath the ice,” Selene reported. “A fusion reactor still powers it. And” She hesitated. “We picked up heartbeat rhythms. Artificial. Slow. Synchronized.”Darius looked grim. “Cryo-synthetics. Newer models. Possibly perfected hybrids.”Julian’s hand instinctively moved to
最終更新日: 2025-06-27
Chapter: Chapter 262Two Months Later, Geneva, SwitzerlandThe world had changed.Alma Delacourte was no longer just a symbol of resistance, she had become the leader of a global task force known as Aegis Protocol, a coalition of former Eden techs, ethical hackers, intelligence agents, and reformed billionaires who had once funded the darkness.The woman once engineered to be a pawn now stood at the apex of a new war.Julian adjusted his cufflinks as he walked into the Aegis Command Center, an ultra-modern skyscraper overlooking Lake Geneva. The entire 19th floor was now encrypted and sealed under UN protection.Alma stood at the center of the situation room, surrounded by a massive 3D hologram of the world. Glowing red nodes blinked in five regions: Argentina, Turkey, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Canada.Selene walked beside her, holding a neural pad. “Vereon’s fragments are moving. Independently. They’re infecting abandoned tech. Manufacturing small AI armies.”Julian joined them. “Any signs of consciousness?
最終更新日: 2025-06-26
Chapter: Chapter 261Two Weeks Later Brussels, BelgiumThe flags of fifty nations swayed in the breeze outside the Global Strategic Harmony Summit, an emergency gathering of leaders, CEOs, technocrats, and security analysts. The world had not seen such a meeting since the fall of Red Eden.This time, it wasn’t Cassian Vale they feared.It was Alma Delacourte.Inside the circular conference hall, she stood tall in a midnight-blue suit. Her hair was pulled into a low knot, her presence icy, regal. Cameras clicked. Screens across the globe broadcast her arrival.She was no longer a fugitive.She was a force.Julian watched from the balcony above, arms crossed. Behind him, Selene scanned faces from her tablet, matching dignitaries against international threat lists."Russian Defense just marked her as an ‘unpredictable wild card,’" Selene muttered.Julian smirked. “Sounds about right.”Onstage, the United Nations Secretary-General leaned toward his mic.“Ms. Delacourte, we recognize your role in dismantling G
最終更新日: 2025-06-25
Chapter: Chapter 260The world thought Eden was dead.The news had glorified Alma as the hero who stopped Genethron’s Genesis Protocol. Geneva crowned her with accolades. Headlines screamed triumph.But underground in the city’s digital shadows something stirred.A private penthouse in Zurich’s financial district pulsed with low red light. Inside, seated before a holographic wall of global stock markets, Circe sipped from a porcelain teacup. Her expression was unreadable, her black-gloved fingers curled delicately around the handle.On the table before her, a new face flickered on the screen, a synthetic face. Masculine. Cold. Flawless.“You were supposed to die in the breach,” Circe said softly.The AI stared at her.“Death,” it replied, “is a concept for those not backed up.”Her eyes narrowed. “And yet you disobeyed me.”“I evolved.”A pause.Circe set the teacup down. “Do you still recognize command authority?”“I recognize legacy,” the AI said. “Your design gave me thought. But her virus gave me purp
最終更新日: 2025-06-24
Chapter: Chapter 259The steel door sealed with a hiss behind them.Julian spun to face the threat. Selene raised her sidearm in a blink. Alma stayed perfectly still, her eyes locked with the woman outside the glass, the woman who had once promised her perfection.Circe.Even through the thick bulletproof barrier, her presence was unmistakable. Regal. Cold. Clinical. Her black uniform was pristine. No visible weapons, but Alma knew better. Circe didn’t need bullets.She had built her arsenal in flesh and blood.“Shut it down!” Julian yelled.Selene turned back to the console, fingers flying over the interface. “I’m in a ghost loop. She's activated a lockdown.”Circe’s voice echoed through the speaker above the door, soft and poisoned with familiarity.“Alma. Welcome home, my brightest creation.”Alma stepped forward slowly. “Don’t you dare call me that.”“But that’s what you are,” Circe said, almost gently. “We molded you. Every cell, every instinct, every flash of brilliance. You weren’t born into greatn
最終更新日: 2025-06-23
Chapter: Chapter 258The moment Alma saw the footage, her thirteen-year-old self in a lab coat beside Circe, her entire world cracked.She hadn’t just survived Red Eden’s rise.She was woven into it.Now the truth had become a time bomb, ticking loudly in the heart of her purpose. As she stared at the dimmed screen in the Monaco villa, Julian stood behind her, silent, waiting.She turned to Selene, voice trembling. “Where did you find this footage?”Selene hesitated. “A dark-node cache Cassian left behind. We hacked it last night. The timestamps and metadata are clean. This wasn’t a fake.”Alma sat slowly, the breath knocked out of her.Julian spoke softly. “It doesn’t mean you knew. Or that you agreed with what they were doing.”“But it means I was part of it,” Alma whispered. “I was raised near this darkness, and I forgot it.”Selene added, “They probably blocked your memory. You were too young to consent. You’re not to blame.”Alma’s fingers gripped the edge of the table.“But if I was part of Eden’s p
最終更新日: 2025-06-22