LOGINThe Swiss Alps. Deep Underground.
The world knew the Alps as a playground for the rich—ski resorts, chocolate, and neutral banking. They did not know that beneath the granite peaks of the Matterhorn, deep within a hollowed-out cavern accessible only by a hyper-loop train, sat the true seat of world power.Valhalla.The headquarters of the Fenrir Council was not a biological horror show like Cain’s pyramid. It was a masterpiece of brutalist architecture and cold luxury. The walls were hewn from the living rock. The furniture was minimalist. The air smelled of money and thin oxygen.In the center of the main chamber sat the Round Table.There were nine seats.Seat Number 4—marked with the rune of the serpent—was dark. The hologram that usually projected Cain’s face was extinguished.The other members were present, either in person or via high-fidelity holographic proxy. They were the invisible kings of the world—arThe elevator ride to the 80th floor felt like an ascent into hell, not away from it. The lights flickered rhythmically, marking the dying heartbeat of the building's generator.Jack knelt beside Marcus, applying pressure to the wound in his shoulder. The big man was breathing, but shallowly. His skin, briefly a miracle of living silver, was now grey and clammy."Hold on," Jack whispered. "Don't you dare die on me."The doors pinged open. The Medical Suite.Elena was waiting. She didn't scream when she saw the blood. She went into matriarch mode. " stretcher! Now!" she ordered the two remaining guards. They rushed forward, lifting Marcus's massive frame onto the gurney."The bleeding won't stop," Jack said, his hands slick with his best friend's blood. "He lost too much. And the axe... it might have been poisoned.""We have synthesized wolfsbane antidote," Elena said, cutting Marcus's shirt open. "Go, Jack. You can't help him here. You have a war to lead
The air inside the Sterling Tower Grand Lobby tasted of marble dust and cordite. Once, this expansive hall had been a cathedral of capitalism—three stories high, floored with Italian travertine, centered around a cascading waterfall sculpture that cost more than most people earned in a lifetime.Now, it was a kill box.Marcus "The Mountain" stood behind a barricade constructed from overturned mahogany reception desks and sandbags dragged up from the maintenance closet. His breathing was heavy, rattling in his chest like a diesel engine idling in winter. He checked the ammunition counter on his heavy assault rifle: 120 rounds. Not enough."Status on the elevators?" Marcus barked into his headset."They're locked down," Ben Carter’s voice crackled, tense and tinny. "I've sealed the shafts from the 10th floor down. But Marcus... the sensors are gone. I can't see what's happening in the lobby anymore. You're blind.""I'm not blind," Marcus grunted, p
The war for the Sterling Empire shifted from the roar of crumbling stone to the silent, deadly hum of cooling fans.The Executive War Room smelled of ozone, wet carpet, and drying blood. Catherine was heavily sedated on the couch, her injured arm elevated, guarded by Elena. Marcus was patrolling the shattered skylight, shotgun ready.But the battlefield was now the semi-circular desk where Ben Carter sat.Usually, Ben was the comic relief—the man who complained about coffee quality while hacking the Pentagon. Not tonight. Tonight, his face was a mask of terrifying focus. He had three monitors set up, the glow reflecting in his glasses like binary war paint. He was typing so fast the sound was a continuous, rattling drone, like a machine gun with infinite ammo."It's a cascade failure," Ben muttered, his eyes darting between screens. "They didn't just freeze the personal accounts. They hit the shell companies, the offshore trusts, the liquidity pools... Jesu
The red light of the Sterling family crest, projected like a blood-soaked moon against the storm clouds, did little to warm the interior of the 88th-floor Command Center. If anything, the crimson hue bathing the room made the tension feel surgical, like an operating theater where the patient was already flatlining.Jack Sterling stood by the reinforced glass of the north-facing panoramic window. His left hand, the one etched with the black runes of Entropy, was pressed against the cold pane. He wasn't looking at the city below—there was nothing to see but a black ocean of concrete and fear—he was looking at the spires of the cathedral three blocks away.St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A masterpiece of Neo-Gothic architecture. Usually, it was a symbol of sanctuary. Tonight, illuminated by the erratic flashes of lightning, it looked like a hive."The atmospheric pressure is dropping," Catherine said. She was seated at the central console, her face pale in the
The sub-basement of the Sterling Tower was not designed for human habitation. It was a labyrinth of steam pipes, reinforced concrete pillars, and the hum of massive HVAC units. But below that—below the "official" blueprints—lay the domain of the Rat King.Jack stepped out of the freight elevator into the humid, cloying air of Sub-Level 5. The smell hit him instantly: a mix of rust, old water, and... fresh pastries?"Grog!" Jack called out, his voice echoing in the gloom."Shhh!" A massive shape detached itself from the shadows. Grog, the leader of the subterranean mutant community, loomed over Jack. He was seven feet of lumpy muscle and scarred skin, wearing a patchwork vest made of discarded neon signs and high-visibility jackets. In his massive, calloused hand, he held a delicate cream puff."The yeast is rising, Alpha Jack," Grog whispered, gesturing with the pastry. "Loud noises make the dough sad.""We have bigger problems than sad dough, Gr
The Gulfstream G650 didn’t glide into New York; it limped.Jack Sterling sat in the high-backed leather seat, his eyes fixed on the circular window. Outside, the world was a canvas of charcoal and slate, the storm clouds over the Atlantic rolling in with the heaviness of a funeral shroud. But it wasn't the turbulence shaking the ice in his whiskey glass that bothered him. It was the sensation in his left arm.It felt like his veins had been replaced with frozen mercury.He looked down. The expensive fabric of his bespoke suit jacket was tight around his forearm, concealing the "Entropy Hand"—the blackened, rune-etched flesh that was the price of killing a clone of Cain in the Arctic. He flexed his fingers. The movement felt distant, like operating a puppet through thick strings, yet the power humming beneath the skin was nauseatingly immense."Stop staring at it," a voice said, soft but laced with an unshakeable chill.Jack turned. Catherine sat across from him, her laptop open, the b







