All Chapters of Marked by the Enemy King: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

"Liquefy them, Nikos?" Aris spat, his face a mask of sweat and grime. He didn't turn, his entire body trembling as he pitted his strength against the unyielding metal lever. "You’re talking about the theoretical physics of a system that’s currently eating you alive. Look at your arms! The skin is translucent. You’re becoming part of the wiring, and you’re still worried about the squatters in the Mid-Levels?"Nikos leaned heavily against the pod, his chest heaving. The stasis chamber pulsed with a rhythmic, sickly violet light that seemed to leach the color from the surrounding gloom. "It’s not just theory, Aris. It’s an anchor. The Ledger is mapped to the city’s heart. If we don’t calibrate the flow, the discharge will be a localized sun.""I’d prefer a sun to a firing squad," Aris shot back. He grunted, a guttural sound of pure, unadulterated strain. "Listen. Do you hear that? The dripping? That isn't water, Nikos. That’s hydraulic fluid from the floor above. They’ve breached the upp

"Calibrated? That’s what you’re calling it now, Nikos? You’re turning into a conductor for a city that wants to burn us both to ash." Aris released his grip on the lever, the metallic groan of the failing gear echoing through the cramped, damp vault. He wiped a smear of black grease across his forehead, his chest heaving with every ragged, desperate breath. "Look at the monitor. Your pulse—or what’s left of it—is syncing with the vault’s power rhythm. You aren't just holding the Ledger anymore. It’s writing its code into your marrow."Nikos pressed his forehead against the freezing glass of the stasis pod. Inside, Andreas remained motionless, a frozen king in a translucent tomb. Nikos felt the hum—a low, oscillating thrum that vibrated deep in his molars. "If I let go, the sync breaks. If the sync breaks, Andreas dies. If Andreas dies, the fail-safes trigger the total purge of the Lower Sector. We have no choice.""We always have a choice," Aris whispered, his tone suddenly devoid of

"And if he succeeds, he only erases two people," Aris countered, his voice dropping to a gravelly, urgent whisper. He shoved his face inches from Nikos’s, his breath frosting in the frigid air of the vault. "But if you wake him, if you turn him loose with all that frozen rage, you’re sentencing everyone in the Lower Sector to the same fire. How is that a victory, Nikos?"Nikos pulled away, his movements jerky, like a marionette with tangled strings. He leaned heavily against the console, his back arching as a jolt of raw electricity jumped from the interface into his spine. "I don’t want a victory, Aris. I want him to survive. I want the debt paid.""Debt?" Aris barked a dry, hollow laugh that sounded more like a cough. "You think you’re paying a debt? You’re trading your life for a ghost. Look at your arms! The veins aren't blue anymore, they’re glowing like the conduits in the main line. You’re becoming part of the plumbing. Is that what you want? To be a literal pipe for his legacy

"The heartbeat is irregular," Aris said, his voice dropping an octave as he crouched by the base of the stasis pod, his eyes darting between the flickering holographic vitals and the encroaching shadow of the vault door. "Nikos, the sync-rate is red-lining. If you push any more data into him, your cerebral cortex is going to fuse. Do you understand me? You’ll be a brain-dead shell before he even opens his eyes."Nikos didn't turn around. His hands were locked against the glowing, vibrating console, his fingers fused with the interface by the faint, static-charged arcs of electricity jumping from the circuitry into his skin. "I’m not… going anywhere," he choked out, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together. "He just needs… a bridge. A foundation. The Ledger is too vast to download into a vacant vessel. It needs a human anchor.""You’re a human being, not an anchor!" Aris lunged forward, grabbing Nikos’s shoulder and shaking him violently, trying to break the contact. "Pull

"Necessary transition?" Aris barked, his voice cracking with the frantic energy of a man watching his only friend dissolve into data. He lunged toward the override, his fingers clawing at the sparking panel. "That’s a death cult mantra, Nikos! Wake up! If you fry your neural pathways, there’s no city left to save, just a tomb with a very well-preserved statue inside!"Nikos didn't blink. His eyelids were retracted, fixed open by the sheer surge of information cascading through his optic nerves. "The grid... it’s hungry, Aris. It remembers the hunger of the founders. It doesn't want to die. If I don't give it a vessel, it will collapse the entire sector just to purge the excess load.""Then let it purge!" Aris screamed, grabbing a heavy iron wrench from the floor. He raised it, his face twisted in a mask of absolute, terrified resolve. "I’d rather watch this whole iron pile collapse into the sea than watch you turn into a ghost for a ghost. Step back from the interface, or I’m smashing