Novel & Cerita Aegon The Conqueror

The ease of their descent felt… intentional. The keypad beeped, and the door’s magnetic lock disengaged with a heavy thunk. Sabatine pushed it open. The room beyond was a cathedral of data. Racks of servers formed silent, blinking aisles, their LED lights casting a cool, blue glow. In the centre of the room, on a pedestal under a clear blast case, sat the Aegis prototype. It was smaller than Anton remembered—a sleek, black sliver of carbon composite and embedded silicon, no larger than a credit card. The culmination of his father’s failed dream and his own life’s work. The object that had cost blood and trust.

Where a Goliath was streamlined and aerodynamic, the shape before me was most certainly not. "Those are not Goliaths!" Alyx shouted. Panic rose in my throat. What were they? Legions? Titans? "Open fire!" I cried. I released a salvo of missiles into the dust cloud. Shot after shot blasted the dust away, revealing a behemoth of a mech, surrounded by an iridescent blue shield. "What the hell?" Martin gasped. "Project Aegis," I breathed.

A man whom Alex greeted as Marco, met us and led us down a dark damp corridor, the air was thick with the smell of decay and something else… something unsettling. Then I saw him. A figure clad in black, leaning against a wall in the shadows. He was impossibly tall, with a face that could have been sculpted by a Renaissance master, marred only by a permanent intimidating scowl. Dante Giordano of the legends. He exuded raw power, an aura of danger that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. He gave me a disdainful glance before turning to Alex, his expression a silent, ‘Who the hell is this?’

It echoed directly inside their skulls, a cold, clinical tone that tasted like copper and old blood. Victor spun around, his teeth bared. "Who's there?" In the center of the chamber, a holographic projection shimmered into existence. It was a man in a pristine white lab coat, his face sharp, his eyes devoid of anything resembling a soul. "Director Vane," Elodie gasped, her runes flaring a defensive silver. "You died. We saw the Air-Fortress burn." "The flesh burned, yes," Vane’s hologram said, his lips curling into a thin, superior smile. "A tedious limitation. I uploaded my consciousness to the lunar array minutes before impact. I am no longer a man. I am the Aegis. I am the moon."

Or at least he’d be there to help her clean up her own blood. Slate must’ve finished his directions to the massive man who must’ve also been a dragon shifter at one time, before the Heart of Magic had been stolen from them. The rest of the crowd backed up, and Gator took a defensive stance. Since she hadn’t been listening to Slate when he was talking to the other dragon, she didn’t know for sure what was about to happen, until she utilized her mind’s eye and realized she was meant to attack this gigantic warrior.

And it ended with an unreserved introduction of the Roberts-Jones Foundation and the Aegis project, not as atonement, but as a new, non-negotiable standard. It was career suicide. Or a rebirth. "They're going to crucify me," Clarkson murmured, to himself more than to Jonah. “Then we’ll be crucified together,” Jonah said, without a hint of dramatics. It was a simple statement of fact. He picked up a leather folio from the desk. “I made some last-minute notes on the technical specifications for the Aegis. The fuel efficiency metrics have improved by another two percent with the new propeller design. When they try to say it’s not viable, we’ll hit them with numbers they can’t argue with.”

He didn't know why he was so happy but her presence was the reason and he knew it. "You're beautiful", Alessa blurted out and immediately cover her mouth with her hands as her cheeks reddened. Arieon let out a small laugh. "Kids, where do you want to go before we go home?", Enzo asked the kids. "I want a burger, I'm hungry", Alexi said. "You always want a burger, Alexi", Alessa said. "And you always want chocolate", He said with a shrug. Arieon noticed that Alexi had green eyes. Her eyes widened, he's Agatha's son!

A long silver spear rested in the warrior’s hand. The newcomer pulled off his hood. His dark hair fell around sharp, confident eyes. “Miss me?” he said. Kael stared in disbelief. “Aeron?” The man grinned. “The one and only.” Luna looked between them. “You two know each other?” Kael nodded slowly. “He’s one of the best warriors of the Eastern Guardians.” Aeron bowed slightly toward Luna. “And you must be the famous Moonbearer.” She shrugged. “Still getting used to that title.” Aeron twirled his spear.

The energy that I had kept buried for so long, after losing Azura forty years ago, began to swarm inside of me and I put everything I had into diving down faster. What happened next, happened so fast that it took me a moment to understand what had transpired. For the first time in my life, I experienced a full-blown Dragon Rage, causing me to react recklessly. One second, I was chasing Arion, the next I was gripping Arion’s heart. His Dragon was lying in a small crater, as he had slammed into the ground with enough force to smash a parked car and create a crater in the middle of the road. Luckily, Kellan and the others had moved the humans far enough away that they hadn’t been injured.

"Private money. Deep pockets... Black water contractors..." "I figured that out already.” I snarled. My patience was snapping. I grabbed him by the front of his blood-soaked shirt and hauled him upward slightly. "Give me a goddamn name!" "The crest..." He wheezed, his eyes rolling back slightly before snapping back to me. "Silver serpent... golden anchor... it's not a gang... it's a private security firm... Aegis... Aegis Tactical..." Aegis. The name clicked into place instantly. It wasn't a street gang. It was a corporate mercenary outfit. High-end, off-the-books, and armed. The kind of firm that only billionaires and corrupt politicians could afford to hire.