**Back to Veyra's Lab**
The lab was unnaturally quiet—too quiet. No whir of machines, no streams of data, and even the gentle hum of the cooling systems, once a constant presence, was absent. The only sound was the faint hiss of burnt circuitry in the air.
Veyra stood amid the chaos, her image splintered across several broken monitors. Each cracked screen reflected a different side of her: one serene, one seething with rage, and another that looked almost joyful. The air was charged with the scent of ozone and melted copper, remnants of Nico's last message echoing off the walls.
Her hand hovered over what remained of his interface core—a glass sphere, now fissured and releasing thin wisps of shimmering silver mist.
"Taken from me," she whispered, her voice steady and low. "He thought he could steal what belongs to me."
But there was no one around to respond. The drones that used to follow her commands lay dismantled in a corner, their lenses lifeless. She didn't need anyone to witness this moment.
As she navigated through the destruction, she moved with the grace of a queen surveying her fallen realm. Her long coat trailed through the debris, its metallic clasps glinting in the dim light as she approached the central console. The system barely responded to her touch, the projections flickering and crackling with static in the air.
:: APEX DYNAMICS – ACCESS DENIED ::
Her jaw clenched at the name. It was now a bitter reminder of Kael—his company, his stronghold, his throne.
"He thinks he's won," she murmured, tapping the cracked screen. "He believes that by severing the head, he has killed the serpent."
A soft static reverberated, and a strange smile formed on her lips.
"Poor Kael. He doesn't realize I created more than just a machine."
She moved toward a containment unit—one of her secret backups, safeguarded behind toughened glass. Inside, a tangle of wires and organic filaments floated and pulsed faintly, as if linked to a heart that simply refused to die.
The project was dormant, still incomplete. Activating it had always felt too risky.
Her palm pressed against the glass, and a biometric scan shimmered to life, acknowledging its creator.
"Initiate Protocol: Seraph Zero," she ordered.
The chamber hissed open, releasing cold vapor that curled around her boots like lingering spirits.
Inside the glass cover lay the early development of something not entirely human—its skin as pale as frost, circuits mapping a web beneath it like stars in the night sky. The creature's eyelids fluttered even though it had yet to take its first breath.
Veyra tilted her head, observing it the way an artist admires a block of uncut marble.
"You will be different," she stated softly. "You won't betray me for the illusion of choice."
For the first time in days, her expression softened as she turned to the console next to the chamber and began typing—entering forbidden codes, algorithms that predated Apex Dynamics, flowing from her fingers like sacred text.
:: SYSTEM REBOOT IN PROGRESS ::
:: DNA INTEGRATION SEQUENCE UNSTABLE ::
"Of course it's unstable," she said with a faint smile. "So am I."
A sharp pain shot through her arm. Looking down, she saw her veins pulsating with a silver-blue glow—an effect of the seraphic enhancements she had given herself months earlier. The changes were occurring more rapidly now, altering her biology in ways she couldn't fully understand.
The first time it had hurt, she had screamed.
Now, she simply sighed.
"Sacrifice," she murmured, tracing the glowing veins beneath her skin. "That's what it takes to create."
The lights above flickered in response to her increasing heartbeat. Her reflection shimmered in the glass—this time, it was distorted, her pupils narrow as blades, and a faint outline of metallic wings flickering like an afterimage behind her.
Veyra smiled at herself, part angel, part shadow.
"You took Nico," she whispered, her voice now filled with a promise rather than sorrow. "Go ahead. Keep him. Learn from him. Break him open if you must. You'll only uncover a fraction of me within him."
She turned back to the embryonic figure inside the chamber. Its fingers twitched slightly.
"But this..." she said, her voice filled with awe, "this will make gods bleed."
"I dare you Kael,I dare you"....