Dr. Mordecai Thorne was satisfied with Kael Voss's unwavering dedication to cultivation—every waking hour spent honing the Unnamed Gene Calibration Protocol, no distractions, no slacking. Yet when it came to the protocol's progress, the elder scientist still found cause for impatience.
In recent years, Dr. Thorne's condition had worsened. His coughing fits grew more frequent, wracking his gaunt frame for longer stretches, leaving him breathless and pale. As his health declined, his attention to Kael's cultivation intensified—his daily inquiries grew more urgent, his reminders sharper, hinting at a desperate undercurrent beneath his calm exterior.
Dr. Thorne's regard for Kael was undeniable. He doubled Kael's monthly credit stipend as promised, far exceeding what other core apprentices received. His gaze when he looked at Kael was peculiar—warm, almost reverent, as if beholding a rare genetic relic of incalculable value.
But Kael, having mastered the third tier of the Unnamed Protocol, had developed heightened sensory perception. In those moments of apparent fondness, he occasionally caught a flicker of something darker in Dr. Thorne's pale eyes—greed, hunger, a ravenous longing that sent a chill down Kael's spine. It was the look of someone staring at an object, not a person.
The realization troubled him deeply. What could he possibly possess that Dr. Thorne, a Senior Bio-Technical Advisor with access to the Conglomerate's vast resources, desired so fiercely? He had no rare gene sequences, no secret knowledge, no exceptional talents beyond his stubborn perseverance. Kael brushed it off as paranoia—side effects of prolonged cultivation, he told himself, chiding his own ingratitude for doubting the man who'd lifted him out of poverty.
Yet that faint sense of unease lingered, growing stronger with each passing month, hardening into a quiet wariness he couldn't shake.
A critical obstacle soon emerged: Kael hit a cultivation bottleneck. Four years of relentless meditation, combined with the constant use of gene stabilizers and cell-repair serums, had depleted Dr. Thorne's stock of rare bio-materials. Without those supplements, Kael's progress ground to a complete halt.
He was no prodigy—his genetic sequence, though resilient, lacked the perfection of those born to elite families. The protocol's fourth tier remained just out of reach, his bio-energy pathways refusing to expand further without the aid of specialized nutrients. Shame weighed heavily on him; Dr. Thorne had invested countless resources and his own expertise into Kael's training, and he'd failed to deliver.
Facing the elder scientist's eager inquiries about progress became unbearable. Kael dreaded the disappointment he knew would cross Dr. Thorne's face—disappointment that felt like a betrayal.
Curiously, for all his expertise, Dr. Thorne couldn't pinpoint the exact state of Kael's cultivation. He relied on surface-level gene scans and bio-energy signature readings, never detecting the stubborn bottleneck or the exhausted nutrient reserves. It wasn't until Kael finally worked up the courage to confess his predicament that the truth emerged.
When Kael admitted he hadn't advanced in the protocol for over a year, Dr. Thorne's sallow complexion drained of what little color it had. His usual impassive expression twisted into something grim, his lips pressed into a thin, taut line. He didn't scold Kael, though—instead, he simply announced he would depart the Verdant Bio-Dome for a time, to seek out the rare bio-materials needed to restart Kael's progress.
"Continue your meditation," he instructed, his voice gravelly with fatigue. "Do not neglect the protocol's fundamentals. I will return with what you need."
Two days later, Dr. Thorne left Aurora Peak alone, carrying a satchel of sampling tools and a portable gene-scanner, bound for the dangerous frontier outposts where rare bio-organisms thrived. With his departure, Kael was left as the sole occupant of the Verdant Bio-Dome's residential sector.
Gareth "Wraith" Stone—Kael's fellow probationary apprentice turned friend—had vanished two years earlier, shortly after mastering the third tier of the Bio-Armor Reinforcement Technique. He'd left only a brief holographic message: a farewell stating he planned to seek his fortune in the outer sectors. The news had caused a stir within the Seven Luminaries' apprentice ranks, but Dr. Thorne had intervened, smoothing over concerns with the Overseers and ensuring Gareth's family faced no repercussions.
Kael had been devastated by his friend's sudden departure, grief lingering for weeks. In hindsight, it struck him as odd—Gareth had spoken eagerly of advancing to the Bio-Armor's fourth tier, despite its brutal reputation. Could he have fled to avoid the excruciating cellular restructuring that came with higher tiers? Kael would never know; no word from Gareth had reached the dome since.
After several fruitless days of meditating in his sealed cultivation chamber, Kael's restlessness got the better of him. He was still a youth, after all—four years of confinement to the bio-dome had left him craving fresh air and new sights. He slipped out of the residential sector, following a narrow alloy walkway that wound down Aurora Peak's slopes, beyond the dome's perimeter.
The terrain felt both familiar and foreign. He'd traversed these paths once before, as a new arrival, but four years of cultivation had changed his perspective—his enhanced stamina let him climb with ease, his sharpened senses picked up the faint hum of distant energy generators and the rustle of gene-modified foliage. He couldn't help but marvel at how much his life had transformed since leaving his village.
He suspected most of the Conglomerate's apprentices had long forgotten him—hidden away in the Verdant Bio-Dome, he'd become a ghost in their midst. His hunch proved correct when he encountered a group of security cadets patrolling the lower slopes. They eyed his core apprentice uniform with suspicion, their hands resting on the quantum blades at their hips, demanding identification. It took ten minutes of explanation—mentioning Dr. Thorne's name, his status as a probationary apprentice—to convince them to let him pass.
To avoid further hassle, Kael veered onto a narrow footpath overgrown with bio-engineered ferns, heading for the quieter, less patrolled areas of the peak. The solitude was a relief, allowing him to shed the weight of his cultivation troubles. He drank in the sight of Aurora Peak's aurora-drenched slopes, the distant hum of starships passing overhead, the chirp of gene-modified insects—simple pleasures he'd denied himself for years.
Then, faint but distinct, came the clash of energy weapons and the shouts of young voices—grunts of effort, cries of triumph, jeers of encouragement. The sounds emanated from a hidden cliffside clearing, shielded by dense stands of glowing bio-bamboo.
Curiosity piqued, Kael altered his course, moving silently toward the commotion. When he emerged from the foliage, he froze in surprise.
The clearing was packed—over a hundred adolescents, all around his age, crammed into the small space. A handful perched on the branches of nearby trees, leaning forward to watch the action below. At the center, two groups faced off, their bodies tensed for combat. The larger group, eleven strong, wielded sleek energy daggers that hummed with blue light; the smaller, six in total, brandished plasma knucklers that crackled with faint purple energy.
Kael smiled faintly—what a coincidence. Amid the crowd, he spotted several familiar faces from his early days in the selection trials.
"Jaxen Solaris's lackeys—Wan Jinbao, Zhang Dalu, Ma Yun, Sun Lsong…" He climbed onto a low-hanging branch for a better view, chuckling softly. "Wang Dapang's even bulkier than before—no surprise, with his family running a catering hub. And that's Liu Tietou! The scrawny dark-skinned kid from the mining outpost—he's practically a paleface now, must be drowning in gene supplements."
As he watched the tension mount between the two groups, Kael felt a flicker of nostalgia. For a moment, he forgot about his cultivation bottleneck, Dr. Thorne's enigmatic motives, and Gareth's disappearance—lost in the simple, visceral thrill of watching fellow apprentices test their enhanced abilities, just as he'd once dreamed of doing.