"Who cares? It’s all a big show anyway," the bald man said impatiently, his deep voice echoing across the floating balcony. "That’s exactly why the Capital Gas matter. I don’t want random participants this ti. I want the good ones, the desperate ones, the ones who betray each other when fear enters their hearts—and most importantly, I want soone who will dance exactly the way I tell them to."
He was tall, broad-shouldered, and carried himself with the authority of soone long accustod to obedience. Even the way he spoke suggested he had no patience for hesitation.
Beside him stood a young assistant dressed in a sleek silver uniform. The mont he finished speaking, she bowed quickly.
"Yes, Director Tom."
She hurried away without daring to ask questions, disappearing through the sliding doors at the far end of the balcony.
The balcony itself did not remain still.
Soft thrusters beneath it activated, and the entire platform rose smoothly along the side of the skyscraper, climbing past glass walls that reflected the golden skyline of the Capital. The city stretched endlessly below—towers, aerial pathways, floating advertisents, and glittering traffic lines crossing through the sky like streams of light.
The balcony stopped at a much higher floor.
Director Tom stepped forward onto the connecting platform. The mont both his feet touched it, the tal beneath him shifted shape. Four wheels extended from the sides, and the platform began carrying him forward automatically through a wide corridor.
As he entered, lights activated one after another in a straight line ahead of him, illuminating the passage with theatrical precision.
This floor was unlike the official halls below.
It was chaotic.
n and won worked everywhere, each one stranger than the next. So had hair dyed into impossible colors—curled rainbow spirals, silver braids, glowing green strands. Others had modified their bodies in bizarre ways. One woman had feathers stitched along her jawline. A man nearby had replaced his nose entirely with an artificial beak shaped like a bird’s.
Tables overflowed with fabrics, digital design boards, miniature clothing models, and floating screens displaying rotating stage structures.
Everywhere people were designing.
So created outfits using holographic mannequins. Others adjusted miniature stage models projected in midair.
The mont Director Tom appeared, several heads turned.
One man clapped dramatically.
"Looks like the Capital Gas are really here," he said with exaggerated excitent. "Look who finally decided to visit. Director Tom himself."
The speaker stood out imdiately.
Blue fish scales had been stitched across one side of his neck and cheek in decorative patterns, shimring under the white lights. A massive ring pierced through his nose, hanging low enough to sway when he moved.
Director Tom barely glanced at him.
"Yeah, I’m back, Jumbo."
At the ntion of his na, several nearby designers instinctively straightened.
"Can you do your job this ti?" Director Tom continued without warmth. "I want everything grander than before. Bigger stage. Better entrance. Better costus. Supre is bored."
The word Supre changed the room instantly.
Even the noisy designers fell quiet.
Jumbo’s expression stiffened. The theatrical confidence he wore a mont earlier disappeared. He quickly wiped his palms on his clothes.
"A-alright, Director Tom," he said, forcing a smile. "Supre will not be disappointed. I’ll create a welco stage worthy of being rembered. Better lighting, larger screens, moving platforms... and of course the finest ceremonial suit for Supre."
Director Tom stared at him for a mont.
"You better."
Then he turned and continued down the corridor without another word.
Only after he disappeared did Jumbo finally exhale.
He grabbed a cloth from nearby and wiped sweat from his forehead.
The fear remained visible in his eyes.
Then his voice rose sharply.
"Bring candidates for decoration placent! Sector girls—young, but not too young. They need fresh faces, not frightened skeletons."
Several assistants imdiately moved.
Screens around the room flickered alive.
Images began appearing rapidly—young girls from various sectors displayed one after another. Faces flashed across the screens in quick succession, each image staying only a second before disappearing.
Sector 3.
Sector 8.
Sector 12.
And then—
Two familiar faces appeared briefly.
Tansy.
Rose.
Their images remained only a mont before vanishing into the endless stream of selections.
┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉
The deeper section of the laboratory felt different the mont Tyler and Tansy stepped beyond the main chamber.
The temperature rose gradually with every step.
At first it was subtle—just enough warmth to notice against the cold artificial air of the upper corridors. But after several more ters, the heat beca undeniable. The tal floor beneath their boots felt warr, and faint currents of heated air drifted through the passage like breath escaping from sothing still alive deep within the facility.
The corridor here was narrower than the sections above.
Unlike the clean rooms near the entrance, this place looked built for containnt. Thick reinforced walls lined both sides, layered with tal plates and heavy bolts. Warning lights were embedded along the ceiling, though most no longer functioned. A few still flickered weakly, casting uneven flashes across the floor.
Tansy instinctively lowered her voice.
"It’s getting hot."
Tyler nodded without slowing.
He could feel it too.
Not ordinary heat from machines.
Sothing deeper.
The kind of warmth that suggested stored energy—sothing unnatural lingering beneath tal and concrete for far too long.
At the end of the corridor stood another large door, already half open.
Its thick fra had been warped inward, as if enormous force had once pushed from inside before freezing in place.
Tyler carefully stepped through first.
Then both of them stopped.
The chamber beyond was enormous.
Far larger than the other laboratory rooms they had seen.
The ceiling rose high above them, lined with thick cables and chanical rails that converged toward the center of the room.
And there—
Sothing massive hung suspended inside a circular containnt fra.
The creature.
It was dead.
Its enormous body remained trapped upright inside layers of machinery, held in place by thick tal restraints that pierced through its limbs, chest, and shoulders. Heavy rods had been driven directly through parts of its body, locking it into place like a specin no one had ever intended to release.
Its skin looked like cooled volcanic stone—dark black layered with jagged cracks, but unlike the creature shown in the video, the glow beneath those cracks had long faded.
The chanical arms fused into its body were still there, thick weapon-like structures attached where flesh and machinery had beco indistinguishable.
The head hung slightly forward.
Lifeless.
Yet even dead, it looked violent.
Tansy slowly approached, staring upward.
Near one side of its ribs, jagged crystalline growths protruded outward.
Her eyes narrowed imdiately.
She stepped closer.
"That..."
She touched one of the darker crystal formations carefully.
Then looked at Tyler.
"This looks like Carbonyx."
Tyler walked beside her and studied it more closely.
It was similar. He already got a piece from her father already.
But not identical.
The crystal growing from the corpse was darker— almost black-blue rather than black-purple— and faint silver veins pulsed inside it like trapped lightning frozen in stone.
"Sa family," Tyler said quietly. "But not the sa thing."
Tansy frowned.
"You an Carbonyx ca from this?"
Tyler did not answer imdiately.
Instead he looked around the chamber.
Beside the containnt fra stood a control station—larger than the previous ones, still active, its screen glowing faintly with symbols neither of them understood.
He walked toward it and pressed several panels until the display shifted.
Rows of unfamiliar writing filled the screen.
Sharp geotric language again.
Unreadable.
Tansy stood beside him.
"Still nothing?"
Tyler shook his head.
Then he noticed a familiar icon.
A video file.
He pressed it.
The screen flickered.
A recording began.
The sa chamber appeared on screen—but active.
The creature was alive.
It thrashed violently inside the restraints, roaring soundlessly through the old recording while several technicians in blue uniforms moved around the chamber.
Massive injection arms descended from above.
Each arm carried giant cylinders filled with thick liquid.
Dark fluid.
The needles plunged deep into the creature’s neck, chest, and spine.
The liquid emptied rapidly.
At first nothing happened.
Then the creature convulsed.
The cracks across its body brightened.
The dark crystal growth spread violently across its limbs, expanding in jagged bursts while its chanical arms shook uncontrollably.
Then—
The entire chamber erupted in light.
A violent blast filled the screen.
The recording cut instantly to static.
Silence returned.
Tansy stared.
Tyler’s eyes narrowed deeply.
"This is where the Carbonyx ca from," he said quietly.
He looked again toward the dead monster suspended behind them.
"This is not even a material from your nation."
Tansy looked confused.
"What do you an?"
Tyler studied the corpse.
"The ore in your mines is probably a derivative. Sothing copied... refined... reproduced."
He pressed another file.
A second recording appeared.
This one showed chaos inside the sa chamber after the explosion.
Ergency lights flashed red.
Several technicians rushed through smoke-filled corridors.
Then one figure ca into focus.
A woman.
She wore protective gear different from the others—sleeker, lighter, clearly designed for mobility rather than laboratory work.
In her hand she carried a sealed tallic container filled with glowing liquid extracted from a transparent tube connected directly to the creature’s body.
The liquid shimred faintly silver-black.
She ran toward another chamber.
The recording followed briefly.
At the far end stood a circular distortion in the air.
A portal.
Without hesitation, the woman stepped through it carrying the liquid.
The screen ended.
Both Tyler and Tansy stared silently.
Before either could speak—
A tallic sound echoed behind them.
Wheel.
Then another.
Tyler turned instantly.
A robot had entered the chamber.
Larger than the café droid.
Silver body.
Single glowing eye.
Several chanical arms folded neatly along its sides.
It rolled forward and stopped near the doorway.
Its eye scanned both of them.
Then it spoke.
A sharp stream of unknown language filled the room.
"Xei walon tri-kae? Auron dex valen-ki?"
Neither Tyler nor Tansy understood a word.
But both reacted imdiately.
Without speaking, Tyler stepped toward the control panel and began pressing random buttons like soone deeply focused on work.
Tansy instantly copied him, grabbing a nearby tool and pretending to inspect one of the side machines.
The robot remained silent for two seconds.
Its eye flickered.
Then turned red.
Panels unfolded instantly across its body.
Gun barrels erged one after another.
chanical arms locked into firing position.
The barrels aid directly at Tyler and Tansy.
The robot spoke again—this ti louder.
"VALEN IDENTIFN FAILUlORE."
Tansy slowly looked sideways at Tyler.
Tyler kept his expression calm.
Then muttered quietly,
"...Run."
┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉
Author here:
I accidentally uploaded Chapter 674 first and Chapter 673 after that, so please read accordingly. Sorry for the mix-up!
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