The chamber was dim, lit only by pulsing red runes etched into the walls — ancient, almost alive. A faint mist clung to the floor, swirling around heavy boots as a tall figure stepped through a pressure-locked doorway.
Vael Aerwyn — clad in a sleeveless black coat embroidered with crimson, his hellfire Arcana leaking sparks with each step — approached a towering tank of glass.
Inside floated a grotesque humanoid mass — veins like molten cracks, two Arcana cores pulsing in its chest. One bright blue. One dull red.
It spasmed violently.
He didn't flinch.
From the shadows behind the tank, a rasping voice echoed. "Unstable again. Even at half infusion, the subject resists."
A wiry old man in a sterile coat emerged, gold-rimmed glasses glinting. His voice held no emotion, only calculation.
"Dr. Kaas," Vael greeted, his tone like ice wrapped in fire.
The doctor bowed slightly. "Commander Vael. I take it the subhuman's performance was… satisfactory?"
"It tore through half their base and tanked a blow from Natasha Frost." Vael folded his arms. "But it still died."
Kaas nodded. "As expected. That one was a prototype. Only fifty percent Arcana integration. A stable fusion of two Arcana requires compatibility on the genetic and spiritual level — rare. But we're closer now."
Vael turned to the tank again, his gaze narrowing.
"This," Kaas continued, "was made from over two hundred subjects. It holds two Arcana at once. But the moment it hits seventy percent integration, it starts… unraveling. Still—" he glanced sideways "—imagine what a hundred percent would be."
Vael remained silent.
Kaas gave a thin smile. "You were the one who gave us the genetic baseline, after all. You and your brother."
At that, a flicker of something — regret? anger? — crossed Vael's face.
"Don't mention him."
"Of course." Kaas bowed mockingly. "Still, poetic, isn't it? One brother holds the sun. The other—"
Vael's hand shot out. In a blink, he seized Kaas by the collar, flames licking the old man's lab coat.
"Just finish your work. I want the true specimen ready soon."
Kaas nodded, eyes wide. "Understood."
Vael let go. Kaas stumbled back, coughing. The Hellfire Arcana retreated into Vael's arm like coiled snakes of heat.
As Vael left the chamber, the runes on the walls pulsed brighter.
The war wasn't coming.
It had already begun.
Would you like the next chapter to shift back to Kael and Vendetta, or show more of the Crimson Sickle's internal planning?