Pain was the first thing Kael felt.
It wasn't sharp or in a single place, it was everywhere. Like his nerves had been rewired to a different voltage. Every breath came with a flicker of fire beneath the skin, and every heartbeat carried a deep, alien hum that didn't belong to him.
He opened his eyes.
Or tried to.
At first, everything was red, shadows painted in blood and glass, a ceiling that pulsed like a living thing. Then the blur cleared, and Kael realized he was in a containment chamber. Again.
But this time… the air tasted different.
Richer. Heavier. Like it was laced with code.
He sat up slowly. Chains no longer bound him, but the walls were clearly reinforced with energy plating. Drones hovered silently above him, cameras tracking his every movement. There were no windows. Just a single door.
He touched his chest.
The spiral was still there, no longer glowing, but warm beneath his skin, like a second heartbeat. It didn't feel like a mark anymore. It felt like an eye. Watching. Listening. Waiting.
What are you? he thought.
And it answered.
Not in words, but in feeling. A ripple across his mind like wind across water. Ancient. Patient. Powerful.
Dominant.
The door hissed open.
Kael snapped into a defensive stance, but the figure who stepped inside wasn't armored or armed. It was a woman, tall, composed, in a black lab coat with silver trim. Her eyes were sharp, like they belonged to someone who had seen war and worse.
"Subject 7-KR12-13," she said. "Or do you prefer Kael?"
He stared at her. "Who are you?"
"I'm Dr. Vex. And I'm the reason you're not dead right now."
She approached slowly, hands visible, non-threatening. But there was something in her presence, like she'd seen this before. Like she wasn't just studying him.
She understood him.
"They wanted to dissect you," she said calmly. "Your genome is outside their control. You don't register in the hierarchy. You're not a rank. You're a threat."
Kael swallowed. "What did I become?"
She stopped just short of the containment field. "You didn't become anything, Kael. You are something. Something we buried centuries ago. Something we were afraid would come back."
She tapped a panel on her wrist. A projection lit the room, a spiraling DNA strand shaped like a serpent devouring its tail. Kael recognized it instantly.
"My mark."
"Your inheritance," Vex said. "The Overlord Gene."
He looked at the image and felt the hum in his chest respond. His pulse matched the flicker of the projection. Synced. Whatever this was, it wasn't dormant anymore.
Vex continued, "The Rogue who attacked this facility two nights ago… he didn't come here to kill you. He came to see if the spiral still lived. And when he found you, he left."
"Why?"
"Because he remembers what you were meant to become."
Kael stepped forward. "I don't remember anything."
"You will. The gene isn't just power, it's memory. Lineage. Dominion over evolution itself. It will show you things, Kael. Things buried before you were born. It will change you."
He looked at his hands, still human, still scarred, but under the skin, he could feel it now. Coiled, waiting. Something far older than GenCore or the Ascendants or even the Trials. A genome that didn't adapt to nature, it commanded it.
"And what does GenCore plan to do with me?" he asked.
"Break you. Clone you. Weaponize your blood."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Let them try."
Vex actually smiled at that. "Good. You'll need that fire. Because I'm going to help you escape."
He blinked. "What?"
"Not now. Not yet. But soon. When the signal comes, you run. Don't look back. Don't trust the guards. Don't trust me. Just survive."
She leaned closer.
"And if the Spiral starts to speak to you again, listen. Because what's coming… isn't war. It's reclamation."
She turned and walked toward the exit.
Before the door closed, she said one last thing.
"Kael… the age of rankings is ending. One way or another. And you're going to be the reason why."
The door sealed behind her, and Kael was alone again.
But for the first time since the Trials, he didn't feel weak. He didn't feel like a Null.
He felt like the room itself was waiting for him to move.
And deep inside his DNA, something ancient uncoiled, watching.
Awake.
---
End of Chapter 6