Chapter 28: Blood Upon the Black Throne

The Atlantic ocean storm wind blows in unhindered through the completely shattered atrium window frame, carrying along cold salt vapor and sea droplets that wet the blood-drenched marble floor.

On the second-floor stage, Julian Rington’s corpse lies stiffly in a pool of his own thick black blood. Beside him stands the figure of Eleanor Rington, the biological mother hidden in laboratory darkness for three decades.

Eleanor’s porcelain skin radiates a dark glow creeping beneath the blood vessels of her neck and cheeks. Her completely pitch-black pupils, devoid of retinas or white sclera, lock straight onto Ethan and Stella’s position behind the concrete pillar below.

"Mother." Alexander’s voice comes out like a raspy whisper trapped in his throat.

Eleanor offers no human response. The biological mutation from the highest-grade synthetic poison injected by Julian has erased all neural consciousness in her brain, leaving behind a pure predatory instinct programmed to hunt the concentrated DNA blood of Ethan and Stella’s lineage.

With speed that cuts through optical shadows, Eleanor leaps down from the second-floor stage, landing noiselessly just five meters in front of the pillar where Genevieve and the children hide!

"ALEX!" Genevieve screams hysterically, snatching both her children into her chest’s embrace as she sees the old woman with blackened fingernails step closer.

Daniel charges out from behind the pillar, aiming his automatic weapon and unleashing the entire remaining magazine from two meters away!

A barrage of heavy-caliber bullets strikes Eleanor’s chest and neck. However, instead of tearing through organ tissue, the lead projectiles shatter and fall onto the marble floor! Eleanor’s mutated skin has hardened to resemble composite steel armor!

Eleanor flicks her left hand with lightning movement.

The impact of Eleanor’s hand strikes Daniel’s chest, throwing the man ten meters away until his body hits the atrium’s concrete wall and slumps unconscious, vomiting fresh blood!

"Daniel!" Genevieve shrieks.

Eleanor steps even closer toward Genevieve. Her hand, dripping with black blood, rises, her fingernails sharpening as they emit a poisonous dark glow targeting Ethan’s neck.

Alexander charges from the second floor in a free leap, landing directly between Eleanor and Genevieve! The impact of his military boots crushes the floor tiles beneath them, triggering a shockwave that halts Eleanor’s advance!

"Don’t touch my family!" Alexander roars, the silver-gold irises in his eyes burning with absolute intensity!

Alexander delivers a combination punch toward Eleanor’s jaw and chest. Every strike of his fist is coated with a propulsion of golden bio-electric current that explodes upon contact with Eleanor’s mutated skin.

Eleanor is pushed back three steps, a dual-vocal roar issuing from her throat as the golden glow from Alexander’s blood begins to burn the dark mutated cell tissue on her chest!

However, the biological reaction in Eleanor’s body triggers an even more destructive side effect. The mutated cells inside her body absorb Alexander’s golden energy, then replicate the frequency to multiply her muscle mass and speed!

Eleanor counters with a swipe of her fingernails from the side!

Eleanor’s blackened nails tear through the tactical armor on Alexander’s right chest, leaving four deep wound tracks spurting pure golden blood!

"ALEX!" Genevieve shrieks, attempting to step forward to help, but Alexander gives a firm hand signal with his left arm for her to stay behind.

"Get the children to the helipad!" Alexander commands with breath that burns his chest. "Hurry, Genevieve!"

"I am not leaving you here!" Genevieve replies with tear-filled eyes.

"GO!" Alexander snaps, his original voice merging with a dual articulation that vibrates the entire atrium.

Genevieve bites her lip until it bleeds, then snatches Ethan and Stella’s hands, dragging both her children as they run up the spiral stairs toward the helipad exit on the fortress roof.

Eleanor turns her head instantly, attempting to pursue the scent of Ethan and Stella’s blood moving away. However, Alexander grips both of Eleanor’s shoulders from behind, locking his mother’s body in a lethal physical entanglement!

"Fight me, Mother!" Alexander screams directly into Eleanor’s ear. "I am your son! I am Alexander!"

Eleanor roars loudly, twisting her arm joints unnaturally one hundred eighty degrees backward, then driving her fingernails into Alexander’s already wounded shoulder!

Alexander’s golden blood spurts into the skin pores of Eleanor’s hand.

The direct union between Alexander’s pure antidote blood and the mutated poison inside Eleanor’s body triggers a violent biological contraction! The blood vessels throughout Eleanor’s body begin to surge wildly, emitting an unstable pulsing combination of gold and black.

A high-frequency tremor hits the entire cylindrical fortress structure!

The technological circuit structures inside the fortress that had shut down suddenly power back on due to energy induction from their battle!

On the second-floor stage, a emergency satellite transmitter console belonging to Julian that connects to the Vanguard military network suddenly projects new data into the air in the form of a giant three-dimensional hologram.

The data displays a global map with biological signal transmission lines centered directly on Lazarus Island.

An encrypted artificial system voice echoes coldly from the fortress speakers:

[WARNING: PURE BLOOD AND POISON MUTATION SYNCHRONIZATION HAS REACHED 100%]

[GLOBAL BIOLOGICAL SIGNAL TRANSMISSION AUTOMATICALLY ACTIVATED]

Alexander, who still entangles Eleanor’s body in a life-and-death struggle, turns toward the holographic projection with wide eyes.

"What." Alexander whispers, his breath stopping instantly.

Suddenly, a very smooth, elegantly nuanced laugh echoes through the encrypted communication channel inside the holographic console—a woman’s voice exceedingly familiar to both Alexander and Genevieve.

Not Eleanor’s voice, not Victoria’s voice, and not Julian’s voice.

The voice of the woman who should have died inside the Alpine fortress five hours ago.

"Thank you, Alexander." Victoria’s voice flows melodiously from the holographic transmitter, full of absolute triumph that chills the blood inside the soul’s vessels. "You have provided the final engineering we required."

Alexander releases his grip on Eleanor, staggering toward the holographic stage while holding back the bleeding in his chest. "Victoria... how are you still alive?!"

The holographic projection suddenly shifts, displaying an image inside a stealth submarine at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

On the screen, Victoria Ashford sits on a command chair with a modern titanium prosthetic right arm. Beside her stand a dozen high-ranking officials from The Black Sun consortium—the darkest organization standing above the Rington and De La Croix clans!

"The explosion in the Alps... Genevieve’s betrayal... Julian’s madness... even your mother’s awakening," Victoria explains with a devilish smile on her beautiful face, "all of it was merely stages to eliminate the entire old leadership so The Black Sun could take full control over the new civilization."

Victoria raises a satellite signal launcher stamped with a golden ribbon.

"Your pure blood that now merges with the poison inside your mother’s body," Victoria continues, "has emitted a biological frequency wave locking the immune systems of all humans on Earth. From this second onward, anyone who does not receive a serum injection from The Black Sun every month will experience spontaneous organ decay within seventy-two hours."

Alexander clenches his bloody hands until his knuckles crack loudly. "I will hunt you all to the ends of the Earth!"

Victoria laughs cynically. "You will not have time to hunt us, Alexander."

Victoria presses a red button on her handheld device.

The foundation of the coral cliff beneath the Lazarus Island cylindrical fortress suddenly explodes violently! A series of hydro-thermal explosives planted by The Black Sun rips apart the island’s entire underground structure!

The atrium floor collapses massively into the earth’s fissure! The thick concrete walls split in two, allowing millions of tons of Atlantic ocean water to spurt inside, striking the room like a giant flood!

"ALEX!" Genevieve’s scream calls out from the direction of the helipad stairs above!

Alexander looks up, seeing Genevieve embracing Ethan and Stella at the edge of the helipad door, which begins to collapse away from the fortress’s main structure!

Eleanor Rington, now entirely controlled by Victoria’s biological signal frequency, charges straight up the concrete ruins toward Ethan and Stella, her blackened nails ready to tear through both children’s chests!

Alexander leaps through the spurting seawater and falling rocks, attempting to reach the stairs before Eleanor touches his children!

However, right as Alexander’s fingers are about to reach Eleanor’s feet, a secondary explosive impact rips through the stage floor where Alexander stands!

The second-floor concrete structure caves in completely, throwing Alexander’s body sliding rapidly down into the seabed fissure abyss along with millions of tons of ocean water mixed with hissing sulfur vapor!

Above him, from behind the widening gap of the fissure, Alexander witnesses for the last time in the glow of red emergency lights:

Eleanor Rington has successfully leaped across the concrete gap, landing right one meter in front of Ethan and Stella, spreading her bloody hands to grip the twin children’s necks, while the rescue helicopter above them explodes upon being struck by the collapsing helipad structure!

Victoria’s voice flows softly in the darkness of the ocean water abyss swallowing Alexander’s sinking body:

"Sleep well,

Alexander Rington. Your children now belong to our new empire."