Chapter 32: Death and Blood Sacrifice

De La Croix’s underground office falls silent for a moment as the hologram screen cuts off completely, leaving a thin trail of smoke from the scorched, hacked laboratory console. On the cracked glass table, the coordinate image of Valhalla Palace, a military orbital station floating on the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere, continues to pulse in a burning red color.

Twenty-four hours.

Alexander Rington does not blink in the slightest. The golden glow in the blood vessels of his neck and arms burns at the highest level of biological saturation. The image of Julian’s syringe targeting his third baby’s neck burns every immunity cell inside his body.

The teak door of the office creaks open slowly.

Genevieve steps in with a face pale as porcelain. In her hand, she grips the remaining sheet of black parchment dropped earlier by the De La Croix guard. Her hazel eyes, filled with a pool of tears, stare at Alexander with a soul-severing pain.

"Our third child," Genevieve whispers, her voice trembling violently holding back the numbness in her chest. "Alex... our child is still alive?"

Alexander stares at his wife. There are no more lies capable of covering this horrifying reality. He steps forward, pulling Genevieve’s trembling body into the warm embrace of his chest.

"I will bring him home, Genevieve," Alexander promises in a low tone filled with absolute resolve. "I swear on the remaining blood in my body, our child will be safe."

Genevieve looks up, her fingers tightly squeezing the folds of Alexander’s shirt. "Elias Rington... that man is a true demon, Alex. He is the one who designed the suffering of our entire clan from the very beginning! You cannot breach that space station alone!"

"I am not alone," Alexander asserts.

A hidden panel door in the laboratory wall slides open. Daniel steps in wearing all-black tactical attire and a left arm fitted with a titanium mechanical brace. Behind him, five top commanders of the Obsidian Legion line up neatly in low-pressure combat armor.

"The Vanguard-One tactical shuttle has been prepared at the secret Swiss base," Daniel says, stepping closer to the coordinate table. "The plasma-fueled thruster rocket system is capable of reaching Valhalla’s orbit within four hours. However, Alex... that station is protected by a microwave deflector shield capable of crushing any material approaching without Elias’s authorization code."

Alexander stares at the three-dimensional projection of Valhalla Palace rotating in the air. "That shield requires a massive energy supply beamed from the biological core generator in the belly of the station. We don’t need to breach that shield smoothly."

Daniel narrows his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"We will ram our shuttle directly into its generator core," Alexander cuts in coldly. "Use all remaining antimatter warheads to destroy the shield from the inside when the impact occurs."

Genevieve’s eyes widen in shock. "That is a suicide mission, Alexander!"

Alexander holds both of Genevieve’s shoulders, staring straight into her eyes with deep affection. "This is the only way to open a five-minute window for us to storm inside before Valhalla’s emergency isolation system locks down all sectors."

Four hours later.

On the outer boundary of Earth’s atmosphere, at an altitude of four hundred kilometers above the planet’s surface, stands the majestic Valhalla Palace, a giant space fortress of black steel cylinder structure stretching three kilometers long. Around it, a soft bluish pulse of electromagnetic shield glows, repelling all forms of radiation and celestial body impacts.

Inside the main bridge of the orbital station, Elias Rington stands behind a giant glass wall facing directly toward the curve of planet Earth. The old man wears a white-gold noble robe with a staff plated in pure gold in his right hand. Even though his age has exceeded a century, his facial skin looks tight without wrinkles, the result of pure blood refining he performs periodically for over a dozen decades.

Beside him, Julian Rington stands rigidly. The golden glow in his eyes flickers in a synthetic frequency, indicating that his body is now completely controlled by Elias’s Central Nervous implants.

"He has entered our radar transmitter zone, Your Highness," Julian says in a mechanically articulated voice.

Elias carves a thin, cold smile. "That boy is always on time. Activate the secondary plasma laser cannons. Let him feel how puny human strength is in the face of Valhalla’s technology."

THE ORBITAL DANGER SIREN ROARS!

The Vanguard-One shuttle slices through the darkness of the vacuum at Mach ten! From the ship’s nose, four thruster rockets launch burning thermal energy, pointing its titanium steel nose straight toward the belly of the Valhalla station!

BOOOMMM! EXPLOSION IN VACUUM!

A barrage of plasma laser cannon fire from Valhalla strikes Vanguard-One’s left wing, burning part of the ship’s hull in a flash of red fire! However, Daniel, who holds the navigation control, holds the steering lever with absolute resolve, locking the impact coordinates on the center point of the shield generator!

"Brace yourselves!" Daniel shouts through the ship’s inter-space system! "Impact in three... two... one!"

Vanguard-One breaches Valhalla’s electromagnetic shield in a fierce antimatter explosion! The ship’s hull splits in two as it slams into the steel wall of the space station’s core generator!

The impact shockwave tears apart Valhalla’s lower structure, triggering a massive loss of air pressure in sector three!

From behind the billowing clouds of condensation steam and floating titanium glass shards floating weightlessly in the vacuum, Alexander Rington leaps out!

He wears a special air-pressurized tactical armor with a bio-electric sword radiating a burning golden glow in his right hand. The bio-electric current from his pure blood creates an independent gravitational field around his body, allowing him to step firmly on the station’s steel floor!

Behind him, Daniel and dozens of Obsidian Legion soldiers leap out with heavy-caliber laser weapons, spewing precise fire toward dozens of approaching armored Ouroboros guard soldiers!

"Find the main control access!" Alexander orders, swinging his sword to cut five Ouroboros soldiers at once until their steel armor splits in two!

Alexander breaches Valhalla’s main corridor at a speed beyond shadows. The golden glow in his eyes guides his position straight toward the medical isolation room at the top of the station.

Alexander destroys the triple-layered door of the medical isolation room with a single bio-electrically charged kick!

Cold temperature and sterile air rush out.

In the center of the room floats a special porcelain table under artificial gravity pressure. Upon the table, Alexander’s tiny descendant lies inside a glass incubator tube connected to dozens of giant blood-refining needles.

Beside the tube stands Julian Rington with a black steel sword raised high in the air, ready to plunge its point right into the baby’s chest!

"Julian!" Alexander roars, gliding like lightning to close the ten-meter distance in a matter of milliseconds!

Alexander’s bio-electric sword clashes hard against Julian’s black steel sword! Sparks of golden fire explode in the air, triggering an electromagnetic wave that shatters all medical monitors in the room!

Julian carves a terrifying mechanical laugh. "You are too late, Brother! The code extraction has begun!"

Alexander increases the muscle pressure in his arms, pushing Julian back until the man’s back slams into the main console! "You are merely a dead puppet driven by Elias, Julian! Open your eyes!"

"I am the future of this civilization!" Julian screams, swinging a very precise close-range combination attack, targeting vital points on Alexander’s neck and chest!

The battle between the two twin brothers takes place at a terrifying speed! Slash after slash of steel cuts through the room’s sterile air, leaving scorched trails on the titanium walls.

Alexander, driven by a father’s instinct to save his child, delivers a punch charged with absolute biological energy right into Julian’s right chest!

The chest of Julian’s armor crushes instantly! The man falls to the floor, vomiting foaming black blood as the Central Nervous implant system inside his body explodes, sparking a short circuit!

Alexander wastes no time. He steps quickly toward the incubator tube, swinging his sword with extreme care to cut all the refining needle lines without harming his baby.

Alexander snatches the tiny baby’s body into his embrace.

Instantly, the warmth of Alexander’s physical touch triggers a biological reconciliation in the baby’s body. The golden glow on the baby’s neck pulses softly, fusing harmoniously with the energy frequency inside Alexander’s chest. The baby opens his eyes slowly, revealing clear blue irises mixed with flashes of exceedingly pure gold.

"You are safe now, son," Alexander whispers with an emotional charge shaking his soul.

"A truly touching sight."

A cold voice echoes from the direction of the top bridge entrance.

Alexander turns his body instantly, shielding his baby behind his military cloak.

Elias Rington steps in calmly, holding a crown of thorns-shaped biometric remote control in his right hand.

"You managed to defeat Julian," Elias says with a terrifying demonic smile, "but you delivered yourself into my absolute trap, Alexander."

Elias presses the main button on the biometric remote.

The titanium wall surrounding the isolation room suddenly slides down, revealing a giant glass tank tens of meters wide filled with clear breeding liquid.

Inside the clear liquid float one hundred perfect cloned bodies of Alexander Rington in the final stage of biological maturation!

Yet most terrifyingly, all the clones no longer possess ordinary organs. Their chests have been implanted with micro-sized antimatter reactor cores pulsing in a bright red color!

"These one hundred clones," Elias explains with a gaze filled with unmatched madness, "are controlled directly by the heartbeat of the baby in your embrace. If you try to kill me or escape from this station... your baby’s heartbeat will trigger a simultaneous detonation of these one hundred antimatter cores!"

Alexander freezes. His breath rushes heavily.

Elias steps closer to Alexander, pointing an immunity-disrupting syringe toward Alexander’s neck.

"Hand your baby over to me, Alexander," Elias whispers coldly, "or watch this station, your baby, and the entire planet Earth down there shatter into pieces in an absolute antimatter explosion!"

Suddenly, from behind the pile of destroyed consoles, Julian Rington, crawling covered in blood, suddenly rises to his feet!

With the remainder of his human consciousness returning due to the severed implant control signal, Julian charges straight toward Elias from behind, snatches the biometric remote control from the ancestor’s hand, then plunges his steel sword right through Elias Rington’s chest!

Elias’s eyes widen in pure shock as his golden blood spurts from his mouth and chest!

"Julian... you..." Elias hisses hoarsely.

"I am not your puppet anymore, Old Man!" Julian screams with the rest of his voice, then crushes the biometric remote control inside the grip of his left hand!

The forced destruction of the remote control triggers a chain reaction across all systems of the Valhalla station!

[WARNING: MASTER FAILURE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]

[VALHALLA STATION WILL FALL AND BURN INTO EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE IN 300 SECONDS]

Elias roars loudly, flinging his arm to throw Julian’s body against the wall, then reaches for a single emergency escape pod behind the stage and locks it from the inside!

Elias’s escape pod launches out from Valhalla, speeding into the vacuum of space, leaving behind the station that begins to burn and pull toward Earth’s gravitational force!

The structure of the Valhalla space station shakes violently as its tail section begins entering the upper layer of the planet’s atmosphere! Air friction creates a giant blaze of fire tens of meters high, burning all the outer walls of the station!

Julian, lying rigidly on the floor with heavy bleeding in his chest, stares at Alexander who tightly holds his baby.

"Take that child away, Alex," Julian whispers hoarsely, the golden glow in his eyes slowly fading into his natural eye color. "Save our family."

"Julian!" Alexander shouts.

"GO!" Julian barks with the rest of his strength, pressing the emergency door close button to lock Alexander inside the secondary shuttle launch module!

The steel door slides down, separating Alexander from Julian who chooses to stay inside the burning, destroyed station!

Alexander grips his baby, leaps into the secondary shuttle, then presses the emergency launch button!

The secondary shuttle launches rapidly, leaving behind Valhalla Palace which begins breaking apart into thousands of giant fiery pieces above Earth’s night sky!

Twenty-four hours later.

The shuttle crash-lands in a green meadow of the Swiss Alps.

Alexander steps out from inside the smoking hull of the ship with a torn, blood-soaked military cloak. Inside his embrace, his third tiny baby sleeps peacefully, completely untouched by the fires of battle.

Genevieve, Ethan, and Stella, accompanied by Daniel, charge forward, running toward Alexander from the direction of the medical helicopter!

"ALEX!" Genevieve screams with an abundance of tears of happiness!

Genevieve wraps her arms around Alexander’s body, then stares at the tiny baby inside her husband’s embrace. Her hand trembles softly as she touches the smooth cheek of their third child, who has a golden dragon glow on his neck.

"He is safe," Genevieve whispers, embracing Alexander and their baby in an unmatched cry of emotion. "Thank God... he is safe."

Ethan and Stella hug Alexander’s legs with broad smiles. "Baby brother!" Stella squeals joyfully.

Alexander smiles warmly, kisses Genevieve’s forehead, and embraces his entire family under the bright morning Swiss sunlight.

True peace finally embraces the Rington family.

However, at the very same time.

Far beneath the ground of a border region untouched by maps, inside an underground laboratory completely isolated from human civilization.

Elias Rington’s emergency escape pod lands silently inside the laboratory courtyard.

The pod door slides open. Elias Rington steps out with a severe wound on his chest, yet his hand holds a glass test tube numbered Zero-M, which he managed to secretly extract while touching Alexander’s neck on Valhalla.

Inside the glass tube, Alexander’s pure blood pulses in a pure golden glow.

Elias carves the most deadly demonic smile as he injects the pure blood liquid into a giant incubator hidden in the middle of the room.

Inside the giant incubator lies an artificial human fetus of giant proportions with two pairs of hearts beating simultaneously!

Above the incubator, a system screen displays the status of a new genetic subject.

[FINAL EVOLUTION PROJECT: SUBJECT "DEUS"]

[ALEXANDER RINGTON DNA INTEGRATION: 100%]

[HATCHING TIME: 30 DAYS]

Elias touches the glass of the incubator, then whispers the final sentence signaling that the true war on the face of the Earth has only just begun.

"You have won the battle in space, Alexander...

but in thirty days, this creation of mine will be born to devour all your descendants without exception."