By the time they returned from the tech center, dawn was breaking.
Inside the Imperial Suite at the SK Hotel, the lights burned bright.
The faint smell of cold takeout lingered in the air.
Jerrick hadn't wasted a single second. The moment Serena and Nicholas walked in, he routed the decrypted files through a heavily guarded military channel, uploading every piece of intel straight into Elyndor's federal defense database.
As the progress bar ticked toward completion, the atmosphere in the room grew suffocating.
They had braced themselves for the worst, but seeing the sheer volume of human experimentation logs and the true nature of the tournament laid out in front of them was sickening.
Jerrick clenched his fists, his face a mask of rage. "These Obsidian bastards have an appetite."
"They aren't scientists," Julian said, pushing up his gold-rimmed glasses. His eyes were devoid of their usual warmth. "They are terrorists using medical advancement to overthrow the global hierarchy."
Sitting on the sofa, Nicholas tapped his long fingers against the table. "And they've completely bought out the Severian government."
Serena leaned back, lazily spinning her phone between her fingers.
Her beautiful, cold eyes swirled with a deadly calm.
"This facility is just a regional hub," she murmured. "You don't build a subterranean fortress of that scale and host a global tournament to trap the world's elite without massive political cover."
"The Prescott family doesn't have the leverage to pull this off alone."
Jerrick frowned. "Are you saying the Severian Syndicate Council is directly involved?"
Serena nodded. "Obsidian has someone sitting at the absolute highest level of the Severian government pulling the strings."
"Otherwise, the disappearances, the massive reallocation of medical supplies, the sheer influx of black-market capital-someone would have noticed."
She paused, a chilling light flashing in her eyes. "It looks like they are using the finals as their grand finale."
Thinking of the target list filled with the names of her teammates.
Thinking of the brilliant young minds Obsidian viewed as nothing more than cattle.
Serena's lips curved into a
met
breathtaking dangerous smile.. Bathed in the dawn's light, she looked like an angel of death.
She scoffed softly. "If Obsidian wants to play God, we'll give them a war." "Let's see if they get to use this tournament to crown themselves kings."
"Or if this arena becomes their mass grave."
...
Meanwhile.
Deep within a classified, unknown location.
The cavernous room was suffocatingly dark, completely stripped of light save for the sickly pale glow of a massive monitor covering the far wall
The screen played a continuous, looping reel of the tournament footage.
And every single frame focused on one person.
The Elyndorian Captain, Serena Lancaster.
ét
There she was, clad in her Elyndor Competition Gear, looking entirely unbothered as she radiated,
Suffocating queen like dominance
over the arena.
The footage captured her every move.
Her holding the broken flag at the opening ceremony.
Her casually destroying the world's top geniuses.
And her ruthlessly turning the tables on every trap the Prescott family set for her.
Sitting in the shadows, unmoving, was a towering, twisted silhouette.