Arthur's grip on Commander Crow's neck tightened, his eyes cold as death. "Open it," he commanded, his voice a low growl that vibrated with suppressed rage.

  Commander Crow, half-dead and gasping for air, fumbled in his pocket with trembling fingers. He pulled out a sleek security card and swiped it against the reader. With a pneumatic hiss, the heavy reinforced door slid open.

  Inside, ten scientists were huddled in a corner, their bodies shaking with primal terror. Arthur didn't even spare them a glance. His focus was elsewhere.

  "Run," Arthur said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Get out of here as fast as you can. If I see any of you a second time, I will kill you. Leave your communication devices right here. Any trickery, and you can say goodbye to this world. This isn't a threat; it's a promise."

  The scientists, realizing they had been granted a miraculous reprieve, scrambled to discard their devices. They bolted toward the exit as if the devil himself were at their heels.

  Arthur ignored them, dragging the broken body of Commander Crow toward a specific corridor. After a few minutes, he stopped before a final, heavy door. He took a deep, shaky breath—the first sign of vulnerability he had shown—and pushed it open.

  The sight that met his eyes made Arthur's blood turn to ice. On a cold, metallic bed lay a beautiful young girl. She was strapped down, various detector machines and tubes connected to her frail body. Her face, once vibrant, was now a sickly, pallid yellow. She was unconscious, drifting in a nightmare she couldn't wake from.

  A roar of pure, unadulterated fury erupted from Arthur's soul. His eyes turned blood-red. With a violent shove, he hurled Commander Crow against the wall, the impact cracking the concrete.

  "Annie!" Arthur rushed to her side. He tore the sensors and needles from her skin with trembling hands and pulled her into his arms. He stroked her hair gently, his voice cracking. "Annie, look at me... I'm here. I've come to take you home."

  As he spoke, the tears he had held back through every battle and every drop of blood finally fell, splashing onto Annie's cold cheek.

  Behind him, Commander Crow groaned, trying to use the wall to pull himself up. Arthur didn't turn around. "Look to your left," Arthur said coldly. "Someone is coming."

  Confused and desperate, the Commander instinctively turned his head to the left. In that split second, Arthur vanished from the bedside and reappeared directly beside the Commander. Before Crow could even scream, Arthur's hand clamped onto his head.

  Snap.

  Arthur twisted the Commander's neck, granting him a permanent release from life. Arthur looked down at the corpse and whispered to himself, "When death faces you, you beg for life and offer a thousand excuses. That is why death without warning is the only mercy for someone like you."

  Arthur returned to Annie, lifting her gently onto his shoulder. He searched the remaining rooms and found only three other living subjects. He broke their restraints and set them free. These survivors were acting strangely—inhuman, almost feral—but Arthur didn't have time to investigate.

  He opened the gas valves, struck a spark, and watched as the lab began to succumb to the flames. He moved with blurred speed, escaping Sector 7 just as the facility began to groan and collapse behind him.

  Arthur carried Annie through the torrential rain, the downpour washing away the soot and blood from their bodies. He retreated deep into the towering, dense Pishan Mountains, finding shelter in a hidden cave. Behind them, the Gene-X servers were nothing but ash; Arthur had ensured every byte of digital data was incinerated.

  He laid Annie on a flat stone slab, but she was far from peaceful. A strange, swirling blue mist began to emanate from her skin.

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  What Arthur didn't fully realize was the horror of the experiments performed on Subject S-2. Annie's mental system had been completely contaminated by the 'Corrupt Seeds of the Abyss.' She was no longer just a girl; she was a living, ticking elemental bomb.

  "Annie!" Arthur shouted, his voice hoarse.

  Suddenly, Annie's eyes snapped open. They weren't the eyes of his sister—they were glowing with a terrifying, ethereal blue light. She let out a scream that sounded more like a mutated beast than a human. The cave walls vibrated, and the temperature plummeted so sharply that Arthur's own breath turned to ice in mid-air.

  Annie rose, her movements jerky and unnatural. She swung her hand, and the jagged rocks on the cave floor transformed into lethal swords of ice, flying straight at Arthur.

  "Annie, stop! It's me, your brother!" Arthur yelled, dodging the projectiles. But Annie couldn't hear him. The 'Abyssal Seeds' were whispering in her mind, painting Arthur as a mortal enemy.

  With a wave of her hand, a blast of kinetic energy slammed Arthur into the cave wall, burying him deep into the stone. His 'Seed of Existence' (the Cosmic Egg) pulsed, protecting his vitals, but he refused to strike back. He couldn't hurt her.

  Annie began to float, a cyclone of frost swirling around her. She had lost all control. Then, seeing Arthur standing there, unyielding, her eyes flickered. For a moment, the blue light faded.

  "B-brother... it hurts so much. Are we going home?" she whispered, her brown eyes filling with tears.

  Arthur's heart melted. The rage vanished, replaced by pure relief. "Yes, Annie. We're leaving right now. I won't let anything happen to you."

  Annie reached out her hand, as if seeking his touch. "Brother, come closer... I'm scared."

  Without a second thought, Arthur stepped into the frost cyclone and reached out to embrace her. He thought his sister was back. But as he pulled her close, a cruel, demonic smile spread across Annie's face—a smile that did not belong to a human.

  "Fool..." a double-toned, heavy voice rasped from her throat.

  SHINK!

  Before Arthur could react, a long, jagged blade of ice manifested in Annie's hand. It drove straight through Arthur's abdomen, protruding out of his back. The blood that sprayed out froze before it even hit the floor. Arthur's eyes widened in shock. It wasn't pain he felt first—it was the devastating realization that he was being played by a demon.

  "You... you aren't Annie," Arthur spat, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

  The entity within Annie laughed, a chilling, echoing sound. "This body is mine, and now your life is mine too!" She twisted the blade deeper.

  The agony triggered something deep within Arthur—a primal, ancient fury that surpassed the 'Seed of Existence.'

  "Give... my sister... BACK!"

  Arthur's hand shot out, gripping Annie's throat with a strength that defied physics. In that moment, a golden light erupted from the deepest corner of his soul. This wasn't the power of the Egg; it was his Ancient Sovereign Body, a dormant lineage that only awakens when the host's existence is on the brink of erasure.

  Arthur's hair grew rapidly, turning a brilliant, snowy white. His blood, dripping from the ice blade, transformed into liquid gold.

  "I... I must kill..." Annie's voice flickered, her nails clawing at his chest. Her claws, capable of rending steel, couldn't even leave a scratch on Arthur's glowing skin.

  The moment the golden blood touched Annie's skin, a massive spiritual explosion rocked the cave. Thick black smoke poured from Annie's head as the 'Corrupt Seeds' were incinerated by the sheer solar heat of Arthur's Sovereign blood.

  The blue light died out. Annie's eyes returned to their natural brown, and her body went limp, falling against Arthur's shoulder. As the corruption vanished, the transformation reversed. Arthur's white hair turned back to black, and his golden blood returned to crimson.

  The strain was too much. A localized "Black Hole" of memory formed in Arthur's mind as his brain shut down to protect itself from the Sovereign energy. He collapsed into unconsciousness.

  Four hours later, Arthur woke up. His head throbbed as if it had been crushed by a mountain. The rain had stopped, and the gentle chirping of birds drifted into the cave.

  "How... how did I get here?" he muttered, clutching his head.

  His memory was a blurred mess. He remembered the fight with Crow. He remembered rescuing Annie. But after that? There was a massive gap. He looked at his stomach—his shirt was torn and soaked in dried blood, but the skin underneath was smooth. There was no wound.

  "Annie?" He turned to his side. She was sleeping peacefully, her color returning to her face. He shook her gently.

  Annie opened her eyes slowly. "Brother? What are we doing here? And your clothes... why is there blood everywhere?"

  She looked terrified, but the demonic energy was gone. She remembered being captured, being poked with needles, and then... nothing but endless ice.

  "It's nothing, Annie," Arthur lied, pulling her into a protective embrace. "I probably just got scratched while we were running. Don't worry. I'm here. We're going home to Mom and Grandpa."

  Arthur stepped out of the cave, carrying Annie. He didn't notice that the grass beneath his feet had been scorched gold by his earlier aura. He had no idea that to save his sister, he had touched a power that the universe hadn't seen in eons.