Chapter 70

The God complex.

The serum burned as it entered Cilax Duarte’s veins.

He didn’t scream.

Not because it didn’t hurt. But because pain meant he was still human.

And he wasn’t going to be human for much longer.

He stood in the center of an abandoned cathedral just outside Edenfall’s boundaries, arms spread like a sacrificial god. Crimson glass glinted from above. The old altar had been replaced with machinery.

Wire, generators, and monitors. Each calibrated to amplify the serum's evolution inside his bloodstream.

“I’ll become more than Alexander ever dreamed,” he whispered as the last drop vanished beneath his skin.

His vision flickered.

Static. Codes. Symbols he didn’t recognize. And then clarity.

He heard whispers. He felt every heartbeat in the building. He remembered thoughts that weren’t his.

A thousand minds. A thousand voices. All calling him one thing.

Father.

Cilax smiled.

At Edenfall’s tower, I stood alone in the center of the Syndicate’s war room. The walls vibrated with unrest. civilian riot had erupted overnight.

People sensed the infection’s presence. Paranoia bloomed.

Soraya handed me the report.

“Three more gone. Same symptoms. Same patterns.”

Lucia paced behind us, snapping her gloves on. “And still no trace of Cilax?”

“Nothing,” Luca replied. “It’s like he vanished.”

I exhaled, my gaze sweeping over the maps, red blinking zones expanding across Edenfall.

“This is what my father feared most,” I said. “And he still created it.”

Lucia looked at me. “You think Cilax let himself be infected?”

“I think Cilax was always trying to become something greater,” I whispered. “He just needed a god to follow. Or become one.”

Damian stood alone on the Edenfall tower, wind whipping at his coat.

He stared across the skyline, pulse steady. But his chest tightened.

For years, he’d been Edenfall’s weapon. Its guardian. Its monster.

But now the enemy wasn’t political. Wasn’t tactical. It was…unknowable.

“Afraid?” My voice came behind him.

“No. But this war is different. And we don’t know how to win it.”

I walked beside him, hands in my coat pocket.

“We don’t fight it like a war,” I said. “We fight it like a virus. Contain it. Cut the source.”

“And if the source wears a human face?”

I turned to him. “We erase it.”

He looked down at me. “Even if that face once sat beside you at the table?”

I nodded.

Damian didn’t speak again. But I saw pain in his eyes.

Meanwhile, deep in the inner sectors, chaos was rising.

The infected didn’t act like zombies. They acted normal. Until they didn’t.

They moved in patterns. Their eyes synchronized. Like one network receiving one command.

And at the center, Cilax watched from the sanctuary.

“Send them,” he said softly.

The infected one rose. And the streets of Edenfall began to bleed.

By evening, Edenfall burned in pockets of crimson.

Hospitals overflowed.

Syndicate teams deployed in masses. But it wasn’t enough.

The infection wasn’t spreading like a plague. It was spreading like code. Airwaves. Frequencies. Lights.

Luca stormed into the war room, breathless. “It’s the comms tower! He’s hijacking the satellite systems. Sending the infection across the net.”

“Digital infection?” Soraya asked.

“No. Neurological. A pattern buried in the frequencies. The human brain is responding like antenna.”

I paled. “He’s not trying to infect bodies. He’s infecting minds.”

Luca nodded. “And if he reaches the central tower, Edenfall is gone.”

I turned to Damian. “We end this now.”

We flew via stealth transport to the outer perimeter.

Damian, me, Luca, Soraya, and Lucia. All armed. All silent.

The cathedral was lit from within.

A glow of gold and crimson. As we entered, the doors creaked like ancient tombs.

And at the altar, bathed in soft light, Cilax stood.

Changed.

His skin shimmered faintly with iridescent hue. His eyes no longer held pupils. Just ring of gold.

“You’re late,” he said.

“You’re infected,” I said calmly. “That’s all.”

“No,” Cilax replied. “I’m chosen. The infection didn’t consume me. It crowned me.”

“You’re not a king,” Damian growled.

“I’m not a man either.”

I stepped forward. “You’re dying. Just slower than the others.”

Cilax’s grin faded. “You still think you understand the world, Claire. But the syndicate isn’t Edenfall’s future. I am.”

“You’re a tyrant with God complex.”

“No,” he whispered. “I’m your evolution.”

He reached out and the lights flickered. The entire cathedral trembled.

And then the infected poured in.

Gunfire erupted.

Lucia and Soraya flanked the east entrance, taking down two with headshots.

Luca hacked the signal disruptor, trying to jam the neutral frequency Cilax was boardcasting.

Damian engaged three infected, blade and bullet swift.

I went straight to Cilax.

“You were always a shadow,” I shouted. “A puppet trying to wear a crown.”

Cilax smirked. “Then come try your own creation.”

Our fight was brutal.

I moved like a weapon trained by the syndicate’s deadliest.

But Cilax didn’t bleed right. His body twisted unnaturally, absorbing damage.

“You can’t stop me,” he hissed. “I am the next phase.”

“You’re a virus.”

I drove my blade through his ribs. Cilax screamed but didn’t fall.

Instead, his skin peeled back to reveal wires. Synthetic flesh. Augmentation.

I stumbled back in horror.

“You didn’t just merge with the virus…you rebuilt yourself.”

“Yes,” he said. “Alexander made a monster. I became a god.”

Suddenly, Luca’s voice shouted through the comms. “Signal disrupted! We have five minutes of blackout before it reroutes.”

Damian tackled Cilax from behind.

The two collided into the altar, stone shattering beneath them.

Cilax roared, swiping Damian across the chest with metal claws.

I rushed forward, using the disruption jam blade coated in antivirus compound into Cilax’s spine.

He hollowed, light bursting from his chest.

The network faltered.  The infected screamed in unison. And collapsed. Cilax shuddered.

His body began to disintegrate. Part metal. Part flesh. All ash.

I stood over him, breathing hard. “You were never god,” I whispered.

“Neither are you,” he choked and then vanished in a cloud of black.

Silence returned to Edenfall that night. The infected died instantly. The streets quieted.

And the syndicate stood on the edge of survival once again.

But I didn’t celebrate. Because I knew what we had destroyed was only a prototype.

Later that night, as the sun barely rose through Edenfall’s artificial sky, I stood in the abandoned cathedral alone.

I looked up at the stained glass. Damian joined me.

“Will this ever end?” I asked.

He wrapped his arms around me from behind.

“No,” he said. “But you’ll never fight alone again.”

I leaned into him.

And for a moment, Edenfall didn’t feel like a battlefield.

It felt like home.