144. The Heart That Chooses to Burn

Rain began to smear the glass windows of the Levistis Manor. The outside world blurred into colorless streaks of grey. Inside, the war had already begun—quiet, invisible, crawling through bloodlines and decades of lies.

Adrian stood in the research room—his private lab now buzzing with more voices, more machines, more equations than ever. His eyes were dry and his muscles sore, but he refused to let himself rest.

The whiteboard in front of him was filled with frantic notes. The compound Savas had sent was promising. Lucas had already identified its reaction to Naehr's serum. But it needed one final component—one only Adrian could recognize.

He wasn't just a scientist now. He was the cipher.

And he felt it in his bones: if he failed, they all would.