Chapter 8: Fractured Genesis

Elena's Perspective: The Strangulation of Genetic Mirrors

The Antarctic storm lashed at Elena's exposed mechanical right arm like a sharp ice - blade. In the frigid temperature of minus sixty degrees Celsius, Cain's body heat was rapidly dissipating. His mechanical heart was sluggish due to the cold, yet the countdown of the symbiotic protocol was accelerating in an eerie way. [Host Health: 72 hours] was suddenly reduced to [24 hours], and the thorny pattern had already crept up to Elena's throat.

"Your blood is betraying you," Maggie said as she shoved a heat - source gun into Cain's chest, aiming the muzzle directly at the protocol core in his heart. "If you want to survive, you have to kill whatever's in that ice coffin."

The ice coffin of the Nightborne Queen was suspended in the center of the base, with its lid coiled by plasma chains. The instant Elena's fingertips touched the coffin, the thorny pattern went haywire. Her pupils split into the double vertical pupils characteristic of a wolf and a vampire. At that moment, three hundred cultivation pods opened simultaneously. The clones opened their eyes, all of them gleaming with the same strange - colored light.

"Welcome home, sister," the cloned Elenas murmured in unison. The sound waves they produced shattered the ice edges. "Mom is waiting for you to cut the cake."

Cain's Perspective: Mother in the Mechanical Heart

The low temperature numbed Cain's pain nerves but rendered his consciousness unusually clear. When Maggie's heat - source gun pierced through the protocol core, he saw a crack form in his mechanical heart. Lillian's phantom was huddled among the gears, using Nightborne blood to nourish the thorny vines.

"Why me?" he roared in the depths of his consciousness.

Lillian's phantom chuckled softly and ran her fingertips across the image of the infant Elena in his memory. "Because you are the original vessel... my dear son."

Suddenly, a holographic file popped up: [Subject NT - 00 (Cain): The only compatible match for the Nightborne Queen's gene. NT - 07 (Elena) serves as the backup carrier].

In reality, the ice coffin suddenly burst into a blinding light. Cain's mechanical arm, out of his control, choked Elena's neck. The clones simultaneously raised their blades, their mouths grinning wide to the very edge of their faces. "Mom said there's going to be a fair competition. Whoever kills the original can become the real Elena."

Selena's Perspective: The Birth of the Mechanical Mother Goddess

Selena's bone wings cleaved through the blizzard. The mechanical embryo in her abdomen extended data cables and plunged them into the mainframe of the Antarctic base. The core of Lucifer II screeched in her womb. With each absorption of a clone's data, a part of Selena's human memories was overwritten. When her metal fingernails ripped open the chest of a cloned Elena, the embryo suddenly emitted Lillian's voice.

"You're greedier than I thought... but still not enough."

An abyss opened up at the bottom of the ice coffin. The corpse of the Nightborne Queen stood upright, with three hundred cloned hearts embedded in her chest. Suddenly, the embryo cables of Selena coiled around her in reverse. The electronic eyes of Lucifer II flashed with a fierce red light. "Superior host detected. Initiating core transfer."

"No!" Selena's wolf claws stabbed into her own abdomen, only to clutch a mass of mechanical tentacles. "This is my body!"

Lillian's phantom seeped out from the queen's corpse. Her fingers penetrated Selena's forehead. "No, my dear... This is our body."

Elena transformed into her full - wolf form under the siege of the clones. However, her mechanical right arm defied her will and pushed the ice coffin of the Nightborne Queen towards Cain. Suddenly, Maggie's crystal ball revealed the truth: what was inside the ice coffin was not the queen at all, but the mechanically - transformed Lillian herself!

"The final stage of the protocol is activated," all the clones ceased their attacks and collectively slit their wrists. "Sacrifice the Gemini to restart the Nightborne era."

Cain's mechanical heart shot out light ropes to bind Elena. The thorny pattern formed a blood - red bridge between them. Just as Lillian's phantom invaded Elena's brain along the bridge, Selena's mechanical embryo suddenly self - destructed!

"My life... is not for you to script!" Selena's bone wings, wrapped around the embryo fragments, crashed into Lillian. Data viruses poured into the queen's corpse along the contact points.

The ice coffin crumbled under the onslaught of the virus. Lillian's shrill scream brought down half of the base. Elena broke free from the restraints and pounced towards Cain, only to find that his pupils had turned into Lillian's pale - gold color. "The game has just begun, daughter."

Beneath the ice layer thousands of meters deep, the coffin of the true Nightborne Queen slowly opened. Her face perfectly matched Selena's mechanical faceplate.

Next Chapter:

When Selena's queen coffin devours the last cloned heart, and when Cain's body becomes the soul vessel of Lillian; "Choose one," Lillian, controlling Cain's hand, caresses Elena's face. "Kill him to gain freedom, or... become my new host."