Chapter 9: Resurrection protocol— project: King Virex Omega
Sector 13 slept under a bruised violet sky, unaware of the nightmare being reborn in the depths of Sector 4.
Where the crumbled remains of Unit Null: Virex lay scattered in warped steel and scorched circuitry, a lone figure stood motionless in the moonlight. He was tall—inhumanly tall, clad in a long black coat, white hair spilling from beneath a matte black balaclava. His voice was sharp enough to cut atoms.
> "You failed your mission, Unit Null... pathetic."
The wreckage of Virex sparked once more before its core fully powered down. The figure crouched and pulled a data shard from its fractured chest.
He stood.
He turned.
He walked.
And the project known as Unit Null... was over.
---
In the Dead Vaults of Sector 4
Dr. Caligari, Netheria's most brilliant and most deranged synthetic biologist, began Project A.R.D.Y.N.—a rebirth forged from hate, metal, and forgotten godhood.
To him, this was not science.
It was divine correction.
The lab was colossal, floating in midair via anti-grav fields above a decaying crater. Thousands of severed machine limbs and ancient scrolls floated in stasis tubes. His centerpiece? A glass sarcophagus surrounded by shifting quantum arms and mechanical tendrils.
Within it?
The perfectly preserved corpse of Ardyn Caelus.
The man who killed Thanatos himself 13 years ago in secret. The man who vanished from history, whose name was erased even from tombstones.
But Caligari had found him—preserved by divine spite, buried in the depths of a collapsed shrine.
And now, he would become God.
---
Step 1: Skeleton of the Cosmos
Caligari retrieved a glowing gray mass—a chunk of Titanic Alloy, mined from a meteor that struck Earth 600 years ago. Unmeltable. Unbreakable. Vibrating at a molecular frequency only detectable by Thanatos users.
It took three weeks to reconstruct the skeletal frame of Ardyn. Joints that could never rust. A spine that could never break. Hands that could crush cities.
> "The bones of the stars," Caligari whispered, "for the king of this broken world."
---
Step 2: The Radioactive Heart
Next came the Heart Core.
A fusion of Uranium-238, Thorium, and Ardyn's real heart, still fresh as though it had stopped beating minutes ago. The core was forged inside a sun-powered containment orb, and once sealed, it began to hum—a heartbeat that burned brighter than hellfire.
Caligari grinned.
> "You won't just live again, my prince. You'll burn like no mortal flame."
---
Step 3: The Blood of Acid
He engineered synthetic red blood laced with hyperacidic compounds that could melt Thanatosian armor on contact, but was stabilized inside the new Ardyn's vascular system. Not only would he not bleed—his blood killed.
---
Step 4: The Flesh of Memory
Caligari reconstructed the flesh using Ardyn's original DNA and tissue. He enhanced it—making it resilient to extreme pressure, temperature, and impact. The nerves were micro-filaments made of superconductive fiber, ensuring thought moved faster than light within his body.
The face?
Beautiful.
Handsome.
Charismatic. Enough to charm royalty or terrify warlords.
Eyes were installed—real human pupils embedded with stealth drones and ultra-compression cameras. One blink could record a battlefield.
---
Step 5: The Brain and Spirit
He built a new brain, housed in a supercooled chamber surrounded by AI neural lattices. He then uploaded the entire Thanatos archive—every scroll, every combat style, every forbidden strike and heavenly defense.
He added programming from Virex's battle logs.
He embedded over 1 million techniques into Ardyn's artificial cortex.
And then... the final code:
> "Directive: Marry the Princess. Rule Netheria. Kill all Thanatos Heirs. Erase their legacy. Begin the Age of Order."
Because Caligari knew one truth:
Ardyn Caelus hated Thanatos. Hated the god. Hated the style. Hated his descendants.
It was not a programming flaw. It was a personal vendetta.
And once the final seal was in place...
---
He Awoke
There was no gasp. No struggle.
Ardyn opened his eyes slowly, confidently, as if he had simply taken a nap between apocalypses.
His voice was smooth, sharp, and frighteningly calm.
> "Where… am I?"
> "Alive again, my lord," Caligari said, stepping back. "You are reborn. Better than you were. Smarter. Immortal. Untouchable."
> "...Thanatos?"
> "Dead. Still dead. But his heirs remain."
A pause.
Ardyn stood up from the sarcophagus, naked but without shame. He flexed his fingers and made a fist.
> "Then I will fix that."
---
The Devil with a Crown
Ardyn was elegance carved into destruction. He walked as if the earth owed him space.
Caligari handed him a sleek black combat coat embroidered with gold nanothreads. His eyes gleamed with a vicious charisma as he stared into a hovering mirror.
> "Still handsome."
> "You are the future king of Netheria," Caligari said, smiling. "Princess Ophelia is expecting a suitor. She will adore you."
> "She always did."
> "And the Thanatos heir? The boy, Ryo—he is weakened. The girl, Lysa, is protecting him. But their flame won't last long."
Ardyn looked up.
His smile twisted.
> "Then let me be the storm that snuffs it out."
He turned and stepped into the Ascension Elevator, rising from Sector 4 toward Sector 7, where the royal citadel still floated above the broken cityscape.
Each step he took reverberated like a warning through the veins of the world.
He was alive.
He was perfect.
He was Ardyn Caelus.