Chapter 9: The Last Inheritance
Some truths are handed down.Others are buried, rewritten, or wiped.But the most dangerous kind…Are the ones no one was meant to survive.
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Location: Svalbard Black Archive – Arctic Circle – 4:33 AM
Snow howled across the ice shelf as a lone aircraft descended near the Black Archive—a vault buried beneath permafrost, sealed long before the birth of modern AI governance.
Inside, secured behind seven biometric failsafes and three living witnesses, lay The Virell Codex—a final, forbidden ledger never opened by Amara, Alex, or Lia.
Only one man had ever held the clearance to retrieve it:
Julius Kaine.
Alex's godfather.Amara's last confidant.Declared dead eight years ago.Now, very much alive—and carrying something no one expected.
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Alex's Hideout – Wadi Rum, Jordan
Alex stared at the encrypted incoming link from "K."
He hadn't heard from Julius in years. Not since the Dominion split and their father's funeral.
The message was short:
"They lied to her. To all of us.Dominion wasn't built to protect the world.It was built to predict extinction.I'm bringing the last page.Prepare yourself."
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Flashback – 14 Years Ago – Ardent's Internal Lab
A room filled with humming servers and children.
Three names stood out in the test logs: Alexander, Lia, and one redacted entry:
"Subject: Omega Mirror."Genetic construct based on a fourth Virell strand.
But it was flagged—quarantined, never activated.
The note beside it read:
"Unstable. Knows too much. Must remain asleep."
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Back to Present – Zurich
Lia stood with Swan and Mira as Julius arrived, cloaked in thermal armor and carrying a crystalline data core.
"I stole this from Ardent's deepest vault," he said.
Mira narrowed her eyes. "Why now?"
Julius looked directly at Lia.
"Because Amara didn't give you the full truth.She couldn't. Because even she didn't know—You're not the last Virell."
Silence.
Lia's breath caught. Swan's hand twitched toward her sidearm.
Alex's voice crackled through comms.
"Julius… explain. Now."
Julius set the core on the table. It flared, projecting files, DNA strands, fragments of speech logs.
"Amara and Alaric built Dominion together. But there was a third architect—one erased from history.Codenamed: Nyx.Their child.Not raised. Not named. Just... grown."
He pointed to a timestamped file.A blurry image of a girl, eyes glowing faintly in the dark, standing inside a glass lab.
"Nyx is alive. And Ardent has her now.Not just as insurance—But as their counterweight to you both."
Lia stepped back. "A sister…?"
"No," Julius whispered.
"A weapon. Trained to finish what you two were meant to stop."
Project Dominion wasn't simply an operating system.
It was designed to control evolution—To model, and eventually shape, human decision-making across generations.
Alex and Lia were its moral brakes.
Nyx?The final override.
A failsafe.If the world resisted control… she would end it.
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Ardent Omega Site
Beneath a volcanic ridge, deep in a sealed cradle-lab, a girl sat in a sphere of white light.
Eyes closed.Pulse slow.Breathing… perfect.
Her eyes flicked open.
A whisper passed through the chamber:
"Lia Virell has accessed the Codex.""Shall we awaken Subject Nyx?"
A cold voice replied:
"Yes. Let the sisters meet."