Chapter 4
1513 Words
Ethan’s body moved before thought could catch up—there was no hesitation, no fear, only a raw instinct that surged through his blood like wildfire. The chamber blurred around him as he launched forward, closing the distance between himself and the amber-eyed commander in a single, explosive burst.
The man didn’t flinch.
He simply raised one hand.
A concentric ripple shimmered outward—like invisible rings cut from the air itself. When Ethan collided with it, the force struck him like a steel wall. For one sickening moment, his momentum simply stopped.
Then he was hurled backward.
He smashed through a stack of metal crates and hit the concrete hard enough to crater it. Dust erupted around him. Pain spider-webbed from his spine, but the molten constructs in his blood surged instantly, knitting the pain away before he could even gasp.
He stood.
And the amber-eyed man smiled faintly.
“Good,” the stranger said. “That was your first lesson.”
Ethan wiped dust from his lips. “Lesson? You think this is a training session?”
“It is,” the man replied. “Just not for you.”
Ethan’s fists clenched.
Behind him, Alden had scrambled into a corner, clutching his injured arm. Fear trembled in his voice as he shouted:
“That’s Commander Kael Voss! Ethan, he isn’t like the others—he’s a Prime Host!”
If the title meant anything, Kael didn’t show it. He merely tilted his head, regarding Ethan like a scientist examining a new specimen.
“You’re adapting exceptionally fast,” Kael said. “Impressive. The board will want you alive… for now.”
Ethan felt heat coil inside his bones.
“I’m not going with you.”
“No,” Kael agreed. “You’re not.”
He pressed his thumb against a small device on his wrist.
The chamber lights flickered. A humming resonance filled the air—deeper than the disruptor’s frequency from earlier. Ethan felt his muscles tighten involuntarily.
Alden shouted over the rising sound, panic in his voice:
“Ethan! That’s a dominance field! It forces the matrix to submit to a higher-tier host—”
Kael spoke calmly over him.
“Kneel.”
Ethan felt it instantly.
A crushing weight slammed down on his blood, on his bones, on the constructs inside him. They shuddered and flickered like a glitching network under Kael’s command signal.
It wasn’t just pressure.
It was control.
His legs buckled.
His jaw clenched so hard a tooth cracked.
His vision wavered as the molten glow in his veins dimmed.
Kael took a step closer, voice almost gentle.
“This is the hierarchy you were engineered for, Ethan Cross. Primes command. Prototypes obey.”
Ethan’s nails dug into the ground, cracking concrete. He forced himself to speak through clenched teeth.
“I… don’t… obey… anyone.”
Kael’s eyes hardened.
“Your matrix disagrees.”
The dominance field intensified. Ethan’s limbs trembled violently as the constructs inside him spasmed, as if being rewired, overwritten, bent to another will.
Alden shouted helplessly, “Stop it! You’ll fry his neural lattice!”
Kael didn’t even glance at him.
“He’ll survive. If he wants to.”
Ethan’s vision blurred into red.
His mind boiled.
His instincts—his humanity—began slipping beneath a tide of commands not his own.
Kneel.
Submit.
Obey.
No.
NO.
Deep in his chest, something roared—something that refused to break.
And the constructs responded.
Not with fear.
Not with submission.
With rebellion.
Heat erupted from Ethan’s core, flooding his bloodstream with blinding intensity. The veins under his skin flared bright crimson, brighter than he’d ever seen.
Kael’s brow creased. “Impossible—”
Ethan forced one knee upward.
Then the other.
Then he stood.
The dominance field shrieked and buckled around him, the resonance distorting under the pressure of Ethan’s rising energy.
Alden stared, eyes wide with disbelief.
“He’s—he’s overriding it. Ethan, no one should be capable of—”
Kael cut him off with a scowl.
“You defy your Prime Host?”
Ethan’s voice was low, steady, and lethal.
“I defy everyone.”
Then he charged.
This time, Kael wasn’t calm.
He moved—fast, unbelievably fast—but Ethan’s world had narrowed into pure instinct, into a burning clarity he didn’t recognize. Every shift of Kael’s posture, every flicker of muscle, every breath—Ethan saw them all.
Their collisions became shockwaves.
Ethan struck first—an upward punch aimed at Kael’s ribs. Kael blocked with an elbow, the sound like metal striking metal. Ethan pivoted and drove a knee toward Kael’s midsection. Kael twisted, deflecting the strike and launching a counterattack, fingers slicing toward Ethan’s throat with lethal precision.
Ethan caught his wrist.
The air rippled.
Kael’s eyes widened slightly. “You’re syncing faster than expected…”
Ethan tightened his grip—and hurled Kael across the chamber.
Kael slammed into a concrete pillar hard enough to c***k it.
Dust showered the floor.
Alden whispered, breath trembling, “Ethan… you don’t know what you’re doing. If the matrix pushes past stability, it’ll—”
“I don’t care,” Ethan said.
Because the alternative was kneeling.
Kael rose from the rubble slowly, brushing debris from his suit. For the first time, his expression held something other than calm curiosity.
It held irritation.
“You are not the final product,” Kael said quietly. “You are an unstable prototype wearing borrowed power. And you dare raise a hand against a Prime Host?”
Ethan stepped forward.
“Try me.”
Kael extended his arm.
A pulse of golden energy thundered outward, but Ethan slammed his foot into the ground and launched forward, the red glow around him intensifying like a burning star.
They collided in the center of the chamber.
A shockwave blasted outward, shattering lights, rattling pipes, sending Alden sprawling to the floor.
Kael staggered. Just barely.
But he staggered.
Ethan snarled, driving punch after punch—each hit harder, faster, fueled by the constructs merging with his muscles, his nerves, his rage.
Kael blocked the first few.
He dodged the next.
But the tenth, the eleventh—he felt.
His jaw snapped sideways.
His chest armor dented.
His breath hitched.
Alden stared, terrified and awed. “He’s overpowering a Prime—Ethan, you have to stop before the matrix burns you alive—”
But Ethan felt unstoppable.
Every strike brought a surge of hot electricity through his body. Every motion felt smoother, stronger—like the constructs were awakening a deeper reservoir of force inside him.
Kael wiped a thin trail of blood from the corner of his lip.
Then he smiled.
“Enough.”
He pressed two fingers to the device on his wrist.
The chamber flashed white.
Ethan flinched, blinded for a split second—
—and Kael was gone.
Teleportation? No. Something else. The air still trembled with the aftershock of whatever he’d triggered.
Ethan spun, scanning the shadows—but Kael was nowhere, not even breathing nearby.
Only his voice remained, echoing faintly over the chamber’s damaged speakers.
“This is merely the beginning, Ethan Cross. You cannot outrun what you are. And the Seraph Array… will reclaim its property.”
The intercom cut.
Silence settled like dust.
Ethan’s breath slammed into his lungs. His veins dimmed back to faint red. His hands trembled—not with fear, but with the aftershock of power almost slipping its leash.
Alden crawled to his feet.
“Ethan… you don’t understand what you just did.”
Ethan turned. “I beat him.”
“No,” Alden said, voice cracking.
“You declared war.”
Ethan’s jaw set.
“They did that when they tried to kill me.”
Alden’s hands shook as he pressed against the wall for support. “Kael Voss isn’t just a commander. He leads the Seraph Array’s Retrieval Division. If he marks you as unstable—”
“Let me guess,” Ethan said. “They send more men.”
Alden shook his head sharply.
“No. They send something far worse.”
A rumble shook the chamber.
A long, metallic groan echoed down the tunnels.
Ethan tensed. “What now?”
Alden’s face drained of color.
His voice lowered to a whisper.
“They’re releasing a Cherubim Unit.”
Ethan didn’t know the term.
But the fear in Alden’s eyes told him everything.
The floor vibrated again.
Concrete dust drifted from above.
Alden grabbed Ethan’s arm. “We have to move. Now. Before it locks onto us.”
Ethan steadied him. “Where?”
Alden pointed toward the reinforced door at the far end of the chamber—the one Kael had been guarding.
“Behind that door,” Alden said, “is the only thing they fear more than you.”
The chamber trembled again—this time with the unmistakable rhythm of something massive crawling through the tunnels.
Something hunting.
Ethan clenched his fists.
“Then we’re going.”
And he marched toward the door as the monster drew closer.
- Writer
