TWENTY SIX
🕊️ Chapter 26 – Awakening of the Core When the light finally died, silence took over. The Madrigal Mansion lay in ruins — walls cracked open, electrical wires flickering like veins of fading life. The chandeliers that once symbolized grandeur now hung low, like ashes of the past. Xavier Madrigal lay unconscious beside the desk, his hand still outstretched — as if reaching for a memory of the hand he once held. Slowly, Althea Reyes opened her eyes. But the world that greeted her was no longer the same. The air shimmered with illusion — holographic lines hovered faintly in one corner, fragments of broken data clinging between reality and experiment. > “Clarisse…?” she whispered, her voice trembling. There was no answer — only the faint hiss of static echoing through the room. The
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