Deep within the mine tunnels, Valerius's hologram flickered faintly amid blue light. He applauded slowly, a gracious smile playing across his face. To Jin Wanchao's eyes at this moment, that smile cut colder than frigid winds and burned hotter than the fires of hell.
"Well done, Prophet," Valerius said, his tone laced with mockery yet steeped in unspoken authority. "As a reward, allow me to show you something interesting."
With a casual wave of his hand, the blue orb before him shifted instantly. Clear new visuals unfolded for everyone to see.
It was a vast underground laboratory thick with the stench of formaldehyde and rust. Massive steam pipelines coiled across cold metal walls like tangled vines, rumbling low and constant. Rows of glowing incubation pods stood neatly at the laboratory's center. Inside them were no embryos or organs as one might expect—instead, figures bound to experimental tables writhed in agony or lay hollow and numb.
They were human, yet no longer human at all.
Flesh and cold machinery had been crudely fused together. Some bore steam pistons replacing half their bodies, muscle tangled tight with steel girders. Others had their skulls split open, revealing intricate gears and wiring beneath. Far more had modified limbs, heavy armor and jet engines welded to their backs, twisted into half-mechanical abominations. Their eyes held the last flickers of despair and struggle, yet some cold programming forced them into hollow, obedient stillness.
"The Chimera Project," Valerius purred with sick delight, as if presenting a masterpiece crafted by his own hands. "My finest creation—the perfect union of flesh and machinery, the ultimate embodiment of intellect and raw power."
He zoomed the feed closer onto a single incubation pod.
"Behold. Even these discarded rejects find new purpose beneath my skilled touch. They shall become the Black Steel Council's most loyal soldiers, its cheapest labor, and its most flawless weapons."
Valerius spread his arms wide, arrogance bordering on madness etched into every feature of his face.
"The breeding factories—do not mistake their purpose. They exist not merely to oppress the workers and their kin. They serve as my raw material reserves. Superior genes, fresh living flesh, uncorrupted souls… especially those prime specimens raised under endless oppression, yet clinging stubbornly to a spark of defiance deep within their hearts."
Jin Wanchao's inner flames contracted sharply, every gear within his body trembling with unbridled rage. The breeding factories, once the tenderest scar buried deep in his soul, now lay torn open to expose their vilest, bloodiest truth. His sister—could she too have suffered this fate?
A retching sound cut through the tense air.
One of the Burning Covenant warriors doubled over against the mine wall, vomiting violently, his eyes wide with primal fear and visceral revulsion. The scavengers nearby paled as well. They had survived countless horrors out in the wasteland, yet this utter desecration of humanity, this cruel reduction of people to disposable tools, surpassed even their darkest nightmares.
Ahuo shook violently, staring fixedly at the holographic display, his bloodshot eyes bulging from their sockets.
"No… this cannot be real," he gasped, his voice frayed and broken like tattered cloth. "It is fake—all of it is fake!"
Valerius noticed Ahuo's reaction and smiled indulgently.
"Ah, it seems one among you knows these materials far too intimately." He leaned forward slightly, gaze locking onto Jin Wanchao with unmasked scorn. "Incidentally, Ahuo—I have reviewed your records."
The hologram shifted once more, casting a frail figure onto the screen. Bound tight to an icy operating table, she was crisscrossed with endless wires snaking from her head, her body sliced open in countless places to reveal glowing blue mechanical components beneath torn skin. Torment etched across her features, yet an unseen force stifled every scream she tried to utter.
Ahuo's pupils constricted instantly, and he let out a bestial howl of grief.
"Arou!"
He recognized her at once—this was his younger sister, Arou.
Driven wild with grief, Ahuo lunged straight for the holographic projection, eyes blazing crimson with fury. Snarling incoherent threats, he raged, "Monster! I will kill you! I swear I will kill you!"
"Calm yourself!" Jin Wanchao roared. Moving faster than thought, he intercepted Ahuo in an instant. He could sense the inner flames within Ahuo consumed entirely by despair and madness, ready to erupt unchecked at any second. A sharp strike to the base of Ahuo's neck sent him slumping unconscious into Jin Wanchao's arms.
"Wanchao!" Old Zhong and Wrench rushed forward in alarm.
Jin Wanchao passed Ahuo into Old Zhong's care before returning his unyielding gaze to Valerius's flickering hologram. No fury burned in those eyes now—only bone-deep cold and an overwhelming weight of resolve. He saw the mocking amusement in Valerius's stare, the detached arrogance of a being who deemed all others beneath him.
"Have you already broken so easily?" Valerius chuckled softly, his voice dripping with refined disdain. "This is but a fraction of the Chimera Project's true scale. Humanity's potential stretches far beyond your narrow comprehension. Once refined through careful modification, these specimens shall wield unprecedented power."
Raising a wine glass in his hand, he offered a mocking toast toward Jin Wanchao from across the void.
"I eagerly await the look on your face when you discover your own dear sister has become another masterpiece of my design."
Jin Wanchao's inner flames burned steady and cold within his core. Rage had long since boiled past frenzy, hardening into unshakable resolve as he stared at Valerius's smug, arrogant visage.
He shouted no curses, unleashed no outbursts. Slowly, he lifted his steam gauntlet-clad right hand, pointing directly at the hologram before him.
"Valerius," Jin Wanchao spoke, his voice hoarse yet heavy with unbreakable conviction, each word ringing like hammer blows striking steel.
"I swear this oath."
"I shall crush every ounce of arrogance held by the Black Steel Council beneath my feet."
"I shall burn every last one of your twisted creations to ash—your laboratories, your delusional ambitions, all of it."
"I shall free every child you have imprisoned and twisted by force. If liberation proves impossible, I shall grant them a merciful end."
"I shall wash the shame staining this violated land clean with the blood of you and your entire council."
Jin Wanchao's declaration echoed throughout the mine tunnels. Every syllable carried the weight of a sacred vow, piercing straight through Valerius's mocking grin to strike deep within his cold heart.
For the first time, the condescending smile froze rigid upon Valerius's face. He studied Jin Wanchao intently, his casual contempt fading into quiet wariness. From this lone laborer emanated an iron will unlike any he had ever encountered.
At that exact moment, violent tremors shook the depths of the mine.
"Alert! Alert! Self-destruction sequence activated! Total tunnel collapse imminent in two minutes!"
Shrill mechanical alarms blared without cease throughout the cavern. Valerius's hologram flickered wildly, its stability crumbling fast.
"It seems, my dear Prophet, your time has run short," Valerius remarked, a flicker of surprise softening quickly back into haughty amusement. "I look forward to our next meeting. I do hope you retain such fervent conviction when we cross paths again."
The holographic image vanished entirely.
"Run! Everyone run, now!" Wrench shouted, her own inner flames surging to life as she directed the scavengers toward the tunnel exit.
Jin Wanchao lifted the unconscious Ahuo into his arms, his inner flames roaring forth with overwhelming power. He could perceive the mine's support structures fraying rapidly apart, resonance crystals flaring blinding blue light amid the collapse, bathing the tunnels in apocalyptic radiance.
"Old Zhong, gather the crystals! Leave none behind!" Jin Wanchao barked. Setting Ahuo gently into Old Zhong's grasp, he sprinted toward the mine's central chamber, stuffing glowing blue resonance crystals frantically into specialized storage containers.
Burning Covenant warriors and scavengers alike threw aside all fear, driven by raw survival instinct to move with desperate speed. They dodged plummeting rock and twisted metal snatching crystals wherever they could reach.
The ground shook ever more violently, jagged cracks spiderwebbing up the towering mine walls.
At the final heartbeat before catastrophic detonation, Jin Wanchao fled the No. Zero Forbidden Zone alongside the survivors, hauling every collected resonance crystal safely away.
Later, as Ahuo stirred awake from his stupor, he stared silently at the haunting footage of his sister's torment, then at the pile of shimmering blue resonance crystals resting nearby. The frantic despair and unhinged rage of before were gone entirely from his eyes.
In their place lay a cold, bottomless hatred heavy as an abyss, forged into unyielding steel resolve.
He picked up his steam gauntlets and began polishing them slowly, stroke by deliberate stroke.