Passing through a few corridors, I entered the laboratory with the highest clearance level. Few could enter this wing, and only the two of us could access the lab where the research took place.
Knock-knock.
I tapped on the doorframe. Ellis, sitting at the microscope, turned to me, unsurprised by my arrival.
"You took your time, Brandon. I heard you land," said the young, transformed woman before me, removing her glasses and standing to hug me. It still felt strange to see her so… young. With eyes half-glowing purple.
My blood didn't just turn people into super-soldiers, as we'd thought. It could also rejuvenate the entire body if the serum dose was tripled and I willed it. Literally reborn, brought to the peak of their physical form. I was the key factor. Ellis and I had discovered this phenomenon only a week ago, but she already looked about thirty, and what would happen next was hard to imagine. We were stunned back then. But it was a joyful event. After all, I didn't want to lose such a person. She could even pass for my mother's peer, if you didn't know she was fifty years older.
An astonishing property we hid from the public to avoid stirring up the planet. Not yet.
"We need to talk," I said, hugging her slim waist and pressing against her chest, awkwardly pulling my head back. Too big. Still not used to seeing her young.
"Haha, alright. Sit wherever you want, I'll finish soon," she said, nodding with a laugh. I sat behind her, watching what she was doing while thinking about the twists of fate.
When I first met old lady Ellis, she'd blasted me in the face with a shotgun without hesitation. Those were dangerous times, and she didn't want to risk letting the sick into her Kansas lab. Lots of robbers, sick people, and plain psychos.
Lily was especially bad off back then until I arrived. Another week, and she'd have buried her granddaughter. So I took those actions calmly. After all, I'd long stopped caring about weapons.
After a week of working together on the cure project, debates, ideas, months of constant flights, talks, and searching for new discoveries. Orders, conflicting opinions, more debates. Her rise to power. Countless sleepless nights full of orders and coordinating literally tens of thousands of people worldwide. Without our superpowers, it would've been impossible. But we did it.
We went through it all together. Hand in hand. I was sure that without her, I'd have just destroyed everyone who opposed me, leaving no stone unturned of humanity. It would've been an easy, quick path. But we did it.
We made it so people didn't fear me. People worshipped me. They awaited my appearance like the coming of a messiah.
The serum, the cancer cure based on my blood, countless new life-saving things. She was a genius, and my power turned her into a scientific monster.
My blood was something unimaginable. Many discoveries were made by our tandem, with her genius playing a bigger role than my superbrain. Only we two knew this. Others believed in my divine powers.
No matter how astonishing my body was, the genius of the mind wasn't part of my powers. I could calculate a comet's fall to the millimeter, but I couldn't create something beyond my imagination. Ellis could. And the serum was just a small part of her genius.
Project "Transfiguration" was her brainchild, and what it was becoming thrilled me. My own army…
With this, I'd have a trump card against the invaders of our universe who destroyed the empire native to my body. With this, I could sleep soundly, not thinking every second about how to save everyone and not just flee like a coward.
I couldn't forget the danger lurking in the depths of space. It would come, sooner or later. Ellis would give me this trump card. A trump card I hadn't expected. For now…
"So?" She turned, seductively stretching. Hormones… it had been so long. And here they were again.
"So, I need data," I said, crossing my arms.
"About?" Seeing my look and catching my emotions, she quickly understood what I wanted. The astonishing discoveries I'd made were about people whose bodies had changed. They started sensing my emotions. And Lily, the only one with fully purple eyes, could catch thoughts. Fragmented and unclear, but it was something. "Of course, of course. One sec."
She quickly dashed to the shelves, opened them, and pulled out several papers. Her speed was impressive for a human, but vampires were faster. At least the old ones.
"Here."
Ellis handed me the papers, her fingers trembling slightly—not from fear, but from the excitement that always gripped her before a new discovery. I took the sheets, scanning the lines: graphs, formulas, mutation data. Vampires. Their blood, their weaknesses, their traces. The concentrate. She watched me, waiting for a reaction, her eyes—half purple, half alive—burning like coals in the night.
"Is this all?" I asked, setting the papers on the table. My voice came out sharper than intended, but she didn't flinch.
"For now, yes," she replied, crossing her arms. "But it's not just data, Brandon. It's a map. Their blood—it doesn't just boil when they try to spill their secrets. It leaves traces. Chemical markers we can track. I'm almost pinpointed their lair. Almost. The concentrate is nearly ready; with it, I'll be able to point you in the exact direction."
I nodded, feeling a familiar coldness rise inside—not rage, but anticipation. Helios. A name that sounded like a curse, a challenge. They created this virus, and I'd find them, even if I had to burn every corner of this planet. But Ellis's words touched something else. Traces. A map. It meant the rats I'd been chasing for months had finally left me a thread.
"Where? Roughly?" I asked, stepping closer. Her breath smelled of coffee and metal—the scent of the lab, now her second skin.
"Not sure yet," she said, looking away as if fearing my disappointment. "But I have a hypothesis. Caves. Deep, old, underground. They're hiding where there's no sun, where they can't be reached. We found anomalies in groundwater—their scent traces are seeping out. The chemical markers are very similar. North America, maybe Canada. Or further, in the mountains."
"Caves," I repeated, and an image flashed in my mind: dark tunnels, dampness, the smell of rot and blood. A fitting place for rats. "Good. Assemble a team. Medics, maybe others. I'm flying there. When it's done, I'll report. I'll need time to comb through everything."
"Not so fast," Ellis grabbed my shoulder, her fingers gripping with unexpected strength. "You can't just storm in there alone. We don't know how many there are, what they have. Helios… it's not just rich guys or bandits. It's something bigger. You said yourself the virus isn't from Earth."
I nodded grimly. She was right, and it pissed me off. My blood boiled with impatience, but my mind—the one she'd sharpened through months of our debates—whispered, "Wait." Helios wasn't an ordinary enemy. The creatures weren't just waiting—they were preparing. Waiting. And if they could watch me, if they were observing me from the shadows like I watched the world from above, this wasn't just a hunt. It was a war.
If they had means of control, it'd be a catastrophe. I couldn't risk the whole planet. I needed backup.
"Then what?" I asked, looking into her eyes. "Wait until they crawl out? Until they start devouring people again?"
"No," Ellis shook her head, her voice firm. "We prepare. Project 'Transfiguration' is nearly complete. The first batch of soldiers is ready—ten people. Not vampires, not monsters, but ours. The serum enhanced them, like me and Lily, but better. Where it counts. Faster. Stronger. They'll go with you."
I froze. An army. My army. Not just people I saved, but those I created. Their blood was my blood, their strength my strength. But the thought of them following me into the dark, into a meat grinder, squeezed my chest. Memories I'd never forget weighed on me. I wanted peace, but every step led me to war. What if they died? What if I led them to death, like I once led those who trusted me?
"Are they ready?" I asked, my voice quieter, almost hoarse.
"Yes," Ellis nodded. "And they know what they're signing up for. They believe in you, Brandon. Like Tori. Like Kate. Like me."
Her words hit like a cold, sharp wind in the face. Faith. It was their strength, but my weakness. I turned away, looking at the microscope, at the drop of blood under the glass—my blood, now flowing in dozens of bodies. Salvation or curse? I didn't know. But I knew one thing: Helios was waiting, and I couldn't hide behind their faith anymore.
If they believed in me, I'd believe in them. No more sentimentality.
"Then gather them," I said, clenching my fists. "We fly tomorrow. We'll find those caves. And if they're there… I'll rip out their hearts."
Ellis nodded, her lips twitching in a faint smile—not joyful, but tired, yet resolute. She turned to the table, and I stepped to the window. Beyond the glass stretched the world—new, alive, but still fragile, like glass under a blow. Night was falling on our hemisphere, stars piercing through the smoke, and I felt the cold inside grow. Not fear, not doubt, but something sharp, like a blade.
I was the conqueror. And this world was mine. Not entirely, but mine. But for the first time, I wondered: what if I wasn't a savior, but an executioner? If instead of order, I brought only fire? Thoughts, thoughts. Too many thoughts. Perhaps the answer awaited me in the caves, in the blood, in the hearts of those who started this chaos. And I would find them. It was time to cast aside human weaknesses.
I hadn't been human for a long time. I was beyond that.
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