The world felt empty. Dark. Silent.
Somewhere, a faint sound was heard, like the hum of electronics mixed with whispers that I couldn't understand. I tried to move, but my body felt heavy. Cold enveloped every inch of my skin, and something inside me said that I was on the threshold between life and death.
Then, suddenly, a faint light pierced the darkness. The light flickered, flashing rapidly like a monitor screen experiencing interference. I tried to focus on it, but before I could understand what was happening, everything turned black again.
Elsewhere, far from my consciousness, a steel-lined room echoed with the sound of heated debate.
"This is crazy. We can't perform this procedure on an ordinary human, let alone a male!"
A woman in her mid-forties slammed her hand on the glass table in front of her. Her digital glasses flashed, displaying a human body diagram projected in the air. Red lines flashed around the hologram's chest and stomach, a clear sign that the subject was in critical condition.
"Without this procedure, he'll die within hours. The wounds he's sustained are too severe. No conventional treatment can save him."
"Then let him die! Isn't that more humane than turning him into something we don't even understand?"
The atmosphere in the room tensed.
On the other side of the long table, several women in black combat uniforms with the Valkyrie emblem on their shoulders exchanged glances. One of them, a warrior with short blonde hair, leaned against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest.
"There's some truth to that. No one's ever survived this procedure. Project MANTARA isn't a solution, it's a failed experiment we've abandoned years ago."
Alexandria, standing on the other side of the room, clenched her fists with her jaw set. "Don't call it a failed experiment. This project was never completed, but that doesn't mean it can't work. What we need is the right subject."
"And you think he is the right subject?" Diana shot Alexandria a sharp look. "You don't even know him."
Alexandria fell silent for a moment, her eyes fixed on the observation room behind the glass wall. There, inside a medical capsule filled with clear liquid, Ethan's body floated with various wires and tubes connected to his chest. The gash in his stomach still oozed blood despite the medical machines trying to stabilize him. Diana took a deep breath before continuing.
Diana took a deep breath before continuing. "Look at him, Alexandria. He's not one of us. Male bodies aren't designed for this procedure. All previous candidates, even the females, didn't survive more than six hours after the procedure. Their bodies melted from the inside out due to uncontrolled mutations."
Alexandria turned her face away, but her gaze remained resolute. "That's because they weren't strong enough. Ethan is different."
"You talk like you know him."
Alexandria didn't respond. She herself didn't know why she was so certain. Ethan was just an ordinary man—a jack-of-all-trades who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He should have died in that apartment. No ordinary human could survive after losing that much blood. Yet he was still breathing.
A heavy voice suddenly broke the silence. "Project MANTARA wasn't designed to save lives. It was designed to create something more than human."
All heads turned towards an elderly man sitting at the end of the table. His hair was already white, and a long scar crossed his left cheek. He was Dr. Erasmus, one of the senior scientists who had once led the development of this project before it was frozen by the Valkyrie Council.
Diana frowned. "And you think we should try it again? After all the failures we've seen?"
Dr. Erasmus sighed. "I'm not saying it's an easy decision. But look at our situation." He gestured towards the glass wall. "The Helix soldiers already know about him. If we do nothing, they'll come to finish him off. If we let him die, we lose our only chance to understand how Project MANTARA could work."
"You're talking like this is just about the experiment, but it's more than that. It's about giving someone a chance to survive."
Diana shook her head, frustrated. "And what if the procedure fails? What if he turns into something we can't control?"
Silence.
That was the biggest risk of Project MANTARA. No one had ever survived, and those who almost succeeded... turned into something far from human. Creatures that lost their minds, filled only with killing instincts, flesh that regenerated endlessly, without moral or human boundaries.
A monster.
Someone in the room murmured softly, but their voice was clear in the silence. "We don't have much time."
All eyes returned to Ethan. The medical machines began to sound an alarm. His heart rate weakened. His blood oxygen levels plummeted. He was dying. They had only minutes before his body gave out completely.
Alexandria clenched her teeth. "A decision needs to be made now."
The medical machines continued to beep, warning that Ethan had only minutes left before his body succumbed. Yet none of them moved.
"Before you make a decision, you need to know the real history behind Project MANTARA."
Alexandria looked at him suspiciously. "What do you mean?"
Diana took a deep breath, as if struggling against memories she had long tried to bury. "This project wasn't started by Valkyrie. It was the result of a collaboration between the Anti-Solaris organization and Helix Industries Corporation, before they became sworn enemies."
Everyone in the room exchanged glances. Even Dr. Erasmus, who had seemed calm until now, looked slightly shaken.
"Back then, before the war broke out, the world was on the brink of destruction. Conflict, ecological disasters, and disease outbreaks almost wiped out civilization. Anti-Solaris and Helix Industries Corporation put aside their differences and worked together to create a solution - humans who were stronger, more resistant to disease, and more capable of surviving in a world that was collapsing."
Diana pressed several buttons on the holographic panel, and instantly, an image appeared in the air. It was a classified document, containing photos of early experimental subjects - people with bodies full of wounds, empty eyes, and some of whom no longer resembled humans.
"Project MANTARA was born from that hope. They wanted to create superhumans, not as weapons, but as guardians of civilization. Scientists from both sides worked day and night, combining biological and synthetic technology, seeking ways to transcend the limitations of the human body."
"So what went wrong?" Alexandria asked, although she could already guess the answer deep down.
Diana looked straight at her. "What always goes wrong with every great ambition?"
She scrolled through the holographic display, revealing a person's face - a man with black hair, sharp eyes, and a cold smile.
"Isaac Vortemann," Diana said, her voice trembling with hatred. "The CEO of Helix at the time. He was the one who changed everything." The room fell even more silent. "At first, all experiments were conducted under strict supervision, ensuring that the selected subjects were truly ready to undergo the procedure. But for Vortemann, it was all just moral nonsense. For him, this experiment was an opportunity to create the perfect annihilation."
Alexandria clenched her fists. "So he betrayed the project?"
Diana nodded. "Worse. He took it over."
The image on the screen changed again. This time, it showed an underground laboratory with dozens - no, hundreds - of tanks containing humans whose bodies were deformed due to failed experiments.
"He started sacrificing anyone for this project. Disaster victims, poor people who wouldn't be missed, even Helix members themselves. If their bodies were destroyed in the process, he didn't care. For him, they were just fuel for this experiment."
Dr. Erasmus closed his eyes. "That's why Anti-Solaris eventually pulled out of the project."
Diana continued, her voice growing colder. "But Vortemann didn't stop his madness there. When adults weren't stable enough for the procedure, he started looking for other subjects."
Diana's hand trembled as she changed the holographic display to the next image.
The image of children. Their eyes were empty, their bodies full of surgical wounds that hadn't fully healed. Some of them had even lost limbs, replaced by crude prosthetics that seemed out of proportion with their small bodies.
"Even children were used as experimental subjects to fulfill their ambitions."
The room was filled with the hum of machines and the flickering holographic displays, showing Ethan's biological data in real-time. The numbers surged drastically, his body temperature rose to a lethal level, and his heartbeat no longer followed a normal human rhythm.
"We're going to do this anyway."
Ethan lay inside the medical capsule, his body restrained by anti-pressure alloy straps. Bio-synthetic fluid surrounded him, channeling pure energy into his bloodstream.
Then, the procedure began. The pain came like an explosion. The screaming began, the body tensed up until it was almost arched backwards. Every nerve in his body felt like it was being electrified by a power that wasn't his own, forcing him to change from the inside out. On the screen, the scientists watched with horrified expressions as two sets of genetic data began to react with his body.
Genetic Code: VISNU [Synchronization: 34%]
Genetic Code: ZEUS [Synchronization: 22%]
Alexandria stood behind the safety glass, her fingers clenched so tightly that her fingernails almost pierced her skin. "What's the success rate of this procedure?"
Dr. Erasmus gazed at the screen with an unreadable expression. "No one knows. This is the first time a male has undergone this procedure... and survived this far."
"He's screaming in pain! What can we do to help him?" Alexandria snapped.
"If we stop now, he'll die. If we continue... there's no guarantee he'll remain himself."
Alexandria looked at Ethan, who was now groaning, his entire body convulsing. His muscles began to develop at an impossible speed, as if an invisible force was reshaping every cell in his body.
Genetic Code: VISNU [Synchronization: 58%]
Genetic Code: ZEUS [Synchronization: 47%]
His heart pounded so hard it sounded like thunder in his ears. Oxygen felt like fire burning his lungs. Every fiber of his muscles felt like it was being crushed and forced to regrow in seconds. The scientists stared at the screen. The changes were happening too fast.
"This is impossible," Dr. Erasmus muttered. "The human body shouldn't be able to withstand this..."
Alexandria didn't care about the numbers. She only saw Ethan, saw the expression of pain. "Ethan!" she shouted, hoping her voice could penetrate the storm raging inside the young man's body.
And then, everything changed.
Genetic Code: VISNU [Synchronization: 80%]
Genetic Code: ZEUS [Synchronization: 72%]
His body temperature soared to 55°C. And then... his eyes opened.