A hush had fallen over Neo-Lagos. Not the quiet of peace, but the tense stillness of anticipation. The kind of silence before a storm breaks the sky in half. Jaden Cross stood atop the observation platform of the Horizon Spire, his eyes sweeping across the city—the veins of solar rail lines glowing amber, the outline of modular towers stretching like fingers to the stars, and far beyond, the outer sectors dimmed beneath an energy grid flickering with instability.
The city was evolving.
So was the enemy.
Ever since the operation in the Spiral Basin and the reveal of Virelia's deeper corruption across the Helix Network, the threat had taken on a new shape. Exodus was no longer a faction. It had become a language—spoken through rogue code, sleeper agents, corrupted data streams, and whispers in dreams. And even now, as Genesis Nation built out its pillars of civilization, the war continued invisibly within the circuits and psyches of its people.
