The sea was dark and endless. In the dim light of dawn, a wide shot revealed a lifeless human body tangled in a giant fishing net. The net was hauled upward, dripping, until the pale figure broke the surface. It was Jack Sandrof. His arms hung limp, his clothes shredded, his face ghostly. The only thing alive was the faint green shimmer from the ring on his finger. It's a big research centre at shore of the ocean.
Jack's eyes snapped open.
He gasped sharply, his chest jerking upward. Pain surged through him like fire. His hand flew to his left shoulder — rough bandages, tight stitches. The wound throbbed as if burning from the inside. He groaned, sweat dripping down his face, his breath ragged.
A white ceiling blurred above him. Machines beeped softly nearby. The sterile scent of disinfectant filled the air.
He was in a medical room.
A nurse rushed to his side, steadying him. "Don't move. The bullet was removed. Your stitches are still fresh."
Her hand trembled slightly as she pulled out her phone, speaking quickly into it. "He's awake. He just woke up."
Jack's heart pounded. His eyes darted around the room in panic. His voice cracked with fear.
"Where... where am I? What is this place?"
The door opened.
An older man entered — tall, shoulders weighed by years, hair silver, a thick white beard framing his face. His glasses reflected the pale light. His white lab coat swayed gently as he walked. Dr. Luis, seventy year old, looked every inch a man carved from science and sorrow.
Luis's eyes went immediately to Jack's hand. He stepped closer, his voice firm but calm.
"Where did you get this?"
Jack blinked in confusion. "Get what?"
Luis lifted his palm. Resting there was the green jade ring.
Jack's breath caught. His eyes snapped to his own finger — bare. His throat tightened.
"That's mine," he said, his voice shaking. "Give it back!"
Luis didn't move. He repeated, more intense, "Where did you get this?"
Fear shook Jack's chest, but words spilled out. "It was given to me... by my grandma. Just before she died."
The room froze.
Luis's expression shifted, his sternness breaking. For the first time, his lips trembled. His eyes watered faintly behind his glasses, filled with something long buried. He said softly one word like a prayer:
"...Martha?"
Jack's heart jolted. "Yes! Yes, do you know my grandma?"
Luis turned his face slightly, as if hiding emotions. His hands trembled around the ring. Then he looked back at Jack with pain etched into every wrinkle. His voice was low, broken.
"Come with me."
They walked together down a long corridor of steel and glass. Jack's legs were weak, every step pressing against the pain in his stitched shoulder. But curiosity outweighed fear.
The corridor opened into something vast.
A research facility stretched before him — massive chambers of machinery, glowing blue lights across consoles, scientists walking briskly in white coats. Strange equipment hummed softly, glass tubes filled with glowing substances lined the walls.
Jack's eyes widened. He had never seen anything like it.
Luis led him to a small room tucked in the far corner. Inside was a large, weathered wooden box. Dust clung to it, its hinges old. Luis knelt slowly, opened the lid, and gently lifted the first item on top.
A photograph.
Jack's breath caught. The faded image showed a young man and woman standing close together. The woman's smile was warm, her hair tied neatly, her hand resting gently on the man's arm.
It was his grandmother — Martha. And beside her, much younger but unmistakable, was Luis.
Jack stared in disbelief. "This... this is..."
Luis's hand trembled as he touched the photo. His voice lowered to a whisper full of longing.
"It was thirty-five years ago. Martha joined this place as a junior researcher. I was a senior scientist then. She was assigned to assist me. Two years... just two years... but they were priceless. We fell in love. Pure, honest love. But destiny..." His voice cracked. "...destiny chose another path."
Luis set the photo aside and pulled out another file. He handed it to Jack. Inside was a picture of a glowing green crystal, burning like fire.
"One day, the military recovered this. A substance unlike anything seen before. We named it Zytheron. Only eleven of us knew about it. Even the government files on it were sealed."
Jack's eyes locked on the photo, his chest tightening.
Luis's voice dropped, deep with gravity. "Tests revealed it was not of this world. More than ten thousand years old. Its energy was limitless. Like holding the power of the star. It could save humanity... or destroy the planet in seconds."
He clenched his fist. "The others wanted it as energy. But I saw something greater. I wanted to make humanity... evolve. A serum. Stronger bodies. Faster healing. Immortality itself."
His lips trembled. "Martha believed in me. She helped me in secret. We worked in my private lab. Six months of sleepless nights... until we finally created it. A serum to rewrite human DNA."
Jack's throat dried.
Luis's voice grew softer, breaking. "But who would test it? We weren't sure if it would work. Martha... she volunteered."
Jack's eyes widened in shock.
Luis's gaze sank to the floor, his voice shaking. "It was her birthday. She called it her gift. But it went wrong. Her body rejected it. She collapsed. The serum damaged her cells. It caused DNA mutations... cancer."
He gripped the photo so hard his hand shook. "It was my fault. I loved her. And I destroyed her. She left me. But before she walked away, I forged this ring... from Zytheron itself. It took heat hotter than the stars to melt it — 4.7 trillion Kelvin. I gave it to her. The last thing I could give. But there is a thing, without its full form, Zytheron is useless, it cannot produce energy, to activate and use Zytheron it need this ring. But Martha did not knew about this."
Luis's shoulders sank. His voice was hollow. "She promised she'd return once she found a cure. But she never did. Later, I heard she was married... and her cancer gone. I never saw her again."
His tone hardened. "And then disaster. The secret leaked. The Zlatan Syndicate attacked. They slaughtered the facility. Zytheron was stolen. Its location is unknown. But if activated... it could erase all life."
Jack shivered, his stitched shoulder throbbing harder.
Luis looked at him, his old eyes full of pain and guilt. "Jack... Martha's exposure to the serum changed her DNA. And that change passed to you. That's why your body is weak. Your structure unstable. It's my fault."
Jack's lips quivered.
Luis placed a hand gently on his shoulder, right above the stitches. "But maybe... I can change that. For twenty years I've kept the perfected serum. This time, it might work. If you allow it... I can make you strong. I can make you whole."
The room fell silent. The green ring pulsed faintly on the table, its glow breathing like a heartbeat.
And Jack Sandrof's fate hovered on the edge of a single choice.
Chapter Ten – The Prophecy of Zytheron
Jack sat in silence, staring at the faint glow of the ring resting on the table. His stitched shoulder ached, every throb reminding him of the bullet that nearly ended his life.
But in that silence, a memory stirred.
His grandmother's voice. Soft, weak, yet burning with conviction.
. "You are the bravest. Time will give you strength. Time will take you where you need to go."
His chest tightened. He looked at Luis, his voice shaking but sure.
"Maybe... maybe this is what she meant. My grandma... she always told me stories when I was a kid. She said one day, I would rise... that one day I'd be something greater. I thought it was just fairy tales. Just stories to make a weak boy feel strong."
He swallowed hard, his eyes glassy.
"But now... now it feels real. Maybe she wasn't telling stories. Maybe she saw the future. She was brilliant, Luis. A gem. She must have known."
Luis's lips pressed tight, his old eyes softening. For a moment, the scientist looked less like a man of logic, and more like a grieving soul remembering the woman he had lost.
But then his gaze dropped to Jack's shoulder. The bandages stained faintly with blood.
"That wound..." Luis said slowly. "That was a bullet, wasn't it?"
Jack nodded faintly. "Yes. From the men who attacked us. They were after the box."
Luis froze. "The box?" His voice sharpened. "What was in it?"
Jack's face tightened. His voice dropped to a whisper.
"It wasn't green like the ring. It was red. A red glow, pulsing... alive. Just like this one."
The room fell into a heavy silence.
Luis staggered a step back, shock washing over his face. His hands gripped the edge of the table.
"...What?" His voice cracked. "Are you saying... there's another?"
Jack nodded. "I saw it with my own eyes. In that van. Before it crashed. It wasn't Zytheron... it was something else."
Luis turned sharply, opening the old wooden box again, digging through faded files and dusty journals with frantic hands. Finally, he pulled out a yellowed paper, its edges brittle. At the top was a name: Dr. Simon Frankil.
Luis's voice trembled as he read aloud.
"Simon... he was one of us. One of the eleven who worked on Zytheron. He was brilliant but... always doubted. His theories were dismissed."
He handed the article to Jack. Scribbled diagrams showed crystals — green, red, blue, and gold. Lines connected them in strange patterns.
Luis's voice lowered. "He wrote of four Zytherons. Four colors. Four cores of unimaginable energy. He believed they were fragments of something greater, scattered across Earth long ago. He said... when united, they would serve a purpose. But no one listened. There was no proof. His research was buried. He left the project in disgrace."
Jack's fingers shook as he touched the paper. "But it's true. I saw it. The red one. It's real."
Luis's chest rose and fell, his breathing heavy. He looked at Jack with wide, unsettled eyes.
"Then this changes everything. If there are more Zytherons... if the red exists, then so do the others. Green, red, blue, gold... if they are ever brought together, their power could reshape the world. Or end it."
Jack's throat tightened. The thought of the glowing red crystal burned in his mind.
Luis stepped closer, gripping his shoulders gently. "And maybe... maybe that is why you are here. Why Martha gave you the ring. Why the currents spared you from death."
Jack frowned. "The currents?"
Luis nodded. "You were found tangled in a net by fishermen. They said the tides this season are unusually strong. They believe the sea itself pushed you toward them. Fate, Jack. Something wants you alive."
Jack's lips quivered. His eyes dropped to the bandage on his shoulder. His voice was faint.
"So what now?"
Luis exhaled deeply, his voice firm again, the scientist overtaking the grieving man.
"Now... I need to study your DNA. Your grandmother's exposure to the failed serum left its mark on you. That's why your body is frail. That's why you've suffered all your life. If I can understand it, I can make the perfected serum work. I can make you strong."
He looked back at the article, his voice grim.
"And after that... we find the other Zytherons. Because something tells me they are already moving. And Jack..."
Luis's old eyes locked onto Jack's, his voice heavy, almost shaking.
"...when they awaken, the world will never be the same."
He looked down at the faded article again, where Dr. Simon Frankil had scrawled two chilling words at the bottom, words that had once been laughed at and forgotten.
"The Heat Death."
Beneath Luis's quiet countryside home, hidden far from the eyes of the world, lay a private laboratory unlike anything Jack had ever imagined. White steel walls hummed with energy, monitors glowed with endless streams of data, and glass chambers lined the room, filled with tools that seemed more suited for a government facility than one man's basement.
Here, for the past twenty-one days, Luis had studied Jack's blood, his cells, his DNA.
Jack lay on a padded bed, staring at the ceiling as wires and scanners hummed above him. Luis leaned over the monitor, his face heavy with guilt.
The results were clear: Jack's DNA had been mutated since birth. A flaw that made him frail, weak, almost brittle. And Luis knew why. It was his serum. His mistake, passed from Martha into Jack.
His wrinkled hands trembled slightly as he removed his glasses, staring at the boy who reminded him so much of her.
"I did this to you," he said softly under his breath. A sadness filled his chest, one he buried quickly behind the stern face of a scientist.
Finally, on the twenty-first day, everything was ready.
Jack stood inside a towering vertical machine, his arms and legs clamped in steel braces, his chest bound by thick straps. His heart raced as cold metal injectors aligned along his spine and neck.
Luis's voice came through the intercom, steady but laced with worry.
"Jack... this will be painful. More painful than anything you've ever felt. But if it works... it will change everything. Are you ready?"
Jack's throat was dry, but he nodded once. His voice was faint, but firm.
"I'm ready."
With a deep breath, Luis pressed the switch.
The machine roared to life. Needles plunged into Jack's neck and vertebral column, injecting the perfected serum directly into his bloodstream.
Jack's scream tore through the chamber. His body convulsed violently as the serum coursed through his veins, rewriting his DNA, forcing his cells to evolve. Muscles swelled, bones cracked and reshaped, his frame stretching taller. Sweat poured from him as his skin glistened under the harsh lights.
Luis's hands shook on the controls, torn between fear and awe.
It's working... it's actually working.
Inside the chamber, Jack's thin arms grew thick with muscle, his chest broadening, veins surging with new strength. His once-frail body was now powerful, sculpted, almost unreal — an 18-year-old transformed into the body of a warrior.
Then, silence.
Jack's head dropped forward. His body went limp. The machines hissed to a stop.
Luis's heart froze. He slammed the emergency release and rushed forward. With all his strength, he pulled the heavy clamps open, the smell of metal and sweat filling the air. Jack collapsed onto the floor, his new weight nearly impossible for Luis to lift.
"Jack! Jack, breathe!" Luis shouted, his hands fumbling to check his pulse. Relief washed over him when he felt the strong, steady beat of a heart that had never been this powerful before.
He splashed water across Jack's face. For a moment, nothing. Then Jack's eyes flickered open.
Jack gasped sharply, sucking in air like he had just been reborn. He sat up slowly, his chest heaving. His eyes darted to his reflection in the large mirror across the lab.
The boy was gone.
In his place stood a man. A broad-shouldered, muscular figure, towering with power, his frame glistening with strength. His body looked like it had been carved from stone, but his face still carried the youth of the boy inside. An 18-year-old... trapped in the body of a 30-year-old warrior.
Jack stepped closer to the mirror, touching his reflection with shaking fingers. His voice was soft, almost reverent.
"...It's me. But... not me."
Luis's throat tightened. His voice shook with pride.
"You're alive. Strong. Perfected. Jack... you're ready."
Jack turned, his expression no longer weak, no longer afraid. His shoulders straightened, his jaw tightened. He looked like someone carrying the weight of responsibility for the first time.
He glanced at Luis, his eyes burning.
"Thank you. For everything."
Luis managed a small smile, hiding the tears that threatened to form.
In a hidden steel case, six glowing vials rested, each filled with the perfected serum. Luis locked them away carefully. Only he knew where.
The world above continued as if nothing had changed. But deep beneath the ground, a hero had been born.
And nobody knew.
The room was dim, lit only by a single hanging bulb that swayed gently above. The walls were bare concrete, the silence broken only by the sound of iron clanging.
Jack stood in the middle, shirtless, his body now carved with muscle. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, dripping onto the floor as he strained under the weight of a massive steel barbell.
The plates stacked on each side weren't ordinary. Together they weighed nearly 800 kilograms — the kind of weight that would crush ten men. But Jack's arms held firm, shaking only slightly as he pressed the bar upward with a guttural growl. His veins bulged, his jaw clenched, his chest expanded like iron itself.
With a deep breath, he lowered it again, his feet pressing against the reinforced platform, and then pushed back up with raw, unbelievable power. The bar clanged down as he dropped it, the floor shaking beneath him.
Jack bent forward, panting, his hands resting on his knees.
"I could never do this before..." he said softly to himself, eyes wide, almost afraid of his own strength.
The door creaked open. Luis stepped inside, his aged face bathed in the weak yellow light. He watched Jack in silence for a moment, pride and fear battling in his eyes.
After two weeks of training finally he is ready for his mission.
"You're ready," Luis said finally, his voice low. "Ready for your mission."
Jack straightened, wiping sweat from his brow.
"What mission?"
Luis stepped closer, his expression tightening.
"The red Zytheron. Your friend Ryan may have it... but it's not safe in his hands. As long as he has it, danger will follow."
Jack's fists clenched. His eyes darkened.
"He's not safe. None of us are safe if that thing stays with him."
Luis's face grew grim.
"True. But before you can face that... you need the green Zytheron. The one stolen long ago by Zlatan."
At the mention of the name, Jack tilted his head, confused. Luis's jaw hardened.
"Zlatan stole it decades ago. He's hidden it ever since. If we're going to stop what's coming, you must find him. And you won't do it alone."
The scene shifted.
Jack now sat in the hall of Luis's home, a space filled with books, artifacts, and a faint smell of dust and old paper. Across from him sat a man hunched over a glowing laptop, his fingers moving across the keys like lightning. His face was sharp, his eyes focused, his messy hair falling into his glasses.
Luis placed a hand on Jack's shoulder.
"This is Patric. One of the brightest minds from my research center. You can trust him."
Patric didn't look up at first. His screen reflected in his glasses as his fingers flew, windows and documents flashing by. Finally, he leaned back, eyes narrowing at Jack.
"So... you're the one with the ring."
Jack's brow furrowed, but he nodded.
Patric smirked faintly. "Then we'd better move fast."
Hours passed as Patric dug into layers of hidden data, encrypted files, and dark web records. Finally, he leaned forward, his voice serious.
"I've traced Zlatan's trail. He's not just a man — It's a group of people, a powerful front hiding his operations. His family still runs everything from Serbia. But..." Patric's eyes flicked to Jack. "There's no direct mention of the Zytheron. It's like he erased it from history."
Patric closed the laptop with a soft click and slid a small card across the table. Coordinates glowed faintly on it.
"This is the closest lead we have. It's not much... but it's a start. From here, it's up to you."
Jack picked up the card, his fingers gripping it tightly. He stood, towering with his new strength, his shadow stretching across the hall.
Patric leaned back, watching him carefully. "Be careful. If Zlatan really has the Zytheron... you're walking into something far bigger than you realize."
Jack glanced at Luis one last time. The old scientist nodded, silent but resolute.
With nothing more, Jack turned toward the door. His footsteps were heavy, echoing through the house as he stepped into the night.
The journey had begun.