Jin sat in the high-backed wooden chair. The glowing veins in the bone walls cast a pale, sickly light across the room. He looked at the tall woman standing perfectly still in his medical sanctum.
She wore a heavy, dark grey cloak. A cracked obsidian visor completely hid her face.
Jin accessed his newly inherited memories. He pulled up her raw data file in his mind. He needed to understand the tools at his disposal.
Her name was Nyx. Her official imperial title was the Shadow-Blade.
She was a biological relic from a previous administration. She belonged to Jin's mother, the former Queen of the Apex Empire. Decades ago, before the old Queen died, she forced Nyx to sign a blood-oath. It was not a piece of paper. It was a brutal, genetic smart-contract programmed directly into her DNA. It bound her existence to Jin's life force. If Jin's heart ever stopped beating, the Aether flowing inside Nyx's veins would instantly turn into highly corrosive acid. She would burn from the inside out in a matter of seconds.
She was not his friend. She was an absolute, ironclad asset. Her continued existence legally and biologically required his survival.
Jin analyzed her cultivation level. In the Apex Empire, political influence was cheap. Pure physical power was the only recognized currency. Nyx was a massive concentration of wealth. She was a Divinity Realm expert, currently operating at Level 4.
She utilized a highly restricted genetic path known as the Void-Beast Legacy. She did not breathe fire like the First Prince. She did not grow thick, impenetrable dragon scales. Her body actively absorbed ambient light. She manipulated localized gravity fields. Standing in the dim room, she looked less like a human and more like a human-shaped hole cut out of the universe. She was the ultimate stealth weapon, designed specifically for high-value corporate liquidations.
Her constant presence was the sole reason Jin was still breathing. It was the only reason his older sister, Vanya, had used a slow, untraceable poison instead of a direct military strike. Vanya knew that sending soldiers to execute the seventh prince meant fighting the Shadow-Blade in close quarters. It was a logistical nightmare that would cost Vanya too many valuable resources.
But the slow poison had failed. The isolation buffer was officially over.
Nyx did not bow. She did not ask about his health. She suddenly turned her cracked visor toward the heavy bone doors of the sanctum.
"Hostiles," Nyx stated. Her real voice was cold, mechanical, and perfectly flat.
A fraction of a second later, the heavy bone doors exploded inward.
Thick splinters of white shrapnel ripped through the air. Jin threw his arms over his face. A jagged piece of flying bone grazed his cheek, drawing a thin line of warm blood.
Five men stepped through the ruined doorway.
They were elite imperial assassins. They wore heavy, dark leather tactical armor. Their bodies were heavily mutated by the Gene-Dao. Jagged, serrated mantis blades grew directly out of their forearms, replacing their human hands entirely. Their eyes were solid black, indicating deep, permanent insect DNA splicing. They smelled like rotting meat and sharp ozone. They were Peak Core Formation killers.
They expected to find a rotting corpse in a bio-pod. Instead, they saw Jin sitting in his chair, very much alive.
"The poison failed," the lead assassin hissed. His voice clicked with insectoid mandibles hidden behind his leather mask. "Kill the prince. Ignore the guard."
They charged forward. Their heavy boots cracked loudly against the polished bone floor. They closed the distance rapidly, raising their natural weapons.
Nyx intercepted them.
She moved faster than Jin's mortal eyes could track. She did not draw a sword. She stepped directly into the path of the lead assassin. The man swung his heavy mantis blade in a brutal, horizontal arc aimed directly at her neck.
Nyx ducked smoothly under the lethal bone blade. She drove her right palm upward, striking the exact center of the assassin's armored chest.
She released a concentrated burst of pitch-black Aether.
The kinetic shockwave was devastating. It shattered the man's thick ribcage instantly. The impact threw his massive body backward. He crashed into the stone wall with a wet crunch and slid to the floor, entirely dead before he stopped moving.
The remaining four assassins did not hesitate. They possessed strict military discipline. They surrounded her immediately. They attacked simultaneously from four different angles, swinging their jagged arm-blades to trap her in a cage of deadly bone.
Jin watched the violence with a cold, corporate detachment. His weak body wanted to shut down in panic, but his pragmatic Earth-mind forced his eyes open. He needed to evaluate his primary asset in a live combat scenario.
Nyx was flawlessly efficient. She wasted absolutely zero movement. She sidestepped a lethal thrust from the left. She flicked her right wrist. A thin, completely invisible monomolecular wire whipped out from a hidden compartment in her black glove.
The wire wrapped tightly around the armored throat of the second assassin. Nyx pulled her arm back sharply. The extreme tension sliced straight through his mutated skin and thick spinal column. The man's head slid cleanly off his shoulders. Hot, dark blood fountained high into the air, splashing against the ceiling.
The third man lunged forward. Nyx caught his descending mantis blade with her bare, gloved hand. Her Divinity Realm Aether formed a hard, invisible shell over her skin. The jagged bone blade snapped in half against her palm.
She stepped into his guard and drove her knee deep into the man's stomach. The blunt force ruptured his internal organs. He dropped to the floor, choking on his own blood.
The last two assassins realized they were completely outmatched. They abandoned their mission. They turned around and sprinted toward the ruined doorway to escape into the palace corridors.
Nyx raised her left hand. A dense ball of black Aether formed in her open palm. It actively absorbed the ambient light in the room, creating a dark void. She threw the sphere forward like a heavy stone.
The black energy hit the backs of the fleeing men. It triggered a localized gravity collapse. The sheer pressure flattened the two assassins against the floor instantly. Their thick leather armor crumpled. Their bones shattered under the immense, invisible weight. They were crushed into broken lumps of meat and metal.
The fight lasted exactly twelve seconds.
The medical wing grew quiet again. The heavy, metallic smell of copper blood filled the air.
Nyx stood perfectly still among the five broken bodies. She did not breathe heavily. Her dark grey cloak remained entirely unblemished.
She turned her cracked obsidian visor back toward Jin.
"Your survival is now known," Nyx stated calmly. She delivered the tactical report without any emotion. "The Second Princess will receive the failure notification when these men do not return to their post. She will not use subtlety a second time. She will deploy the imperial guard to purge this entire wing."
Jin lowered his arms. He wiped the small drop of blood from his cheek. He looked at the dead men bleeding on his floor. His temporary isolation buffer was officially gone. The hostile takeover of his life was happening right now.
"The palace is compromised," Jin said. His voice was steady. He refused to let his physical fear affect his vocal cords. "We have no political allies here. We have no financial resources."
"Correct," Nyx replied. She walked toward him, stepping carefully over a severed head. "The capital is a death trap for you. We must evacuate Chimeria immediately. I have a secure transport vessel waiting at a black-market dock in the lower industrial sectors."
Jin stood up from the wooden chair. His weak, Foundation Level 3 legs trembled slightly from the massive adrenaline spike, but he quickly locked his knees. He pulled the heavy dark silk robe tightly around his narrow shoulders.
He was leaving his massive corporation. He was being forced out by a hostile board of directors. He had to start over from absolute zero.
"Lead the way," Jin ordered.
Nyx nodded once. She turned toward the dark, ruined doorway. Jin stepped over the fresh corpses of his sister's assassins and followed his only asset into the dark.