Mutation: A leap in genetics

"We were never the beginning. Just the beta test."— Fragment recovered from Kael's neural imprint (0.03A-F7)

1. Subterranean Access

The transmission tower crackled as the compound's power grid fluctuated, plunging parts of the facility into strobing light and shadow.

Kael stood alone in the central command deck, staring at the seismic readings displayed across the monitor. A deep tremor—too rhythmic to be tectonic—was pulsing from under the ice.

"Rhea, how deep is that signal originating?"

Rhea's voice trembled over the intercom.

"1.3 kilometers. Sub-glacial chamber. No mapped structure matches."

Kael didn't hesitate.

"Prep the crawler. We're going down."

2. Descent into Forgotten Bones

The crawler's treads groaned against the slick ice as Kael, Rhea, and Ava descended into the borehole carved during the first expedition—back when they thought this region was dormant. Now, everything pointed to it being the epicenter.

As they passed the 700-meter mark, the radio began picking up faint whispers—indecipherable, overlapping languages spliced with machine-like tones.

Rhea clutched her earpiece.

"It's not feedback… it's a chorus."

Ava's eyes rolled back.

"They're waking up. They're remembering what they were."

Kael's grip on the rail tightened.

"We're not alone down here."

3. The Vault

The crawler finally stopped at the edge of a cavern unlike anything in their maps.

A vast chamber, geometrically impossible — walls that bent inward and outward at the same time, lit by a dull, blue glow radiating from crystalline roots in the ice.

And at the center, a vault door.

Ten meters tall. Seamless. Etched with spiral helix symbols matching the children's chalk drawings. In the center, a circular indentation.

Kael instinctively placed his palm against it.

It opened.

No gears. No hydraulics.

The ice just parted, like it had been waiting for him.

4. The First Clash

The moment they entered the vault, the chamber behind them collapsed.

Kael pushed Ava and Rhea forward, drawing his blade from the magnetic sheath. His instincts screamed—something was watching them from the walls.

Then it moved.

A humanoid figure, taller than any man, emerged from the darkness. Its body was semi-transparent, like sculpted muscle wrapped in liquid quartz. No eyes. No mouth.

But it screamed inside their heads.

Rhea dropped to her knees, bleeding from the ears.

Ava stepped forward calmly, palms glowing.

"You were the first," she whispered to the creature.

"But I am the last."

The creature lunged—fast, impossible to track.

Ava didn't move.

The pulse that erupted from her chest shattered the air like a bomb. The creature's crystalline body fractured mid-air, exploding into sharp, twitching shards.

The vault groaned again.

More were coming.

5. Kael Unleashed

From the broken wall emerged three more entities — each uniquely shaped, grotesque parodies of human evolution: one with spindled limbs like an insect; another floating inches above the floor, skin fluid and shifting.

Kael's pulse synced with something ancient.

"No more hiding."

He activated the neural graft embedded beneath his spine — an experimental interface designed to suppress and deploy vestigial combat genetics. His skin pulsed with dark veining, and his eyes shifted colorless — not white, not gray, but absence.

He moved.

What followed wasn't combat — it was eradication.

Kael tore through the vault with inhuman precision, carving through two entities before they could react. The third lunged toward Rhea—

—only to freeze mid-air, mouth opening in silent agony.

Ava stared at it. Its blood boiled under her gaze.

6. Rhea's Revelation

In the heat of battle, Rhea crawled to a terminal half-sunken into the ice. It glowed faintly — still active.

She accessed it with her genetic signature.

To her horror, her name appeared in the list of original designers.

Project: VESPERA.Architect: Rhea Kassan-0A.Status: "Erased."

She wasn't studying the program.

She had created it.

"I didn't forget," she whispered. "I was made to forget."

A secondary file unlocked.

Her memory wipes. Ten of them.

Each one performed by herself.

7. The Children Descend

Back at the compound, the three Seed children stood motionless.

Then—without warning—they began to hum.

The humming turned to synchronized chants.

Outside, snow melted in circular patterns around the facility. The air shimmered like heatwaves. Magnetic fields twisted.

And then—

The children disappeared.

Not ran.

Disappeared.

And moments later, appeared inside the vault.

Floating.

Their eyes were black mirrors now.

The creatures inside the vault stopped moving entirely.

The children raised their hands.

Every living being in the vault dropped to their knees — even Kael.

"The first war is not between us," said the tallest child. "It is between intention… and mutation."

"And your kind chose poorly."

8. The Flood

Suddenly, the floor beneath the vault cracked open.

Liquid genetic matter — glowing, viscous — surged upward like a tidal wave. It wasn't organic. It was memory, alive in material form. Every drop held generations of data, trauma, code, and evolution.

It wrapped around Ava's legs, crawled up her body… and she didn't resist.

She screamed — not in pain, but in acceptance.

Her body lit up with vein-like circuits. Symbols danced across her skin.

Kael tried to move, to stop it—

The liquid lashed out and slammed him into the wall.

Rhea screamed his name—

Then the vault exploded into light.

9. In the Aftermath

Silence.

Then, Kael opened his eyes.

He was alone.

No vault. No children. No Ava. No Rhea.

Just ice.

And a single message pulsing on the ruined crawler's cracked display:

"Phase One Complete.""Worldstream Awakening Initiated."

Kael staggered forward, breath fogging the air.

From behind him, a voice spoke.

Not male. Not female.

Not human.

"You were never meant to survive this."

Kael turned—

And saw himself.

But older. Eyes sunken. Half-machine. Covered in scars Kael didn't yet have.

The figure smiled.

"But you will."

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

To be continued.....