#Chapter 194: Bloodlines and Backlash

Simon didn’t mean for me to overhear. I had just stepped past the war chamber threshold, quiet enough that no one turned. Liora was hunched over the long table beside him, her sharp fingers dancing across a digital readout while Simon stared at a blurry scan that pulsed in and out of resolution. He didn’t look up. "It’s confirmed," he said, voice low and tight. "These soldiers aren’t just enhanced. They’re immune." Liora didn’t flinch. "They used hybrid blood." He nodded. "Synthetically altered. They’ve isolated a strain from early hybrid test subjects, first and second generation. Someone’s been building this for decades." "Is it David?" Simon hesitated. "Or his benefactors. But he’s using it now. We found one of the surviving test bodies. It wasn’t just drained. It was disected." My stomach turned, bile stinging the back of my throat. I stepped back before I could hear anything else, fingers curling into my palms until I felt skin break. They were doing it again, using