Chapter 24: Thank You Old Father

Time seems to freeze inside the sterile laboratory of Palais de La Croix. The red digital numbers on Arthur Rington’s live broadcast screen drop coldly: 00:00:04.

Alexander Rington stands rigid. In his left hand, the cryo-stasis tube shudders faintly, emitting a golden glow. In his left chest, the battle between his pure consciousness and Julian’s personality rages like boiling lava.

Alexander’s silver eyes mixed with a golden glow lock onto Genevieve—the woman who served as his soul protector and life partner for seven years, who now stands deathly pale without the crown mask on her face.

"Alex..." Genevieve whispers, her voice delicate like glass shards piercing his chest. "If you kill me, Arthur wins this entire chessboard."

"Two seconds, Alexander," Arthur Rington’s voice flows from the speakers, flawlessly cold. "Choose your flesh and blood, or the woman who falsified your entire life."

00:00:01.

Alexander releases a low growl from his throat. With abnormal speed that slices through the air, Alexander does not direct his strike to tear open Genevieve’s heart. Instead, he slams the cryo-stasis tube onto the marble floor while driving his fingers, cloaked in golden currents, straight into the main transmission panel on the wall!

A burst of golden wave flashes explodes from Alexander’s body! That surge of biometric energy destroys the laboratory’s entire electronic circuit, shattering Arthur’s live broadcast screen and severing the explosive transmitter signal in Geneva instantly!

Darkness engulfs the room for a moment before the red emergency lights turn back on.

Arthur Rington on the Geneva screen is cut off completely.

"Daniel! Secure Genevieve!" Alexander screams, his voice dual, mixed with Julian’s roar that increasingly dominates his vocal cords.

Eleanora, unwilling to lose momentum, lunges forward with a poisoned dagger, aiming it at Alexander’s neck from behind. However, Daniel moves faster. He leaps to shield Alexander, unloading three precise close-range shots that hit Eleanora’s chest!

Eleanora collapses stiffly onto the marble floor, fresh blood flowing and soaking her aristocratic dress. Her eyes widen, staring at the laboratory ceiling before her breath stops completely.

Genevieve sinks to the floor beside her sister’s corpse, her body trembling violently as she realizes that the De La Croix empire they built in the shadows has collapsed in a matter of minutes.

"Why, Alex?" Genevieve breaks into tears, looking at Alexander, who now kneels clutching his head that feels like it is about to split open. "Why did you not kill me?! I am the one who designed all your suffering!"

Alexander looks up, staring at Genevieve with irises that are now completely pitch-black—a sign that Julian’s personality has seized ninety percent of the control over his brain.

"Because," Alexander’s voice comes out in a raspy, deeply alien whisper, "you are still needed to destroy Arthur."

Julian Rington, who now fully controls Alexander’s body, slowly rises to his feet. A mad, toxic smirk etches onto Alexander’s stern face.

"Pleasure to meet you again, Princess Genevieve," Julian says while bowing theatrically with a terrifyingly sarcastic tone.

Daniel steps back twice, pointing his weapon with a trembling hand toward Alexander’s body, which is now controlled by Julian’s consciousness. "Alex, control yourself!"

"Alexander is sleeping, little Daniel," Julian chuckles while twisting his neck until an eerie crackle of bones sounds. "And now it is time for the original owner of this poison to take over the stage."

Julian grabs the silver briefcase containing the black synthetic toxin injector left behind by Eleanora, then roughly grabs Genevieve’s wrist, dragging her up to her feet.

"We have an appointment with my beloved father in Geneva," Julian whispers in Genevieve’s ear while curling a fiendish smile.

Three hours later.

A snowstorm strikes the Alps mountain region at the border of France and Switzerland. A tactical attack helicopter with no navigation markings hovers low through the thick fog, landing on the concrete pad of an old World War II fortress embedded inside a steep rock cliff.

The Obsidian-Rington Covert Facility.

Inside the main laboratory of the fortress, Arthur Rington stands in front of two giant cryo-stasis incubation tubes. Inside the glass tubes filled with transparent blue liquid, Ethan and Stella lie fast asleep. Delicate hoses attach across their bodies, continuously feeding pure blood samples into the central processing tank.

"The final stage of the serum purification process has reached ninety-five percent, Sir Rington," the head military technician reports while handing over a specialized tube containing golden liquid that now radiates a pure crystal glow.

Arthur accepts the tube, staring at the golden glow with a thirst for power that has rotted inside his soul for decades.

"Finally," Arthur whispers raspily. "The pure blood of the perfect lineage that will give me absolute biological immortality."

The giant steel door of the fortress laboratory is suddenly struck by a massive explosion from the outside!

The bronze hinges weighing hundreds of kilograms fly loose, crashing into a bank of control computers until they explode, shower sparks everywhere!

Julian Rington, inside Alexander’s powerful body stained with blood spots and dark blood vessel glows, steps inside, pushing through the billows of nitrogen smoke. Behind him, Genevieve walks with both hands bound in titanium chains, followed by Daniel, who is forced to follow Julian’s movements to protect Ethan and Stella’s safety.

Arthur’s personal guards immediately raise their automatic assault rifles, forming a tight barricade in front of Arthur’s platform.

Arthur does not panic. The old man actually chuckles, his raspy laughter echoing loudly against the granite walls of the fortress.

"Extraordinary," Arthur says while stepping in front of the guard barricade. "My mad son uses the body of my obedient son. The most beautiful combination of specimens ever created by the Rington family laboratory."

"You talk too much, you old carcass," Julian replies mockingly, his black eyes flashing with pure kill lust. "I did not come to listen to your victory speech. I came to take what belongs to me."

"What belongs to you?" Arthur curls a cynical smile. "You are merely the result of an early failed experiment, Julian! You are the poison I should have thrown away in the waters of Monaco! While Alexander—he is the vessel destined to store my consciousness when this old body of mine rots!"

Genevieve flinches in shock from behind her chain bindings. "What did you say, Arthur?!"

Arthur turns his gaze to Genevieve, laughing with utter satisfaction. "You thought you were the one manipulating Alexander for these past seven years, Genevieve? You thought the De La Croix clan controlled this game? No!"

Arthur lifts a platinum quantum consciousness transfer instrument from behind the control desk.

"Since the very first day Alexander was born," Arthur explains with a tone of absolute madness, "his brain structure was designed as a receiver for electronic memory signals! Julian was created to test toxin endurance, you were created to mature his genetic chain, and I am the one who will occupy Alexander’s body to rule this world forever!"

Julian chuckles coldly, taking a step forward without caring about the dozen weapon muzzles locked onto him.

"A truly magnificent plan, Father," Julian says. "But you forgot one tiny detail."

Julian suddenly presses his own chest with his bloody fingers, triggering a surge of biological electrical current that shatters the dark glow on his neck.

Alexander’s face suddenly distorts in excruciating pain. The dark glow on his eyes and blood vessels begins to fight fiercely against the pure golden shimmer from within his brain cells!

Alexander Rington’s original consciousness suddenly bursts out from under the weight of Julian’s personality!

"ARGGGHHH!" Alexander roars loudly, clutching his head while kneeling onto the concrete floor!

Alexander’s irises switch back to pure silver, radiating an unshakeable steel resolve. He looks up at Arthur with burning breath.

"This body is mine, Arthur!" Alexander’s original voice cuts through Julian’s articulation, echoing loudly throughout the entire laboratory!

Like a python shedding its skin, Alexander uses the combined energy of the pure serum and the synthetic toxin to lock Julian’s personality into the darkest corner of his brain, regaining full and absolute control over himself!

Alexander rises to his feet, his tall posture now exuding an aura of combined extraordinary physical strength and deadly tactical intelligence.

Arthur’s eyes widen, taking a step back in pure shock. "How is it possible that you subdued Julian’s consciousness?!"

"Game over, Arthur," Alexander says coldly.

However, right as Alexander is about to pull the trigger, Genevieve suddenly screams hysterically from the direction of the cryo-stasis tanks!

"ALEX! DON’T!"

Alexander freezes his finger while slowly glancing toward the back.

On top of the main control desk beside Ethan and Stella’s tanks, a life support monitor displays a critical signal flashing rapidly and constantly.

Arthur Rington smiles madly at the end of Alexander’s weapon muzzle. The old man raises his thumb, fitted with a biometric heart-rate ring.

"Ethan and Stella’s life support system links directly to my heartbeat, Alexander," Arthur whispers with the deadliest monster smile. "If you kill me now and my heartbeat stops, the freezing liquid inside those tanks will inject pure cyanide toxin into your children’s blood vessels within three seconds!"

Alexander freezes completely. The tactical rifle in his hand trembles slightly.

Arthur steps closer to Alexander, patting his biological son’s shoulder with nauseating politeness, then wrests the rifle from Alexander’s hands without resistance.

"Kneel before your father, Alexander," Arthur orders while aiming the weapon muzzle at Alexander’s head. "Surrender your consciousness voluntarily, or watch both of your children dissolve inside those glass tanks."

Alexander stares toward Ethan and Stella’s tanks, which are beginning to fill with blackish liquid. Silver tears stream down, wetting his bloody cheeks as he slowly drops both knees onto the cold concrete floor.

Genevieve covers her face, weeping uncontrollably in the grip of pure regret that tears her soul apart.

Arthur curls a smile of absolute victory, placing the quantum consciousness transfer helmet onto the head of the resigned, kneeling Alexander.

However, right as the quantum transfer instrument activates and electrical glows begin to burn Alexander’s head, an emergency maritime signal transmitter from the bottom of Lake Geneva suddenly hacks the laboratory’s main screen.

The image on the screen displays a middle-aged man wearing a black tactical wetsuit torn at the chest—a man who was supposed to have died ten years ago in a helicopter explosion incident in the North Sea.

The Real Julian Rington.

Not the artificial personality inside Alexander’s brain, but the physical human of blood and flesh standing aboard a tactical submarine at the bottom of the lake, holding a massive explosive trigger planted beneath the foundation of the Alpine fortress!

The real Julian’s voice echoes through the fortress speakers with the most terrifying, raspy chuckle:

"Good evening, Old Father. Thank you for gathering all the Rington and De La Croix lab rats inside this fortress. I have

activated the tactical nuclear detonator at the base of this fortress."