Chapter 165: The Egg That Shouldn’t Exist

Kane’s breath caught as he peered into the incubator beside Cyrus, his nine tails bristling with instinctive recognition.

Suspended in pale green fluid, an obsidian-scaled dragon egg floated motionless.

Slightly larger than an ostrich egg, its surface was dull and lifeless, webbed with monitoring equipment and enchanted tubing that pulsed with faint energy.

"Another artificial dragon?" Kane whispered, his enhanced senses recoiling from the wrongness of it.

"Like the water construct and that abomination upstairs?"

But Cyrus’s expression wasn’t one of disgust—it was something far more complex.

"No," Cyrus breathed, his voice barely audible above the facility’s groaning infrastructure.

His hands pressed against the incubator’s glass, crimson energy flickering around his fingertips as he reached out with senses Kane couldn’t comprehend.

"This is a real dragon egg."

Kane’s golden eyes widened as the implications hit him. "From the Spirit Realm? Before the Night of Falling Stars?"

Cyrus nodded slowly, his reflection ghosting across the curved glass. "Preserved in stasis for centuries. Likely abandoned when the realm collapsed."

The monitoring equipment showed flat lines—no heartbeat, no neural activity, no signs of life.

Temperature readings indicated the egg had been subjected to various incubation attempts, but they were all unsuccessful.

"Elias has been trying to hatch it," Kane realized, his investigator’s mind piecing together the horror. "Using synthetic compounds, stolen essence, artificial stimulation."

Cyrus’s jaw clenched. "Dragon eggs don’t respond to forced methods. They require something he could never provide."

"What?"

"A connection to living dragonkind." Cyrus’s voice carried centuries of loneliness. "Without that, it will remain dormant forever."

Kane studied the readings, his enhanced senses detecting the faintest whisper of draconic essence locked within the obsidian shell. Dormant but not dead—waiting for something that might never come.

"Could you...?"

"Awaken it?" Cyrus’s reflection wavered in the glass. "I don’t know."

Kane didn’t hesitate. His hands moved to the incubator’s release mechanism, silver energy crackling around his fingers as he bypassed the security locks.

"Kane, don’t—"

But Kane was already lifting the obsidian egg from its fluid chamber, cradling it against his chest. The shell felt surprisingly warm, almost alive despite the flat readings.

"Dead or alive, this doesn’t belong in Elias’s hands," Kane said firmly, his nine tails curling protectively around the precious cargo.

Cyrus stepped closer, his expression unreadable. "Put it back."

"What?" Kane stared at him in disbelief. "Cyrus, this could be the last—"

"That’s precisely why it needs to be destroyed." Cyrus’s voice carried a weight that made Kane’s heart sink.

"Do you understand what would happen if someone successfully hatched a dragon in this world? What kind of existence would that be?"

The facility groaned again, and Kane clutched the egg tighter. "You can’t be serious."

"Some mercies are worth more than hope." Crimson energy flickered around Cyrus’s hands.

Crimson fire erupted from Cyrus’s palms, arcing toward the dragon egg with lethal intent.

Silver flames blazed from Kane’s nine tails, forming a protective barrier that absorbed the attack.

The impact echoed throughout the chamber, shattering glass containers and setting off proximity alarms.

"Kane—"

"No!" Kane clutched the egg tighter, his enhanced senses screaming warnings as structural supports groaned overhead.

"You said I was equal to you now, Cyrus. Then trust my choice. We talk about this later."

He pocketed the vial of Singing Shard essence and backed toward the exit, his tails maintaining their defensive weave.

The facility’s collapse was accelerating—chunks of concrete crashed around them as support beams buckled.

Cyrus’s eyes blazed crimson, but he didn’t attack again. "You don’t understand what you’re risking."

"I understand what I’m saving." Kane’s voice carried newfound authority, his nine tailed power thrumming through every word.

Cyrus’s crimson energy flickered and died, his shoulders sagging with resignation.

"Fine." The word came out like gravel. "But when this goes catastrophically wrong, don’t say I didn’t warn you."

Kane’s relief was palpable, his silver flames dimming to a protective shimmer around the obsidian egg.

"I have the Singing Shard essence," Kane continued, patting the vial secured in his jacket pocket. "We find Ginsei and Mochi, then we get out of here."

Cyrus nodded grimly as his dragon senses detected that the facility’s structural integrity was failing by the second.

Kane cradled the egg against his chest, his nine tails moving in defensive patterns as they navigated the collapsing corridors.

Emergency lighting strobed red, casting eerie shadows that danced with their movements.

Kane and Cyrus found Ginsei and Mochi in the containment levels, surrounded by chaos.

Freed spirits surged through the place, some stumbling with exhaustion, others striking back at their captors with desperate fury.

"We got them all," Mochi shouted over the din, his fur singed and clothing torn. "Every last cage."

Ginsei herded a group of trembling spirits toward the exit.

"BSA’s en route. Commander Qi wasn’t pleased about my unauthorized field report."

A thunderous crack split the air as a support beam crashed where they’d been standing moments before. The facility’s death throes were accelerating.

"Move!" Cyrus bellowed, his dragon aura flaring to shield the weaker spirits from falling debris.

A salamander spirit stumbled, and Kane caught it with one of its tails, half-carrying it toward the emergency exit.

They climbed through the hospital’s skeletal remains, a procession of broken spirits and their unlikely saviors.

Some spirits took flight the moment they reached open air, disappearing into Feilun’s night sky. Others collapsed on the grass, overwhelmed by their first taste of freedom in months.

Sirens wailed in the distance—BSA response teams racing toward the coordinates Ginsei had provided.

Mochi transformed into his cat form, too exhausted to maintain his human shape. Ginsei supported him while scanning the horizon for threats.

Kane turned back toward the ruins, smoke billowing from underground levels as St. Mariel’s finally claimed its victim.

Headlights cut through the darkness as BSA vehicles approached, but Kane’s golden eyes remained fixed on the smoking remains.

Cyrus’s hand settled on Kane’s shoulder, his touch warm and steady despite the chaos around them.

All he could think about was that Kane was here, safe, and alive. The obsidian egg could wait. Everything else could wait.

Kane leaned toward the touch. The obsidian egg pulsed once against his chest—so faint he might have imagined it.