Chapter 205: Blood And Blueprints

Cyrus stepped out of the elevator, leading Kane toward his private office. The corridor was empty, most employees having left for lunch.

"The parchment contains details of the forging process," Cyrus admitted quietly. "A recipe, as you put it."

Kane’s amber eyes widened behind his glasses. "And?"

"Dragon blood is listed among the ingredients."

Kane’s grip tightened on the dragon egg case, his mind racing back to his earlier theory. "So I wasn’t far off."

"No," Cyrus said, his voice carefully neutral. "You weren’t."

They entered the office, and Cyrus closed the door behind them, activating privacy wards with a gesture. Crimson light shimmered across the windows, muffling all sound.

"How much dragon blood?" Kane asked, setting the egg case down carefully.

Cyrus’s jaw tightened. "The parchment doesn’t specify quantities. Only that ’the essence of all five clans must mingle with divine tears.’"

"All five clans." Kane’s tails threatened to emerge beneath his glamour. "That’s not a small donation. That’s—"

"Systematic collection," Cyrus finished, his crimson eyes distant.

"The Liberation Front didn’t just want to steal the Hearts. They needed dragon essence to bind them back together."

Kane’s breath caught. "That’s why they attacked your clans."

"Not attacked." Cyrus’s voice dropped to something cold and ancient. "Harvested."

The temperature in the office plummeted.

"The battles weren’t about territory or power," Cyrus continued. "They were about bleeding us dry. Literally."

Kane stared at him, pieces falling into horrifying place.

"So when the Dragon King shattered the Beating Heart—"

"He ensured no one could ever gather enough dragon essence again." Cyrus’s expression hardened. "Because by then, there weren’t enough of us left."

Kane’s tails drooped slightly as understanding settled over him like a heavy blanket.

"And yet, the black dragons got blamed for trying to save everyone," he said quietly. "History painted your family as the villains when you were actually heroes."

Cyrus’s expression remained carefully neutral, but something flickered in his crimson eyes—old pain, barely suppressed.

"Ancient history," he said dismissively. "The truth died with those who witnessed it."

"Not all of them." Kane’s hand found Cyrus’s, squeezing gently. "You’re still here."

For a moment, Cyrus allowed himself to lean into the touch. Then his business mask slid back into place.

"The point is," he continued, redirecting the conversation, "the Hearts no longer exist. Only fragments remain, scattered across dimensions. Unstable. Corrupted."

Kane’s analytical mind seized on the discrepancy. "Then why would Elias still want to reforge the Eternal God Crystal? You just said it’s impossible without the intact Hearts."

"I said the Hearts don’t exist anymore."

"So collecting fragments would be..."

"Pointless," Cyrus finished. "Unless he believes he can synthesize the missing components."

Kane’s amber eyes widened behind his glasses. "The augmentations. The chimera experiments. He’s not just creating super-spirits—he’s trying to recreate divine essence artificially."

Cyrus’s silence was confirmation enough.

"That’s insane," Kane breathed. "The amount of power required, the complexity—"

"Elias has never lacked ambition," Cyrus said darkly. "Or arrogance."

Kane’s phone buzzed against his thigh, interrupting their speculation about Elias’s impossible ambitions.

He pulled it out, expecting another message from Ginsei complaining about paperwork.

Instead, Rina’s name flashed across the screen.

Got it. IT cracked the encrypted file. You need to see this ASAP.

Kane’s heart kicked into overdrive.

"Rina decoded the locked files I retrieved from the lab," he said, showing Cyrus the message.

Cyrus read the text over Kane’s shoulder, his expression darkening.

"Coincidentally right on time," Kane murmured, already typing back a response. "We were just speculating about what Elias wants. Now we might actually find out."

His fingers flew across the screen:

On my way. Don’t show anyone else yet.

Cyrus was already moving toward the door, his movements controlled despite the urgency radiating from him.

"We take my car," he said, not a suggestion.

Kane grabbed the dragon egg case, cradling it against his chest as he followed Cyrus into the corridor.

Whatever Rina had found in those files, whatever "Project Genesis" actually meant—

Kane had a sinking feeling they were about to discover exactly how deep Elias’s madness went.

The Lamborghini tore through Feilun’s afternoon traffic with predatory precision.

Cyrus’s hands gripped the wheel with controlled tension, crimson eyes focused on the road ahead.

Kane clutched the dragon egg case against his chest, his mind racing through possibilities. What could Elias’s endgame actually be? What did "Project Genesis" mean?

They arrived at BSA headquarters in record time. Cyrus pulled into the visitor parking lot, the engine’s purr dying to silence.

Kane reached for the door handle, but Cyrus’s hand shot out, catching his wrist.

"I should—" Cyrus began, his jaw tight.

Kane waited, watching the internal war play across Cyrus’s features. The dragon wanted to follow, protect, and hover.

But that wasn’t what Kane needed right now.

"I’ll be here," Cyrus said finally, releasing Kane’s wrist. His crimson eyes softened fractionally. "With the egg."

"I’ll text you if anything major comes up," Kane promised. "And I’ll be quick."

Cyrus’s expression suggested he doubted that, but he nodded.

Kane hesitated, then leaned across the console to press a quick kiss to Cyrus’s cheek—a small gesture, but one that made Cyrus’s eyes widen slightly.

He grabbed his jacket and slipped out of the car, leaving the dragon egg case safely in Cyrus’s care.

As he walked toward the BSA entrance, he felt Cyrus’s gaze tracking every step.

Kane bypassed the lobby entirely, taking the service elevator directly to the forensics wing.

His badge beeped against the scanner, and the doors slid open to reveal the sterile white corridor.

Rina looked up from her workstation as he entered, surprise flickering across her features.

"That was fast," she said, glancing at her phone’s timestamp. "I texted you like ten minutes ago."

"I was already at Veyr Corp." Kane pulled off his jacket, draping it over a nearby chair. "Cyrus drove me straight here."

Rina’s eyebrows climbed toward her hairline. "He just... dropped everything?"

"Well, he’s waiting in the parking lot." Kane moved closer to her monitor, where encrypted file icons glowed against the dark background.

"So, what did you find?"

Rina’s expression shifted from surprised to grim. She gestured to the chair beside her.

"Sit down first," she said quietly. "This is... a lot."

Kane’s stomach tightened, but he sat.

Rina’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, hesitating for just a moment before clicking open the first file.

The screen filled with schematics, diagrams, and a single heading that made Kane’s blood run cold:

RESURRECTION PROTOCOL: ETERNAL GOD CRYSTAL RECONSTRUCTION