Augment: 2370

Chapter 5

Juno squinted at the lines of glowing tattoos, his fingers hovering over Axel’s skin but never quite touching. His usual smirk had faded, replaced by a deep frown as he scrutinized the intricate patterns that crawled over Axel’s arms. Every so often, the tattoos would pulse, like they were breathing, alive.

“That’s…not right,” Juno muttered, grabbing a handheld scanner from his workbench. He waved it over Axel’s arm, watching as the device flickered in response. The scanner’s screen lit up, displaying streams of complex code, flickering in and out of readability, as though the Kilronomia itself was constantly rewriting its own data.

“What do you mean?” Axel asked, his voice tight. He hated the uncertainty, the feeling that he wasn’t in control of his own body anymore. Every second, he could feel the Kilronomia within him—changing him.

Juno’s lips pressed into a thin line. “This thing inside you... it’s not like anything I’ve ever seen. I’ve dealt with high-grade tech, black market prototypes, things people would kill to get their hands on. But this?” He shook his head. “It’s rewriting itself. Constantly. It’s like the code and the nanite hardware are in an infinite loop of evolution.”

Nyx stepped closer, her arms crossed, her violet eyes focused on Juno. “Can you stop it? Or control it?”

Juno snorted, setting the scanner down. “Stop it? I can’t even begin to understand it. The moment I think I’m getting a handle on it, it shifts. It’s like trying to catch smoke. The Kilronomia isn’t just tech—it’s alive, in a way. It’s adapting to Axel, integrating itself with him on a fundamental level. And it’s already protected itself from any kind of external interference.”

Axel felt a chill creep down his spine. “You mean…you can’t do anything?”

Juno sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I can monitor it. I can try to figure out what it’s doing to you, but no, I can’t change it. The Kilronomia has made sure of that. Whatever it’s doing to you, it’s in control now.”

Axel stared at his arms, the faint white glow of the tattoos seeming to mock him. He had felt the changes—his heightened reflexes, the surge of stamina that had carried him through the chase—but now the weight of it all hit him. This thing inside him was far more advanced than he’d thought. And it was only just beginning.

Nyx shifted, her eyes narrowing at Axel. “So, what’s the plan now? We can’t sit around waiting for it to do whatever it’s going to do.”

Axel clenched his fists, feeling the subtle pulse of energy beneath his skin. He hated feeling powerless. “I need to get ahead of this,” he said, his voice hardening. “I can’t just let it run its course without knowing what’s going to happen. We need answers.”

Juno nodded. “You’re right. But that’s easier said than done. If the Kilronomia is forbidden tech, there’s probably not a lot of places you can go to learn about it. Most of that information is locked up tighter than a corporate vault.”

“Neo Cividus,” Nyx said, her voice cold. “They’re the ones who control it. If anyone knows about the Kilronomia, it’s them.”

Axel felt a wave of anger flare up inside him. Neo Cividus. The corporation that practically ran the world. They had their hands in everything, from tech to politics, controlling the flow of information and resources. If they were behind the Kilronomia, then Axel had just painted a massive target on his back.

“They’ll be hunting me,” Axel muttered. “If they find out I’ve got this, they won’t stop until they have it.”

Nyx nodded, her expression unreadable. “That’s why we need to stay ahead of them. You’re valuable now, Axel, more than you realize. But that also means you’re in more danger than ever. Neo Cividus doesn’t play games.”