Chapter 179: Age of Destruction

As the fight’s last sounds faded away, the facility’s alarms blared. The dust of the defeated Gemini covered the floor, leaving dirty smudges across Dr Thorne’s laboratory.

Jonah and Vanessa stood by each other, breathing hard, their bodies tired but their spirits unbroken. They had faced Dr Thorne’s ultimate weapon and they had broken it with the one thing it possibly could not understand: the bond between them.

They turned their attention to the last man in the room.

Dr. Aris Thorne stood calmly behind his glowing, transparent energy shield. He slowly lowered his datapad, and he looked at them with a curious expression.

“I must say, that was interesting to see,” Thorne said, his voice loud and clear over the blaring alarms. “An emotional variable. So inefficient. But…” He put one of his finger against his chin. “I must admit, it was surprisingly effective.”

Jonah took a step forward, his hands made into tight fists. A clean, cold anger burned away his exhaustion. “It’s over, Thorne. Your weapons are broken. Your experiment is a failure.”

“Failure?” Thorne let out a short chuckle. “My dear boy, you completely misunderstand the point of this exercise.”

He did a gesture towards the collapsing room and at the flashing red lights. “This facility, this battle between us… it was just a trial. And the goal of a trial is not to win. It is to gather data.”

Thorne held up his datapad. The screen glowed with graphs and endless scrolls of information. It was a recording of their entire fight, every energy signature, every movement and every Progeny Jonah had summoned.

“And you have just given me everything I could ever possibly need. The exact frequency of your emotional link with your partner, the true power output of a symbiotic bond, the tactical use of a non-combat Progeny…”

He smiled. “It’s all right here.”

Vanessa’s face went pale. “What… what are you talking about?”

“I am talking about the future, my dear,” Thorne said. “True progress.”

Another big BOOM from deep within the fortress shook the floor violently. A huge crack spread across the ceiling above them. The room was falling apart.

“The reactor meltdown,” Thorne noted calmly, as if observing the weather. “A necessary precaution to clear all the evidence of my early, clumsy work.”

He looked at Jonah, his smile turning into a cold, serious expression. It was the look of a creator who had discovered the secret he needed.

“Your methods are very special, Jonah. They are a true art form, I must say. It is a lovely, unique, and beautiful thing.”

He shook his head slowly, a look of fake pity on his face. “But it is not good enough. The future of this world does not belong to the individual artist. It belongs to the factory.”

He took a single step back. He stepped onto a circular, metal part on the floor that Jonah hadn’t noticed before And Jonah hadn’t noticed before. It started to glow with a blue light.

“You gave me the perfect blueprint,” Thorne continued, his voice growing louder. “I now have all the data I need to automate the process. To remove the flawed, human element from creation. I can now build a factory that will do what you do, but a thousand times faster.”

His final words shook Jonah to his core.

“The era of the individual creator is over,” Thorne declared, his voice filled with the passion of a true believer. “The age of mass production has begun.”

The blue light around his feet became stronger. It was a teleportation platform. An escape route he had planned from the beginning.

“No!” Jonah yelled, taking a step to charge forward.

But it was too late. Thorne was already beginning to fade, his body becoming a flashing image.

“I look forward to seeing how your beautiful art holds up against a real army,” he said, his voice echoing in the room as his body vanished completely.

And then he was gone.

Jonah stood still, Thorne’s final words echoing in his ears. The age of mass production has begun. He didn’t just lose the mastermind. He handed him the key to victory.

CRACK-KROOOOM!

A huge part of the ceiling broke and fell to the floor, right on the spot where Thorne had been standing just a moment before. The powerful impact broke the floor, revealing a Big, dark hole.

The whole Chamber was falling apart.

The loud, screaming alarms, the flashing, red emergency lights, the shaking, breaking ground… it was no longer just a warning. It was a final countdown. The whole mountain was about to come down on top of them.

“Jonah!” Vanessa screamed, grabbing his arm and pulling him back from the breaking edge of the floor. “Jonah, we need to leave! Now!”

Her voice snapped him out of his horrified trance. He looked at her, then at the destruction all around them. The doorway they had come through was already blocked by a pile of fallen wreckage.

He looked around wildly, his mind consumed by panic and the bitter taste of failure.

Another part of the floor opened with a loud crash, disappearing into the darkness. The air was filled with dust, making it hard for them to breathe.

Jonah looked at Vanessa. Her face was covered with dirt, and the look in her eyes showed fear. she was looked back at him, holding his arms tight. She was waiting for him lead the way out of this horrible place.

That was all he needed. The fire that burned his heart, the anger that had been drowned out by Thorne’s revelation, came back to life. He would not die here. He would not let her die here.

He held her hand tightly. “You’re right. Let’s get out of here.”

They turned away from the spot where the villain had vanished, their boots slipping on the breaking floor as the Chamber, the middle of Thorne’s evil dream, collapsed into fire and ruin all around them.

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