[El'Vertigo Keep — Deep Tower Chamber, Level 9]
The chamber was sealed with pulse gates and drenched in magnetic dampeners—no signal, no surveillance, just stone, steel, and secrecy.
Kavo El'Vertigo stood at the observation table, eyes locked on a frozen corpse hauled in hours ago. Its chest was black with ice, the face twisted mid-scream. Not even the internal organs had thawed. Cryo-kill. Instantaneous. Precision Viora.
Across from him stood Doctor Juniper, head researcher of the El'Vertigo family and one of the last remaining Viora theorists from the old Velmora high council.
Juniper's face was pale. Not from fear—he was far past that—but from something worse: recognition.
"It's him," Juniper muttered. "Gods help us... it's really him."
Kavo didn't blink. "Confirm it."
The doctor stepped forward, tapping his holo-slate. The scan hovered midair—genetic markers, Viora signature overlays, criminal records. One name surfaced across the top in red:
"AUREX VELLAN — Former Executor of Velmora, Rank VII Viora User."Status: Escaped Asset — Classified Threat Omega.
Juniper nodded grimly. "He was ours once. Trained under the Council's command before the Krugers came. When the conquest began, he refused conscription. Said the Empire's Viora was impure. Said he could 'hear it screaming.'"
Kavo narrowed his eyes. "So they tortured him."
Juniper sighed. "Not just torture. They used him to test inversion rituals—the same techniques developed from Project Thaumacryon's early blood-coding trials. Eventually... his mind fractured."
He paused.
"He began hearing voices. Whispering about cold. About silencing heat. About balance."
Kavo's gaze darkened. "He escaped the Velmora asylum five years ago."
Juniper nodded. "And we thought he was dead. Until last month, when the science outpost at Caraso Mountain went dark. Surveillance showed a single figure entering the cryo-vaults. He didn't take weapons. He took files."
Kavo turned toward the viewport, watching the distant spires of Velmora's lower districts flicker under the emergency frost barriers.
"And those files," he said, "must've led him here. To the Keep. To Project Thaumacryon."
Juniper's voice dropped to a whisper.
"He's not a man anymore. Whatever he heard... it wasn't madness. Not entirely. He's aligned with something ancient. Something old enough to freeze the blood of gods."
A long silence.
Finally, Kavo's fingers tightened into a fist, faint silver light crackling over his knuckles—Viora preparing for war.
"Prepare the Vaultguard. No more containment. If Aurex is here..."
He looked over his shoulder.
"Then Velmora is already dying."