Deep beneath the Ndipaya ruins on the African continent. TriCell's D-04 top-secret laboratory.
The air filtration system droned low, but it couldn't mask the smell. Formaldehyde and the thick, coppery stench of blood.
At the center of the lab stood a cylindrical reinforced-glass culture tank over ten meters in diameter.
Viscous dark-green nutrient fluid churned inside. Suspended at its center was a "creature" that made the skin crawl.
It was a body stripped of every human feature. It had no skin. The exposed muscle fibers writhed like liquid metal.
Countless dark-gold particles shuttled between its bones and tissue, stitching through them, forcibly crystallizing the fragile carbon-based cells.
"Heart rate past six hundred beats per minute. Cellular telomeres are restructuring without limit. Albert, this is unbelievable. Its energy metabolic rate is forty times that of a Tyrant."
At the control console, Excella Gionne wore a fitted deep-purple gown. She held a glass of red wine, staring at the culture tank with something close to obsessive worship.
She turned and walked toward the man standing in the shadows.
Albert Wesker stood perfectly still, his black coat as dark as the night itself.
He wore his signature sunglasses. Even facing what was arguably the greatest miracle in the history of human biology, his expression didn't shift.
"A Tyrant? That mindless killing machine isn't fit to be mentioned alongside Ouroboros in its final form." Wesker's voice was low, magnetic, laced with an arrogance that bordered on the divine. "A Tyrant is a weapon. This is the vanguard I will use to cleanse the old world. I call them 'New Humans.'"
"Of course. Our shared masterpiece." Excella moved to Wesker's side, raising the wine glass to his lips, her gaze lingering.
"To sustain this project, I've drained nearly all of TriCell's liquid capital in Europe. Those old fossils on the board are already getting suspicious."
"The board?" Wesker didn't take the glass. A cold, mocking smile curled the corner of his mouth. "When dark-gold divine judgment rains from the sky, those rats rotting atop their gold coins won't even qualify as fertilizer. Excella, your horizons shouldn't still be stuck on quarterly earnings."
Excella's hand stiffened for a moment. She covered it with a smile. "You're right. As long as I have you, I'll be the queen of the new world."
She walked to the control console and pressed a button.
The lights around the hall dimmed instantly. Six vivid blue holographic projections flickered to life around the circular table.
The projections showed TriCell's top commanders and leaders of its covert bioweapons units across every major theater of operations worldwide.
"Lord Wesker. President Gionne." The figures in the holograms bowed their heads respectfully.
"Status reports. Now." Wesker walked to the head of the table, hands laced together on its surface, every inch the emperor surveying his domain.
"Ready to go. The Ouroboros mutant fungus has successfully integrated with the local ecosystem. On your command, spores can blanket the entire African continent within twenty-four hours."
"The first batch of the New Human legion has completed armored testing, my lord. These things are flawless. We tested them against a fully armed mercenary squadron at our secret Mediterranean base. The New Humans tore them apart in three minutes. Zero damage sustained."
"Good." Wesker gave a slight nod.
"However, my lord, there is one variable we can't ignore." Andre's smile faded. His tone turned heavier than it had ever been. "Star Fire."
The moment the name left his mouth, the temperature in the room seemed to plunge. Even Excella, who never thought twice about her own superiority, furrowed her brow.
"Star Fire's recent movements have been abnormal." Excella pulled up a data panel. "Ryan Cole, that maniac, has monopolized the global suppressant market, and their Shadow Force has been increasingly active in Africa. Several of our perimeter outposts were taken out without a sound."
"He's just a profiteer. Against the absolute power of the New Humans, his so-called weapons are worthless."
"Idiot."
Wesker spat the word. He didn't raise his voice, but every person in the holograms shut up instantly, cold sweat beading on their foreheads.
"If any of you treat Ryan Cole as an ordinary arms dealer, you won't even know how you died." Behind his sunglasses, Wesker's gaze swept across every face in the room. "He is the most deeply hidden, most dangerous player I have ever encountered in my life. The cards he's holding? Even I can't read them."
"Then what do we do?" Andre asked carefully. "Should we concentrate our forces and decapitate Star Fire's headquarters before the plan launches?"
"No. Touching Star Fire now would only disrupt our own tempo." Wesker turned to face the New Human floating in the tank, gleaming dark gold. "This planet is rotten to the core. Governments are lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Not worth mentioning."
A chilling smile crept across Wesker's face.
"All of you. Listen."
"In twenty-four hours, release every New Human. Full-scale assault on South America, southern Europe, and every theater you're responsible for. I want you to complete the world's transformation in the shortest time possible."
"Albert, isn't this too soon?" Excella looked taken aback. "Our ultimate virus is still in its final synthesis phase. Going to all-out war now..."
"I want the chaos." Wesker cut her off, his gaze so deep it seemed to pierce through time itself. "Ryan Cole likes playing savior? Then I'll give him a world full of holes to save. When his Star Fire forces are stretched thin across the globe putting out fires, that's when I complete the final piece of my ascension."
Wesker looked at Andre and Rodriguez. "Your mission is to use your lives, and the New Human legions at your disposal, to pin Star Fire's main forces down in Europe and the Americas."
"As you will, True God." The fanatics in the projections showed no fear. Their eyes burned with manic devotion. To them, this was the supreme honor of participating in creation itself.
The comms cut. The holograms vanished.
Only Wesker and Excella remained in the hall.
"Albert, what about us?" Excella moved behind Wesker, her fingers brushing the shoulder of his coat. "Are we going to sit here on this underground throne and watch the old world burn?"
Wesker turned. He tilted his head down, his long fingers lifting Excella's chin. The gesture looked tender. What was behind it, only he knew.
"Of course, my queen." Wesker's voice was soft. "This place will be the center of the new world. And you will be here to witness evolution in its final form."
Excella basked in that hollow tenderness. She didn't notice the cold flicker behind those sunglasses, the look of a man studying a lab rat.
"Go prepare, Excella. Go welcome the dawn that belongs to us."
He watched the woman leave, radiant with joy. Then he slowly withdrew his hand. He walked to the massive control console and entered a string of garbled code that only he knew.
What appeared on screen wasn't a global theater map. It was a heavy stealth bomber, sci-fi in design, parked deep inside a concealed launch silo.
"You really are cold-blooded, Albert." A voice drifted from the shadows, half-amused.
Two figures stepped out. One pale-faced, one wearing a gas mask. G-001 and HUNK.
"Emotion is useless. She craves being the center of the new world. I simply fulfilled that wish in the most literal sense. A pack of obsolete fools. Keeping them around was only ever about buying time."
Wesker smiled coldly and pulled up the bomber's flight path. The red dotted line cut straight toward Earth's stratosphere.
"Ryan Cole. I hope you enjoy the New Human party I've prepared for you."
Wesker tilted his head back, staring up at the thick rock ceiling above.
He pressed Enter.
A heavy click echoed through the silence.
Somewhere on the African surface, in the corner of a slum, a massive iron door ground open.
A handful of New Humans, their bodies freshly encased in dark-gold crystal, caught the scent of warm flesh on the air. They let out hungry, ragged snarls and charged toward the sunlight.
The curtain of despair had officially risen.
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