"Did you think my blood was cheap enough to buy with a briefcase of credits, Giska?" Zeldin’s metallic voice boomed across the shattered penthouse, slicing through the heavy smell of ozone and gunpowder.
The primary blast doors of the luxury suite hung loosely from their hinges, twisted by the force of the explosive entry. Smoke poured into the room, obscuring the glittering skyline of Neo-Soma, but it could not hide the towering figure standing in the center of the debris. Zeldin held Rea tightly against his cybernetic torso with his left arm. His grip was unyielding, crushing the expensive white silk of her wedding gown against his cold chrome framework. In his right hand, the heavy plasma hand-cannon whined with a lethal, high-frequency charge, its blue light illuminating the ruined reception hall.
Rea pressed her face against Zeldin's chest, her breath coming in ragged, terrified gasps. The diamond-encrusted cybernetic choker around her neck pulsed with a frantic blue light, mirroring her racing heartbeat. She could feel the mechanical vibrations deep inside Zeldin's frame as his internal micro-servos adjusted to the threat. He did not flinch when a stray kinetic bullet grazed his shoulder, tearing the fabric of his tailored tuxedo to reveal the obsidian-metal plating underneath.
"Flank him from the left! The asset must remain intact!" the lead hitman screamed, his voice distorted by a heavy ballistic respirator mask.
Three men dressed in Giska’s old corporate security armor advanced through the haze, their tactical rifles raised. Red laser sights danced across Zeldin's chest, searching for a vulnerable biological seam. They did not understand the nature of the entity they were trying to kill. They still thought they were dealing with a man who could feel pain.
Zeldin’s crimson optical sensor flared with a blinding brilliance. In a fraction of a millisecond, his sub-dermal neural processors calculated the trajectories of every incoming projectile. His movement was not human; it was a blur of hyper-accelerated cybernetic speed that defied the physical limitations of flesh.
He lunged forward without releasing his hold on Rea. The sudden momentum threw her back, her bridal veil ripping away as Zeldin stepped directly into the line of fire. The air tore open with the sound of a plasma discharge. A blinding bolt of superheated blue energy erupted from Zeldin’s hand-cannon, striking the center hitman squarely in the chest armor. The synthetic alloy melted instantly, collapsing the man’s ribcage into a smoking, charred cavity before he could even register the strike.
The remaining two hitmen opened fire frantically, their automatic weapons releasing a hail of high-velocity rounds that shattered the glass vanity and ripped the velvet curtains to shreds. Zeldin rotated his heavy metal shoulder, absorbing the impact of three kinetic bullets with his reinforced arm, completely shielding Rea’s trembling body from the spray.
Before the mercenaries could reload, Zeldin closed the distance between them in a single, terrifying stride. He dropped the plasma cannon, allowing it to hang from its magnetic wrist tether, and drove his bare, metallic fingers straight through the ballistic visor of the second hitman. The sound of cracking reinforced glass and fracturing bone echoed through the silent penthouse. Zeldin twisted his wrist, ripping the tactical helmet completely free from the man's shoulders, leaving the body to collapse like a puppet with its strings severed.
Rea watched the c*****e with wide, unblinking eyes, her stomach turning as a thick spray of dark crimson fluid erupted across the room. The hot blood of Giska’s enforcers splashed across the pristine white fabric of her wedding gown, soaking into the delicate lace layers until she looked like an apex predator's prize. She tried to scream, but her throat was completely restricted by the tightening pressure of her tracking choker.
The last remaining hitman turned to run toward the broken doorway, his boots skidding on the blood-slicked obsidian floor. He did not make it two steps. Zeldin retrieved his plasma weapon with a smooth, calculated movement, aiming it at the back of the retreating mercenary’s head. A single, compressed blast tore through the smoke, vaporizing the upper torso of the final attacker and leaving only charred metal fragments raining down on the carpet.
Silence fell over the peak of Neo-Soma's highest tower, broken only by the rhythmic hiss of the automated ventilation system trying to clear the smoke. The crystal chandeliers flickered weakly, casting long, monstrous shadows across the five lifeless bodies scattered around the room.
Zeldin stood perfectly still among the dead, his breathing even and unhurried. He slowly lowered Rea back to her feet, though he did not remove his massive cybernetic hand from her waist. The human side of his face was splattered with a single drop of fresh blood, making his pale skin look even more ghostly against the polished chrome plate on his left side.
"Look at them, Rea," Zeldin whispered, his voice dropping to a dangerously low pitch that vibrated against her skull. "Look at the garbage Giska sent to reclaim you."
Rea collapsed against his iron frame, her legs unable to support her weight as she sobbed hysterically. She clutched at the fabric of his torn tuxedo, her beautiful porcelain-synth fingers trembling violently against his chest. "Take me away from here, Zeldin! Please! They tried to kill me! Giska is going to hunt me down!"
Zeldin did not offer a single word of comfort. He did not wrap his arms around her to soothe her panic. Instead, he gripped her chin with his freezing, metallic fingers, forcing her to lift her head until her tear-streaked face was directly beneath his glowing crimson eye. His touch was brutal, leaving small grey marks on her synthetic porcelain jaw line.
"You misunderstand your situation, my beautiful doll," Zeldin murmured, leaning in until his metallic lips almost touched her ear. "This terror is not an interruption of your life. It is the permanent environment of your stay in my golden cage. Giska did not send these men to kill you; he sent them to steal his investment back. But you belong to the corporate mainframe now."
Rea choked on her own breath, her eyes widening as she felt the true depth of his malice. The wealth, the diamond collar, the luxury penthouse it was not a reward for her survival. It was the expensive processing facility for his revenge. She was a possession, a glittering asset caught between two warring titans of the Neo-Soma market.
"You think you can just use me as a shield?" Rea gasped, her voice cracking as she tried to pull away from his vice-like grip.
"I will use you for whatever yields the highest return, Rea," Zeldin replied, releasing her jaw with a dismissive flick of his wrist.
He walked over to the headless body of the lead hitman, his heavy boots crunching on the broken glass. With a clean, calculated slice from a small cutting tool embedded in his cybernetic forearm, Zeldin severed the heads of the remaining enforcers, placing them inside a reinforced, temperature-controlled cargo container used for high-end bio-flesh shipments. He sealed the lid with a heavy pneumatic snap, affixing the official gold digital logo of Soma-Tech Industries to the top.
"Deliver this package directly to Giska’s personal residence in the Low Sector," Zeldin commanded into his wrist-linked communication terminal. "Program the delivery drone to bypass his security firewalls and drop it directly onto his dining table during his midnight meal. Include a digital text file with a single line: The liquidation of your assets has officially expanded to physical capital."
"Understood, Chief Executive," the automated response chimed from his wrist. "The drone is en route."
Zeldin turned back to face Rea, who was huddling near the edge of the glass terrace, her blood-drenched wedding dress sticking to her synthetic limbs. The financial war between Zeldin Corp and Giska’s underground network was no longer a hidden game of stock manipulation and black-market buyouts. The physical warfare had erupted, and the borders of Neo-Soma would bleed before the conflict was resolved.
"Go to the master dressing suite and change into something more suitable for a prisoner," Zeldin ordered, his crimson eye casting a cold beam of light over her shivering form. "The cleaners will be here in five minutes to remove the trash, and tomorrow your compliance training begins."
Rea gripped her diamond tracker collar, her teeth chattering as she stared at the dark stains covering her white silk dress. "What are you going to do to Giska?"
Zeldin walked toward his private terminal desk, his fingers already accessing the global shipping routes of the city's meat trade. "I am going to take his breath away, line by line, until he has nothing left to offer but his bones."
Aksara