Chapter 82 The Monarch Protocol

The steel doors hissed open with a mechanical groan, revealing a corridor bathed in sterile white light. Damian stepped out first, his senses hyper-alert, boots silent on the polished floor. Miles followed closely, the glint of determination in his eyes betraying the storm brewing beneath his usual calm. They had descended three levels below the summit hall, into Monarch’s hidden infrastructure—a secret buried beneath a public spectacle. The air was colder here, too precise to be natural. Every tile, every hum of electricity in the walls reeked of calculated intention.