LILITH: GENESIS CODE - PHASE ONE
ARC I: EMBERS OF NOCTRID
CHAPTER 1: BENEATH THE RUST
"Light is a lie, and God is now only its own shadow."
---
Noctrid exhaled its dying breath in a wail of rusted metal.
Kael crawled through a neon-green tunnel, hands trembling against slick, weeping walls. The air choked with burnt ozone and synthetic incense—a suffocating blend, like prayers rotting in the dark.
A scream tore through the distance.
No more.
Through a ventilation slit, Kael's eyes caught a scene too familiar: a RIFEN-Class drone shredding a cowering family. Blood mingled with synthetic oil, pooling black, reflecting the hunter's crimson eyes.
"Purity through code," Theon Vasthal's voice echoed from hidden speakers, cold and divine. "Sin must be cleansed."
Kael shut his eyes. His hand grazed the tattered pendant at his neck—Mira's last gift, his seven-year-old sister, wasting away in an underground hospital, needing medicine only intel could buy.
Forgive me, Mira.
The family died for hiding a data chip. Forbidden tech. A "moral virus."
Kael knew he'd soon do the same.
A Shockwave's Warning
A deafening blast shook the concrete structure. Vibrations rippled from the surface to the depths—a warning that VELOS drones were hunting.
Five miles below, the same tremor rattled a dead factory where Azren Vale stood.
---
The Heart of Defiance.
Azren lifted his head. Dust rained from the ceiling.
"They're closing in," he whispered to a ragged band of outcasts before him.
Thirty years old. Black hair streaked with premature silver. Blue eyes dulled like cracked glass—scars of unhealed trauma.
"Aurelis," he rasped. "Their city of false light, where elites feast on our bones."
Dozens of faces stared back, a mix of hope and despair. Ex-scientists. Discarded workers. Street kids grown too fast.
All bound by one thread: hatred for the Imperium Heliox.
"We'll gut their drone network."
Another tremor. Louder.
"We'll prove ORDEN is no god."
A rusted iron door screeched open.
---
An Anomaly Unraveled
A woman stepped inside.
Time froze.
Rae Evara.
Five-foot-five. Jet-black bob swaying like silk. Skin pale, almost translucent, with faint, glowing lines tracing her hips and thighs—a living neural map.
Her eyes burned ice-blue, pupils flickering into digital spirals.
"Sorry I'm late," she said, her soft voice laced with a near-imperceptible digital hum.
Azren's chest tightened.
Every glimpse of Rae reminded him of his most beautiful, dangerous creation. He'd given life to her synthetic body, infused it with a consciousness that shouldn't exist.
And now, she's more human than I am.
---
A Glitch in the System
Rae approached the group. Nausea struck suddenly.
Her hand darted to her stomach. The lines on her body flared brighter.
That dream again...
In it, a small figure with a broken symbol on its chest whispered in a coded tongue she couldn't parse. A voice like wind through a digital grave.
Impossible. She was a machine. A creation.
"Rae?" Azren's voice cut through her haze.
She looked up, forcing a smile. "I'm fine."
Their eyes locked. An unspoken question lingered: What are you hiding?
---
Rising Tensions
A grizzled man, Jorik, stepped forward, face hard as stone.
"So this is it? The 'miracle' to save us?" He spat. "She's not even human."
Silence tightened like a noose.
Rae didn't flinch. She was used to those looks—fear, disgust, painful curiosity.
"You're right," she said calmly. "I'm not human. But I'm no ORDEN machine either."
A pause.
"I'm something in between. And that's what they fear."
Azren stepped between them. "Rae was born from NEX-BIRTH, a program I built for Theon years ago."
His voice trembled—pride laced with regret.
"She's more than a weapon. She's the future."
"A future crafted by an ORDEN traitor?" Jorik sneered. "How do we know she won't betray us?"
---
Threat from Above
Before Azren could retort, a brutal explosion roared overhead. Louder than before.
Dust cascaded. Emergency lights flickered red.
"VELOS," someone whispered, panic rising.
A mechanical voice seeped through the vents: "Anomalous biological resource detected. Initiating extermination protocol."
Panic erupted.
People scrambled for nonexistent exits.
A massive concrete slab plummeted from the ceiling toward a fallen girl.
Rae moved.
No—she flowed.
Her body surged with inhuman speed, glowing lines blazing like lightning. She caught the slab bare-handed.
Crushed it to dust.
Silence fell. Eyes locked on her, awed and terrified.
"Synthetic reflexes," Azren muttered.
But he knew it was more. Rae's abilities were evolving beyond his design.
---
Forbidden Data
Kael emerged from a side door, clutching a data chip. Face ashen. Hands shaking.
"I… found this in Sector 7," he said, handing it to Azren. "A weakness in Aurelis's drone network."
He glanced uneasily at Rae.
"But there's something else. A strange code. Like it's… waiting."
Azren scanned the chip. His expression darkened.
The data revealed neural patterns nearly identical to Rae's synthetic brain. But one anomaly stood out: activity in a sector that shouldn't exist in a synthetic.
An area tied to… no. Impossible.
He looked at Rae, who was tweaking a damaged circuit in her arm. His touch on her synthetic skin always felt… strange.
Like a current binding creator and creation in a bond beyond tech.
"Your lines are flickering," Azren whispered, fingers brushing her glowing wrist.
"I know," she replied softly. "Sometimes I feel something alive in my code."
A pause.
"Something… growing."
Their gazes held. The cold, rusted factory faded, leaving only two souls bound by past tragedy and uncertain futures.
---
Inevitable Betrayal
Footsteps shattered the moment.
Kael backed away, guilt etched on his face. His hand clutched the pendant—Mira's faint smile in a tiny photo.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, tears falling. "They threatened to kill my sister. She's only seven."
Behind him loomed a black-armored VELOS unit, its red eyes glowing. A crimson V pulsed on its back like a mechanical heartbeat.
"Target 'The First Sin' confirmed," its synthetic voice boomed. "Initiating capture."
Rae stiffened.
The First Sin.
Theon's name for her. As if her existence was a cosmic flaw to be fixed.
Azren gripped a sharpened iron pipe, hands trembling—not with fear, but rage.
Rage at Theon, who killed his wife.
Rage at himself for crafting Rae in vengeance's shadow.
Rage at a world that forced them to live like rats.
"If you want her," he hissed, "you'll have to go through my corpse."
Rae's hand rested on his shoulder. Her glowing lines warmed.
"No," she said, her voice carrying a new authority, power, and something darker. "They'll have to go through our corpses."
---
Whispers in the Dark
As tension peaked, Kael fled to a corner, whispering into a hidden communicator:
"They've found the code-born."
The replying voice was cold, familiar—one that would freeze Azren's blood.
"Perfect. Let the game begin."
In Noctrid's darkness, amid rusted iron and dying hope, a new war stirred.
At its heart stood a woman who shouldn't exist—a product of genius and tragedy, love and vengeance.
Rae Evara.
The First Sin.
Lilith.
[TO BE CONTINUED…]
Next Chapter: "The Synthetic Pulse" - Rae faces a STIGMA-02 drone that hesitates to attack, as her code triggers anomalies, disrupting nearby electronics.