Western Apuseni Mountains, the old Băița-Nucet uranium mining area.
This was Hydra's "Lena Nine" base.
Inside the Godblood Project laboratory, beneath glaring cold-white lights, dozens of researchers in sealed protective suits stood behind glass partitions, monitoring every stream of data from the central testing area.
Werner von Strucker walked at the front, with Salus Dracula beside him.
Before them stood a cylindrical incubation chamber more than three meters tall.
Pale green nutrient fluid filled it, countless tubes and electrodes extending into the liquid and connecting to a towering humanoid figure.
He was a youth who appeared to be only sixteen or seventeen, yet was extraordinarily tall.
His face still retained boyish features, but his body had developed to nearly two meters tall. His muscles were far more defined than those of an ordinary human, and his skin bore a deathly grayish-white hue. His head was completely hairless, while dark red patterns covered his limbs and chest, resembling veins hidden beneath the skin—or an ancient totem not yet fully formed.
Sarus stopped.
"So this is the... resurrected god you mentioned?"
"More precisely, he is a new god we created with our own hands."
Werner said with a smile.
He raised a hand, and the holographic display beside the incubation chamber immediately lit up.
Human chromosomes, an abnormally complex X Gene sequence, and hundreds of flashing red markers overlapped, eventually forming an immense life-structure diagram so vast it was dizzying.
"At first, we believed that corpse merely belonged to some ancient Mutant."
Werner said slowly.
"But after extracting his blood, bone marrow, and neural tissue, we discovered that we had been terribly wrong."
"An ordinary Mutant's X Gene grants its host only one or several fixed abilities."
"But the X Gene within these Divine Remains is different. It is a complete adaptive