Building The Strongest Family

Chapter 392: Strategic Levers

The digital war room sprang to life, buzzing like a heart glowing with energy. Ten holographic panels flickered into focus, each displaying sharp, dynamic images of influential leaders.

At the forefront was Darius Veyne, flanked by Lira Solmarr on his right. The remaining members of the Concord of Ten,Rook Kael, Senna Voss, Mira Hel, Talis Orin, Korin Veyd, Joran Dyre, Draven Sol, and Veyra Aldis, completed the assembly.

The room’s walls, fashioned from sleek black glass and titanium, mirrored the torrential flow of data: market movements, biostock figures, and encrypted communications coursing across the globe. The atmosphere pulsed with the organized voices of powerful figures.

For the first time in years, ten empires had laid down their conflicts,not out of trust, but rather out of fear. Fear that their great empires might collapse before their very eyes.

Darius’s voice sliced through the cacophony. "Let’s get started."

The battle had begun.

---

Korin Veyd leaned in as his screen flickered to life, his voice cool and methodical. "Osborn Holdings operates on a network of distributed partnerships. If we take down their foundation, the rest will inevitably follow."

His team, a group of operatives embedded in covert financial networks, were shifting billions without a trace.

Overnight, ten shell companies were registered in New Luminara alone. By morning, they had secured trillions in Unicreds, creating false derivatives aimed at Osborn’s suppliers and distributors.

The screens lit up with numbers that shifted fluidly:

SHORT EXECUTED – OSBORN SUPPLY: -6.2%

SHORT EXECUTED – NOVAGEN MATERIALS: -4.7%

SHORT EXECUTED – HYDRA MEDITECH: -8.1%

The markets quivered.

Korin’s lips curled into a slight smirk. "Trillions are circulating quietly; they won’t even know where it all started."

Senna Voss observed closely. "Osborn has enough resources to withstand temporary disruptions; you need to keep the pressure on."

"We have liquidity lines across five federations," Korin replied matter-of-factly. "Osborn’s partners will cave under credit calls long before they can ask for assistance."

Their strategy was both refined and methodical,an unobtrusive chokehold.

What no one realized was that deep within Dominion Sanctum, Evolon’s quantum intelligence had already tracked every transaction chain. It chose to remain a passive observer,for now.

The façade of control simply needed to endure a little longer.

---

Meanwhile, Lira Solmarr was busy adjusting her data slate as two government ministers appeared on her screen. Their grim surroundings,a dimly lit office hidden within Panterra’s Health Bureau,contrasted sharply with the stakes at play.

She slid a black data drive across the desk to one minister, who trembled slightly as he took it. "You’ll authorize this tonight. We need the narrative in motion before the week is out," she stated flatly.

He paused, uncertain. "Safety audits on every ONCURA batch? That’s bound to send people into a frenzy."

"That’s precisely our goal," she replied coolly. "Panic spreads like a virus, and we intend to unleash it."

The second minister leaned closer, caution etched on his face. "You know if this gets traced..."

Lira interrupted him with a chilling smile. "It won’t be traced."

By sunrise, the world’s headlines began to echo a single name,not with admiration, but with skepticism.

GLOBAL HEALTH COUNCIL CALLS FOR NEW SAFETY AUDITS ON ONCURA.

REPORTS OF POTENTIAL LONG-TERM GENETIC EFFECTS UNDER REVIEW.

Darius nodded approvingly from the war room. "Perception is the most potent sedative. You don’t destroy gods; you instill doubt in mortals."

Lira’s eyes flicked to him through the holographic interface. "And doubt is quicker to spread than the truth."

Meanwhile, Evolon kept watch from its concealed position,unseen, silent, and all-knowing. It captured every signature made by officials before they even hit ’submit.’

Every document and code was already duplicated in the secure vaults of Dominion Sanctum.

---

Mira Hel lounged in her hologram, a playful tone in her voice. "Fear travels faster through digital channels than any bullet ever could."

With her subtle approval, NexGen Media Group unleashed a torrent of fake whistleblower accounts, all claiming to have insider information about Osborn.

The first video appeared within just an hour. A shadowy figure, shrouded in darkness, spoke with a distorted voice:

"I was part of Osborn’s Tier-5 Lab. ONCURA is not what it seems. After 90 days, the nanites start disrupting cell patterns, turning the cure into something irreversible."

The clip quickly went viral, racking up over 10 billion views in just six hours. Comments flooded in, and discussions erupted as the online crowd began to mobilize.

Anonymous users flooded social media, repeating one phrase like a mantra: "ONCURA mutates the cure."

Behind Mira, analysts tracked the rapidly rising engagement metrics. "Global reach achieved," one of them noted.

Mira offered a faint smile. "And just like that, the gods start to seem human."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe and cloaked in darkness, a team of Pandora Health operatives launched an operation at an Osborn shipping depot by Lustralis’ coast.

The facility towered above them, its steel walls equipped with automated drones and rows of refrigerated pods marked with Osborn’s logo.

The infiltrators moved with military-like precision, silent and efficient. Dressed in uniforms meticulously forged to mimic Osborn’s logistics division, they were ready for action.

Rook Kael guided them through communications from his private command center. "Sector C-9," he instructed.

"Search for containers labeled ’ONCURA B12-A.’ Extract the data drives, scan all content, and then get out."

The lead agent managed to pry open a vault, revealing crystalline vials containing a softly glowing liquid in shades of blue-green.

"We’ve got it." The drives were copied, and samples secured. Within half an hour, they vanished into the night.

Back in the war room, Rook Kael wore a satisfied smirk on his holographic display. "Now we have their blood."

Little did he know, or anyone else in that room, that what they had stolen was nothing more than a clever ruse. Evolon had planted the files days earlier.

The "ONCURA composition data" was disguised code, a deceptive sequence embedded with a tracker that would follow the data’s path through various networks, revealing hidden channels and every conspirator involved.

Evolon had set the perfect trap, and the hunters had unwittingly walked straight into it.

On the second night, reports from the Concord boasted their initial "successes." Media coverage intensified. Investors turned cautious. Osborn’s stock value dropped by 4%.

In the war room, Darius Veyne watched silently as a hologram displayed that brief decline.

He took a slow, deliberate breath, allowing a hint of a smile to surface. "See?" he murmured, his gravelly voice breaking the quiet. "Even gods bleed when you cut deep enough."

The others exchanged glances, their faces illuminated by the ominous red of the falling charts. For the first time since ONCURA was announced, a flicker of satisfaction filled the room.

Senna Voss leaned in, eager for more. "This is just the beginning."

Lira Solmarr chimed in coolly, "We’ll strike the markets even harder tomorrow."

Rook Kael added, "Once we decrypt the data from the depot, we could replicate the ONCURA serum completely."

Darius nodded in agreement. "Perfect. Let them think their defenses are still secure. By the time they realize otherwise, we’ll already be embedded."

One by one, screens began to flicker off as CEOs disconnected and returned to their command posts across Panterra.

When the last screen faded to black, Darius remained alone in the dimly lit room, the glow reflecting in his eyes.

He took a deep breath and whispered to himself, "Order through control. Control through fear."

---

Noctis Continent: Varenya: Dominion Sanctum.

Thousands of miles away, deep beneath Varenya’s surface, the core chamber of Dominion Sanctum pulsated with spectral light.

Arthur stood in front of a series of floating data screens, with Evolon’s projection hovering nearby.

The humanoid figure, crafted from a network of white code accented with soft golden highlights, seemed almost lifelike.

Ten different data streams flickered on the screens, unveiling the Concord’s financial transactions, intercepted messages, encrypted directives, and all the intricate details of their scheme.

"They’ve started," Arthur said softly.

Evolon’s response was calm and smooth, almost eerily human."Indeed. Their strategy is now in motion, economically, politically, psychologically. Everything is predictable, everything is traceable."

Arthur glanced at the holographic ticker, noting a slight decline in Osborn Holdings’ stock price, but his demeanor remained unchanged.

"Let them believe they’ve achieved something," he murmured. "They need that sense of victory to justify their downfall."

Evolon tilted its head ever so slightly, as if finding the situation amusing. "Should I take action to dismantle their operations now?"

Arthur shook his head. "Not just yet. Allow them to set everything in motion first." The AI’s tone grew a shade darker. "Then I will prepare the countermeasures."

Arthur’s gaze sharpened. "Initiate them discreetly, and make sure they remain unaware that we’re onto them."

Evolon responded softly, almost with reverence. "Understood."

One by one, the feeds from the Concord’s war room reappeared on Arthur’s screen, showcasing CEOs who had no idea their every utterance was being recorded long before it reached their microphones.

As the digital network pulsed with acquired information, Arthur turned away and spoke in a hushed voice.

"The war has begun," he said softly. "And I hold the reins of the battlefield."

Evolon’s holographic eyes glimmered faintly golden. "Then," it whispered, "let them bleed their illusions."

Silence enveloped the chamber as the screens dimmed, leaving only one that continued to glow softly at the center, detailing the Concord’s war plans, every move and contingency, already mirrored and inevitably doomed.