Alpha Biocore

Kael’s sharp gaze locked onto mine before he muttered, “Let me show you something.”

His voice was low, almost conspiratorial, and I could see a faint, feverish gleam in his bloodshot eyes. Whatever he was about to reveal, it had consumed him entirely.

From the towering bookshelf behind him, Kael reached up and pulled out a massive tome. Its leather cover was cracked, and faded gold lettering barely clung to its spine. As he dropped it onto the desk, a cloud of dust erupted.

With a deliberate motion, Kael flipped it open to a page marked by a worn leather strap.

“Look.”

I carefully stepped closer. There, across the yellowed parchment, was an illustration—intricate and almost sacred in its detail.

At first glance, it was unmistakably a Biocore, drawn with delicate ink lines and surrounded by faint annotations in a language I couldn’t decipher. But something about it felt… different. Ancient. Monumental.

“This isn’t just any Biocore, Zehn,” Kael said, his voice filled with thrill. “This… is the Biocore. They called it the Alpha Biocore.”

“Alpha Biocore?” I repeated, the words foreign on my tongue.

Kael’s eyes shimmered with an unsettling intensity. “Don’t you think it’s… beautiful? Majestic, even?”

I nodded slowly, my throat dry. “It is, but… what exactly is it?”

He leaned forward, his hands gripping the edge of the desk. “Long ago, the people of the past had a different name for Biocores. They called them… trees.”

The word hung between us, heavy with forgotten weight.

“Trees…” I murmured. The term wasn’t unfamiliar—I’d seen it in ancient texts, romanticized poetry, or scattered historical data files. But the connection to Biocores? That was something entirely new.

Kael’s voice grew steadier as he continued. “Do you know what World War IV was really fought over, Zehn?”

I crossed my arms and furrowed my brow. “From what I remember, it was because an alliance of nations wanted to invade an especially advanced country. They claimed it had cracked ‘the code of life,’ but the records are vague.”

“They weren’t just advanced,” Kael said, his voice rising slightly. “They were the first nation to develop Kyslicium. And do you know why? Because they possessed vast expanses of natural wealth—something called forests. Entire regions filled with trees. Living Biocores. The wood could be refined into Kyslicium, just as we do today, but back then, it was still a closely guarded secret.”

My breath caught in my throat. “But the rest of the world… they didn’t have forests, did they?”

Kael nodded sharply. “Exactly. While others focused on infrastructure, technology, and urban expansion, they gutted their forests, unknowingly stripping away the very resource that could’ve sustained them for centuries. And when they realized their mistake, it was too late. They turned their sights on the one country that still had what they’d lost.”

The room felt smaller, the air denser. The flickering candlelight cast sharp shadows across Kael’s face, accentuating the sharp lines of his jaw and the wild intensity in his eyes.

“How did you find all of this?” I asked, barely able to keep up with the flood of revelations.

Kael flexed his gloved fingers. “When I realized the splinter embedded in my skin wasn’t harming me, I started digging—through archives, ancient books, hidden records. This—” he gestured to the tome before us “—this is the truth they buried. And I concluded that the wood itself isn’t harmful. It’s just the oxygen it produces.”

I swallowed hard. “But… what happened to the Alpha Biocore? Did the alliance… win the war?”

Kael’s lips curled into a bitter smirk. “Oh, they won, alright. But over time, the Alpha Biocore vanished. Lost to history, misplaced in bureaucracy, or perhaps intentionally hidden. Its location became a myth, a ghost story.”

The weight of his words settled over me like a suffocating blanket.

“Kael… if that’s true, then it’s still out there. The Alpha Biocore is still out there!”

Kael’s face softened into something I hadn’t seen in him for a long time—hope. “Yes. And I’d bet my life that the Wood Hunter Association knows more than they let on. They might already be searching for it as we speak. But I won’t let them have it, Zehn. I’ll fight them head on, if I must!”

I blinked at him, stunned. “Kael… now you’re being ridiculous.”

He leaned back in his chair, exhaling deeply as if the weight of his convictions was pressing into his chest. “Then let’s make a bet, Zehn. If my research, my hunch, and this book are correct, you’ll join me. We’ll find the Alpha Biocore together.”

“And if it’s all just speculation?”

Kael’s shoulders slumped slightly as he pulled off his gloves. His bare knuckles were bruised, swollen, and caked with faint traces of dried blood.

“Then I’ll turn myself in. I’ll call the police, and they can do whatever they want with me.”

The silence that followed felt like a blade balanced on a string.

“Kael… you really were the one who attacked that man. But why?”

He slammed his fist onto the desk again, his voice raw with anguish. “I don’t know why! Ever since we breathed that air, I’ve felt this… this hunger. This insatiable need to fight, to dominate, to take. And it terrifies me, Zehn. It terrifies me because it feels right.”

I stared at him, trying to process what I was hearing. The Kael I knew—the kind, contemplative man—was unraveling before my eyes.

“That’s… that’s messed up, Kael.”

He let out a hollow laugh. “Yeah? And your sagging face and grey hair aren’t exactly normal either, are they?”

I exhaled shakily, feeling the weight of the truth between us. I didn’t choose to age like this. And neither did Kael choose this path of violence.

“But… what makes you think I won’t call the police right now?”

Kael’s eyes softened, the fiery madness flickering into something quieter, something vulnerable.

“Because you’re a good person, Zehn. You know that if there’s even a chance to save humanity, to give it a lifeline that lasts for millennia, we have to take it. And you know I’m the only one with the knowledge to guide us.”

As much as I wanted to deny it, he wasn’t wrong.

I sighed heavily, rubbing my temples as I tried to calm the storm brewing in my mind.

“You give me too much credit, Kael… But fine. I’ll make that bet.”

He smirked faintly, a shadow of his old self.

“Good. Now… what will you do, Zehn?”

I stood, my voice steady despite the chaos in my chest.

“Fortunately, the man who might have answers to all my questions happens to be my great-great-grandfather.”

Chapter 9: END