Chapter 5: The Correction

Argus began to laugh. It was not the manic, joyous sound from the heat of battle, but something far more chilling: a cold, dry, and utterly dismissive chuckle. The sound of a scientist looking at a failed hypothesis.

“An idea?” he echoed, the grin fading from his face, replaced by a look of profound, condescending pity. “Doctor, you are thinking far too small.”

He turned his back on the broken man and walked towards a grand, holographic map of the kingdom that dominated one wall of the laboratory. “My plan was always to restart. A clean slate. But you, in your limited, emotional way, have inspired me to be more efficient.”

With a flick of his wrist, a new layer of light blazed to life over the map. It was a massive, impossibly complex network of glowing lines that connected every major city, every ley line, every hidden rune he and his subordinates had spent years placing in secret. A continent-spanning transmutation circle.

Aris Thorne’s breath hitched, a strangled gasp of disbelief. “What… what is that?” he whispered in horror.

“A Philosopher’s Stone,” Argus replied, his voice a calm, terrifying lecture. “Humanity, all of it, will be the fuel.”

“Why?” Aris cried, his voice cracking. “For what purpose? A stone can only be used once! Such power for a single act!”

“Two goals,” Argus said, turning to face the terrified doctor, his eyes gleaming with the cold fire of absolute conviction. “First, to instantly heal the planet’s environment, as you so shortsightedly wished. Second…” A truly terrifying, ecstatic smile spread across his face once more. “To create a new being.”

He began to pace slowly, a professor explaining his final, terrible thesis. “Humanity is an incomplete, chaotic design. A failed experiment. I will conduct a new one. I will use the compressed soul of the entire human race as the raw material to create a new species. Let us call them Elves. Long-lived, calm, with no need for excessive resources. Engineered without the capacity for jealousy, blind faith, or needless cruelty. I will see if a species designed with empathy and logic as its core can avoid the pitfalls of its predecessors.”

“You are mad!” Aris screamed, scrambling backwards. “You want to play God!”

Argus simply shook his head, the smile vanishing, replaced by the detached focus of the surgeon. “No. I am a scientist, correcting a failed experiment.” He raised his hand, a single finger pointed towards the ceiling.

“And the experiment has already begun.”

Outside, across the entire continent, the hidden runes flared to life. The sky, visible through the laboratory's great skylight, turned a bloody, violent crimson. A great, silent column of light descended upon the capital city, and from there, a wave of pure, white annihilation began to spread across the world.