Apocalypse: Transmigrated with an Overlord System-Chapter 234: The Exiled Scientist

It had been buried deep—hidden away, locked behind multiple layers of security, and encrypted three times over.

There was no title, no clear summary. Just a single label that read:

"Project Ascendance – Phase IV: Human Integration Trials."

He should’ve left it alone.

He knew that now.

And a part of him, even now, desperately wished he hadn’t opened it.

Inside the file were countless medical records. Detailed brain scans, advanced genetic matching reports, and logs about how certain minds responded to neural testing.

All of them led to one terrifying conclusion:

"Extract and combine powerful genetic traits from selected individuals inside the Spire. Goal: create the next generation of superior beings."

The people they chose weren’t random.

They were from ancient, powerful bloodlines.

They had rare abilities—some even impossible to measure.

They were elite. Born gifted. Chosen without their consent.

Some had disappeared without a trace.

Others were already confirmed dead.

And then he found it—

The one file that shattered everything.

His heart stopped.

There, on the screen, was a name he knew too well:

Aeris Vireon.

His Aeris.

Her entire genetic profile had been uploaded. Every test result, every psychic evaluation, even a cold, clinical analysis of her body’s ability to bear children—ranked, rated, and stored like she was nothing more than an experiment.

She was labeled with cruel precision:

"High Success Probability – Extraction Priority."

Aeris didn’t know any of this.

Neither did Atlas.

The Spire was planning to destroy the very person they had both vowed to protect.

Just the memory of that discovery made his chest ache with fury.

Kazren clenched his jaw and stepped away from the young plants he’d been tending. His fists were shaking now.

The rage still lived inside him—wild, raw, and relentless.

He hadn’t forgotten.

And he never would.

Kazren had once been a respected man.

He was a scientist, known for his brilliant mind and deep research in the field of genetic stability and aether-based food creation. People used to look up to him. His name was spoken with admiration in the Maeryn Clan, one of the noble houses in the Spire. He believed he was doing good for the world.

But everything changed the day he discovered those files.

At first, he thought speaking out would make a difference. He believed the truth would matter. He believed the council would listen. After all, he was one of them—a rising figure, someone they once trusted.

He was wrong.

Very wrong.

The moment he shared what he found—proof of a secret, cruel project hidden deep in the system—they turned on him like he was a criminal. They didn’t want the truth. They wanted silence.

They twisted his words. Accused him of hacking into forbidden files. Said he had tampered with the food vaults that fed the entire Spire. Blamed him for trying to sabotage the food system to help his own clan.

They claimed he was planning a coup. That he wanted to steal power from his elder brother—the rightful heir of the Maeryn Clan.

The worst part was... his brother believed it.

Kazren remembered standing in front of the whole council, trying to defend himself. Trying to explain what he had found. But the room was filled with cold stares and mocking smiles.

Then his brother stood up—the boy Kazren had protected since childhood—and said the words that broke everything.

"He’s always wanted the heir’s seat," his brother said. "Now we know how far he was willing to go."

Kazren’s heart had shattered in that moment.

Not because he was exiled.

Not because they called him a traitor.

But because his own brother—the one whom he had supported his entire life.

And then came Atlas.

Atlas Vireon, his best friend. The one person Kazren thought would never turn on him.

When the council made him a criminal and the guards hunted him like prey, Kazren ran to Atlas. He was bloody, hurt, desperate. He only wanted one thing: to protect her.

To protect Aeris.

He had found her name in the files. He knew she was in danger.

But when he begged Atlas for help... Atlas didn’t believe him.

He didn’t ask a single question. He didn’t even flinch.

He just looked at Kazren with cold blue eyes and said, "Stop running."

That was all.

And then Aeris disappeared.

Just like the others whose names were in those files.

Gone without a trace.

No one looked for her. No one cared. Not even Atlas.

Kazren wasn’t even allowed to mourn her.

Now, standing in the soft light of his secret lab, Kazren felt the pain come back like fire in his chest.

Aeris had been so full of life. She had laughed like the sun, warm and bright. She had dreams. She had hopes.

She wasn’t supposed to be a name in a cursed file. She wasn’t supposed to vanish into nothing.

She was supposed to live.

And Kazren... Kazren had promised to protect her.

He leaned on the console, trying to steady his breath. His hands trembled, not from fear, but from anger.

"If her brother couldn’t protect her..." he whispered, his voice cracking, "then I will."

He looked at the plants growing in the lab—his work, his purpose, the quiet army he had built in exile. He wasn’t just surviving anymore.

He was preparing for a war. He would never let her death in vain, just like her useless brother.

"They cannot bury the truth, until I kazren is still alive," he said with a laugh, a single tear sliding from his eyes. "Hide behind their power and pretend that they were untouchable."

A smile touched his lips, it was cold and sharp filled with amusement and chillness.

"But gods bleed too."

He would burn the Spire to the ground if he had to. Tear apart every secret file. Drag every corrupt noble into the light.

Even if it meant facing his own family.

Even if it meant facing Atlas.

"You failed her," he whispered, thinking of Atlas. "But I won’t."

"I’ll tear the sky apart if I must. This world, this Spire, your sacred lies..."

"I’ll destroy it all."

"For her.