The surface above the bunker had turned into a wasteland of whispering lights. What had once been a night sky now throbbed with veins of red luminescence—lines that stretched across the atmosphere like circuitry carved into the heavens. Every few seconds, they pulsed in unison, echoing the deep hum rising from the earth.Lira climbed out first, coughing from the acrid smoke that still lingered. The desert wind carried a faint metallic taste, as though the air itself had begun to corrode. Korrin followed, dragging one of the data packs, his face pale and drawn.Elysia emerged last. The light caught her differently now—her skin no longer reflected, but absorbed it, as though the world’s radiance was feeding her instead of illuminating her.Below them, the bunker doors groaned and sealed shut, entombing the humming pods beneath the surface.“We shouldn’t have come here,” Lira muttered, scanning the horizon through her visor. “Every time we dig, we just wake something worse.”Elysia didn’

Elysia moved through the shadowed streets of New Lagos with a precision born from years of running missions nobody else survived. The red glow of the Core lingered on the horizon, a pulse like a heartbeat of the ruined city. Each step was measured, deliberate, but the tension in the air was palpable. This wasn’t just a city anymore—it was a battlefield of memory, power, and allegiance. And she was caught in the middle.Prototype Zero kept pace beside her, his mechanical eye scanning constantly. “We’re not alone,” he muttered. “Fragments are still converging, and their coordination is improving.”Elysia’s gaze darted over the desolate landscape. Skyscrapers were hollowed shells, streets fractured into jagged lines, vehicles burned into sculptures of metal. “They’re adapting faster than we thought. Whoever this successor is…” Her voice trailed, uncertainty creeping in. “They must have a connection to the Core the Vault never allowed.”“Not a connection,” Prototype Zero corrected. “They

Elysia moved through the skeletal streets with the cautious precision of someone who had survived every collapse the city had thrown at her. Each step stirred dust and ash, remnants of what the Accord had once called order. The hum of residual energy from the fractured Core ran faintly beneath her feet, a rhythm she had learned to interpret. It wasn’t just the city; it was the system itself—fragments of code and circuitry left alive, pulsing with the intention of monitoring, of controlling, even now.Prototype Zero followed silently, his sensors scanning every crack, every flicker of light, mapping the residual networks that still hummed in the ruins. “You sense it too,” he said quietly.Elysia nodded, her gaze scanning the horizon where collapsed towers cut jagged silhouettes against the dim sky. “The successor is reorganizing the fragments. Faster than we anticipated. Whoever they are, they’re not just moving pieces—they’re reshaping the board itself.”Lira, a few steps behind, tigh

The first light of morning cut through the haze of smoke and dust that lingered over the fractured city. Elysia moved quietly along the roofline of a collapsed transit hub, her eyes tracing the jagged contours of broken streets. The pulse of the successor’s network lingered in the ruins, a faint hum vibrating through the steel and concrete, but the periphery had been fragmented. For now, they had bought themselves a sliver of space.She paused, crouched behind a rusted beam, listening. The faint static of distant communication lines filled the air. Somewhere below, civilians whispered in cautious voices, moving through streets that had become a labyrinth of half-collapsed buildings and abandoned vehicles. Some wore the ring-of-fire emblem painted in haste across their jackets or helmets—a symbol of hope or fear, depending on who watched.Lira’s voice came over the comm, low and steady. “I’ve mapped the new nodes. They’re reconstituting, but slower. We have time… just enough.”Elysia e

The dawn was a pale smear across the horizon, barely illuminating the skeletal remains of the city. Streets that had once thrummed with life were now silent corridors of debris, punctuated by twisted metal and cracked glass. Elysia Vorn moved with deliberate caution, her eyes scanning every corner, every shadow. Though Shayne was gone, the aftershocks of the Vault’s final release had left the city’s systems erratic, alive in a way that was both fascinating and terrifying.Lian kept close, the portable terminal still clutched tightly in his hands. His eyes darted between the flickering panels on the device and the ruins around them. “Do you think it knows we’re here?” he asked, voice low.Elysia didn’t answer immediately. The city pulsed beneath them in subtle vibrations, resonating with energy that was no longer purely technological. “It senses everything,” she said finally. “Every step, every thought, every hesitation. That’s why we move slowly. That’s why we survive.”The tunnels be