The elevator shuddered as it descended, slow at first, then faster, the cables groaning like something alive. Rust and dust drifted in the beam of Kael’s flashlight.Lina leaned against the wall, breathing carefully, her pulse still uneven from the Echo Protocol collapse. The silver lines beneath her skin glowed faintly in the dark.Kael noticed. “Your veins are lighting up again.”Lina didn’t look down. “I know.”“You ok?”“Define ok,” she muttered.Kael snorted softly. “You sound like him.”“That’s not comforting.”“Wasn’t meant to be.”The elevator thudded to a halt so abruptly that Kael reached out to steady her. The doors didn’t open. Instead, a heavy mechanical lock clicked… slowly… reluctantly… like something on the other side had to wake up.Lina swallowed. “This isn’t on the city grid anymore. It’s ancient.”Kael stepped forward and pried the doors apart with both hands. They screeched open. A rush of cold, stale air hit them.The corridor beyond was carved stone and metal, o

The Mother Node loomed above them, its blue veins throbbing like a heartbeat. The fragment Lina had trapped pulsed faintly inside her light web, but every second, whispers escaped from it, rattling the chamber walls.Kael wiped sweat from his brow, scanning the chamber. “How many of these things are left?”Lina shook her head, breathing hard. “I don’t know. The Node contains shards of Frost, fragments of consciousness he split off into the sleepers. Every pod we neutralized is only one piece. And he’s watching.”A hiss echoed from the far end of the chamber. One of the inactive pods trembled violently. Sparks shot from its seams, and a humanoid figure lurched out, its eyes glowing bright blue.Kael raised his gun. “Another one?”“Yes, but this one’s faster,” Lina warned. Her hands glowed faintly as she tapped into the lattice. “It’s reacting to the fragment I trapped. It knows.”The shard stepped forward, moving unnaturally fast for its humanoid frame. Its voice, twisted, layered, ove

Lina stumbled, silver veins flashing erratically along her arms. The lattice hummed like a living thing beneath her fingers, the blue light crawling through the floor and walls like an electric river.“Kael…” she gasped, voice trembling. “He’s inside my head.”Kael skidded to her side, gun raised, scanning the cavern. “What do you mean inside your head? You’re not losing control, are you?”“No,” she whispered, though her eyes flickered unnaturally. “Not completely. But he’s probing… probing every memory, every instinct. He’s testing my limits… seeing what I can’t handle.”Kael’s jaw tightened. “We don’t have time for that. I need to keep the lattice stable while you fight him mentally.”“I can’t do both,” Lina said. “That’s why I need you. You control the web. I control my mind.”He nodded, taking a position near the Mother Node. The floor shivered beneath them, faint blue pulses radiating from the core. “Tell me what to do.”“Guide the fragments,” she said, voice strained. “Keep them

The tunnels above the Mother Node had become unrecognizable. Every corridor Kael thought he knew twisted and folded back on itself. Dust and debris floated in the air, illuminated by the flickering blue light seeping from cracks in the walls.Kael stopped, pressing his back to a cracked pillar. “Lina… do these tunnels look… different to you?”Her voice trembled over the comm-link. “Yes… everything’s shifting. I can feel him changing the space around us… bending perception. He’s trying to trap us… make us doubt what’s real.”Kael’s gut tightened. “Figures. Of course he would.”A shadow moved at the edge of his vision. He swung his gun, firing at the figure. Sparks erupted, but the shape didn’t collapse. Instead, it split into two identical forms, each mirroring the other perfectly.“Lina… he’s multiplying here, too,” Kael shouted. “Just like in the lattice!”“They see me. They hear me. But they cannot stop me,” Frost’s voice hissed, layering inside Lina’s mind and echoing through the t

The streets of Echo City had changed. Neon signs flickered erratically, lights pulsing with unnatural rhythms. Traffic lights cycled randomly, forcing vehicles to skid, slam, and collide in brief chaos. Digital billboards streamed distorted images, shards of Frost’s consciousness bleeding through the city’s AI.Kael crouched behind a overturned police drone, scanning the streets. “Lina… report! How’s the lattice? Are the nodes holding?”“I… barely,” Lina’s voice crackled through the comm-link, shaky. “Frost is merging the city’s systems with the Mother Node. Everything’s connected… the lights, the cars… the screens… even the people. I can feel him in all of them.”Kael’s pulse raced. “Figures. Of course he would. I’m not about to let him control the city while you hold him in the lattice!”A taxi skidded toward him, lights flickering like strobe. Kael jumped aside just in time. Sparks and smoke erupted as the vehicle collided with a street sign, metal groaning. Another shard materiali