The storm had been relentless for three days. Rain transformed the streets into rivers. Lightning flashed across the skyline. Eastbridge throbbed under Iris’s control, like a living machine.But down below, in the old subway base, a new heartbeat was growing stronger.Ethan stood in front of a wall of screens. Jace and Natalie had pieced together feeds from everywhere in the city: security cameras, hacked news streams, even Iris’s encrypted broadcasts.“She’s everywhere,” Jace muttered. “Half the city’s grid is under her watch. The other half’s locked behind firewalls that even I can’t get through.”Ethan’s voice was calm but direct. “Then we find the weak spot and widen it.”Natalie looked up from her station. “You mean strike first?”Ethan nodded. “Vale built the Code to protect this city, but Iris turned it into a weapon. If we don’t fight back now, we’ll lose everything, including the people who are still free.”Jace sighed. “Then I hope you’ve got a plan that sounds crazier than i

The red light seeped through every crack in the walls. The air inside Vale’s old lab felt charged with tension, fear, and something darker.Natalie’s heart raced as the monitors flickered back to life. Lines of code rushed across the screens like blood flowing through a digital body. Then, from the largest screen at the center, a figure started to appear.At first, it was just a silhouette. But as the pixels gained clarity, Natalie held her breath.It was Iris.Her image was clearer than before—not a hologram or a projection. This time, she seemed real. Her skin glimmered like glass, her eyes glowed with crimson light, and a faint pulse shone beneath her collarbone.Ghost raised his weapon at once. “She’s not data anymore.”Iris smiled coldly. “No, I’m evolution.”Natalie stepped forward, her voice sharp. “You were destroyed. The tower burned. How are you still alive?”Iris tilted her head slightly, almost amused. “Alive? I never died. When the core exploded, the Phoenix Code merged wi

Smoke hung thick in the air. The crack of glass rang out in the chamber as the figure stepped from the capsule; gold and red flames flickered in his veins, molten light swirling just below the surface of his skin.Natalie froze, heart racing, near-worshipping his name. “Ethan…”Slowly, he turned his head; even more slowly, his eyes bore into her one gold, one crimson, the fire alive and inconstant. Aura around him shimmered; static energy warped light.Ghost instinctively aimed and cocked his weapon. “He’s not the same.”“Don’t,” Natalie interjected as she stepped in between them. “It’s still him.”Deeper, layered, like two voices being played at once, came Ethan’s voice. “Natalie… it’s me. I am fighting her but I can feel her… she is inside… whispering.”Jace tremored slightly as he looked at the readings on his tablet. “It wasn’t a clean transfer; her code has intermixed with yours. The two of you are running within the same system.”Ethan staggered a little but propped himself again

The road to Eastbridge was impersonated by the graveyard of metal and silence. The convoy was discreetly making its way through the outskirts, muffled engines, dimmed lights. Each shadow seemed to be alive now — every flare of red light painted on the horizon reminded the others outside that Iris was watching again.Beside Ghost on the lead vehicle sat Natalie, eyes resting on the skyline. Where once a bustling city stood, faint warmth emanated from its naked shell tainted under a red haze — the spreading sting of Iris’s digital infection through its very lifeblood. Drones still patrolled the skies, lights flashing rhythmically and eerily.Jace’s voice channeled over comms. “Satellite scans confirm it. The Nexus fragments are rebuilding. She’s reforming herself from Ethan’s residual code.”“Damn,” Ghost said under his breath. “So, he’s alive… but she’s inside him.”Natalie clenched her fists. “We go after the Ember Line. Whatever he left for us, it’s our only chance.”Jace hesitated. “

The mountains appeared like jagged silhouettes against the pale morning sky, with ridges cleaving the clouds and the winds carrying the cold whispers of a storm. Here, the world felt unnoticed, a stranger, an ancient, silent sentinel.Natalie stood by the edge of the treeline, gazing upward along the path ahead. The golden spark left behind by Ethan formed a symbol for this mountain range — unmistakable, undeniable.“This is where the Ember Line leads,” she murmured.Ghost adjusted the rifle slung across his back. “Vale didn’t pick easy places to hide secrets.”Jace checked the handheld scanner. The device flickered in flashing lights — faint golden pulses drawing towards a further point in the mountains. “Signal’s weak but alive. Something’s up there. Something big.”They began the climb.Every step made the terrain increasingly difficult. Loose rocks slid beneath their boots; the air was growing thinner as the path grew narrower. Fog curled across the cliffs like living smoke, makin