The air inside the domed plaza didn't smell like the New Earth I’d bled to build; it smelled of sterile ozone and the copper tang of synthetic Qi. I stood before the towering obsidian gates of the "Thorne Memorial Museum," my ragged cloak fluttering in the pressurized draft."History is written by the victors, Elias," I muttered to myself, adjusting the shard of Aethelgard beneath my rags. "But I didn't think they’d use so much gold leaf to bury me."I walked through the scanners. They hummed, unable to categorize my Nil-energy, and finally buzzed me through as a 'Commoner.' I stepped into the Great Hall, and the first thing I saw was a thirty-foot statue of myself. It wasn't the Sovereign who held back the Void. It was a monster—features twisted into a sadistic snarl, holding a bowl of human souls."And here we see the Tyrant in his final madness," a soft, rehearsed voice echoed.I turned. A small group of tourists in silver jumpsuits stood huddled around a young woman in a faded, th

The silver threads rising from the floor didn't touch me—they recoiled from the Nil-energy radiating off my skin. I stood over the table, the shadow-shard of Aethelgard humming with a low, predatory vibration. Below the glass floor, the preserved faces of my 1st Legion stared up with unseeing eyes, their trapped Qi feeding the very lights that illuminated Julian’s smirk."Sit, Father," Julian said, his voice as smooth as polished chrome. "The temple can wait five minutes to claim its cornerstone. You’ve been asleep for a century; surely you’re hungry.""I don't eat with monsters who use their ancestors as floorboards," I spat."Monsters? That’s rich coming from the man who let the universe nearly delete itself because he wanted to be a martyr." Julian gestured to the gold plates. A servant—a hollow-eyed shell of a man with a Void-Eye implant—placed two translucent, pulsing fruits on the table. They glowed with a sickly, iridescent light. "Spirit Fruit from the Deep Void. One bite woul

The chamber hummed with the sound of a world being held together by a single heartbeat. Above us, miles of rock groaned as the Empress’s Deletion Beam slammed into the atmosphere, the shockwaves vibrating through the golden filaments connected to Lydia’s pod."Don't do it, Elias!" Julian shouted, parrying my strike with his obsidian blade. "The moment you shatter that glass, the frequency breaks! The shield falls, and Mother turns this planet into a cinder!""She’s already turning it into a cinder, Julian!" I roared, my Nil-energy flaring as I shoved him back. "She's firing on her own people just to get to me! How is that 'peace'?""It's the only way to keep the Weaver's rot from spreading!" Julian lunged again, his movements a blur of chrome and shadow. "If Lydia dies as a battery, the world lives! If you wake her, everyone dies! Is one woman worth eight billion lives?""She isn't just a woman! She's the heart of the Thorne resistance!"I slammed Aethelgard against Julian’s blade, th

The black rot Sarah unleashed had turned the atmosphere into a choking sludge of corrupted data and static, but the *Lunar Sovereign* didn't fall. It descended like a white guillotine, slicing through the clouds of burning Eye-ships to crush the ruins of what used to be Washington D.C. The impact sent a shockwave of pulverized marble and ancient dust across the wasteland.I landed in the debris, my boots skidding on the cracked remains of a monument. Lydia was slumped against a piece of wreckage, her breath shallow."Stay down," I whispered, Aethelgard humming a jagged, angry tune in my hand. "The guest of honor is finally here."The massive hull of the flagship hissed. A ramp lowered, not with the sound of machinery, but with a resonant, choral hum that vibrated in my teeth. Empress Selene stepped out. She wasn't wearing battle armor; she wore a simple gown of flowing white light, her silver hair braided with needles of Star-Iron."Washington," she said, her voice carrying over the w

**[Core Overload.]****[Humanity Sacrificed.]****[Void Emperor Protocol: Active.]**The heat of the ruins vanished. The pain in my ribs, the weight of the air, the very concept of "warmth"—it all evaporated into a chilling, absolute zero. I felt my skin sloughing off like burnt paper, replaced by a layer of shifting obsidian that didn't reflect the light; it devoured it. My hair lengthened, flowing behind me not as strands of protein, but as a swirling, violet-black nebula that bled into the atmosphere."Father?" Julian’s voice wavered. He hovered back, his four wings beating frantically against the sudden vacuum I was creating. "What have you done to yourself? You look like... nothing.""Not nothing," I said. My voice wasn't a sound; it was a vibration that rattled the marrow of his golden circuits. "Everything."I moved. There was no "speed" involved. I simply ceased to be in one location and occupied the space where Julian’s left silver wing had been. Before he could even register