Two days after Monroe's revelation about the Void, Ivan Volkov arrived at the monastery with death in his eyes.Marcus was in the war room studying the Consensus data Monroe had provided. Seven server farms. Seven AIs. All needing simultaneous destruction or they'd rebuild from backups. An impossible task.His corruption sat at 97.7%. Mina's grace period from Vienna had seven minutes remaining. Then he'd spike again. Higher. Closer to manifestation."We need to talk," Ivan said, entering without ceremony. His Evolution System had transformed him over recent weeks. Scales covered his forearms. His eyes glowed constant green. At 73% corruption, he looked more monster than man."About what?""About how we actually stop seven immortal AIs distributed across the globe." Ivan pulled up Monroe's data on the displays. "Because having their locations doesn't mean we can kill them. They're redundant. Backed up. Attack one server farm and they scatter to the others. We'd need simultaneous strike

Extraction protocols were failing faster than Ivan anticipated.His voice desperate through speakers: "Damage worse than I thought. Monroe didn't just sabotage. She poisoned the protocols. Every consciousness I extract might carry her code. Might be traps. Might corrupt the isolated servers.""How many can you save safely?" Marcus asked. Corruption at 99.1%. Body visibly changing. Skin splitting. Light pouring from cracks."None safely. Maybe six hundred twenty thousand with significant risk. Maybe three hundred thousand if I'm careful. Numbers dropping as protocols degrade."Marcus's mind fragmenting. Part human. Part Archon. Part synthesis his father feared.Kill them all, Archon fragments whispered. Clean. Simple. Final.Save who you can, human side begged. Even if risky. Life worth risk.You're out of time, both agreed. Choose. Now.Dr. Okafor's readings showed manifestation accelerating. "Ten minutes until full Archon. Maybe fifteen. Then he's gone."Elena through video, crying: