"What did you just say?" I asked, staring at the True Architect."I said you can have it all, Vaxien," the figure replied. The white line on his face pulsed with light. "I can unlock the remaining ninety-five percent of the God-Slayer Protocol right now. You won't have to struggle. You won't have to breathe through the pain. You will simply be a god.""And the catch?" I snapped."You must abandon the Rebellion," he said. "They are a distraction. They are messy, biological errors. If you take this power, you must leave them behind. You belong in the Root, not in a junkyard with those 'Glitches.'""Vaxien, don't listen to him!" Nyxra cried. She was shivering as the golden tree above us continued to bleed red. "He’s trying to isolate you!""I’m trying to save him!" The Architect roared. "The Academy is at your doorstep, boy! Do you want to hear what’s happening in the real world?"He waved a hand, and a screen of static appeared in the air. I saw the hideout. Huge, black machines—Goliath

"Your father wasn't a builder, Vaxien," the old man whispered. He was still kneeling, his forehead almost touching the invisible floor. "He was the core. He was the anchor of the whole system.""You're lying!" I snapped. I stepped back, my lungs still pulsing with that purple light. "My father was a technician in the Wastes. He died in a scrap accident!""That's what they wrote in the records," the woman said. She looked up, her smoky eyes fixed on me. "Malakor didn't just take the throne. He rewrote the history files. Your family was the Root. You are the only one left with the Admin bloodline. That's why your breathing resets the world. You are the source code.""Vaxien, look out!" Nyxra screamed.A massive roar shook the darkness. It didn't sound like an animal. It sounded like a thousand voices screaming in different frequencies at once.From the ink of the Dead Zone, something huge began to emerge. It was a beast, but its body was made of flickering, semi-transparent limbs—arms,

I didn't even feel my boots hit the rusted floor. My legs felt like they were made of thin smoke. I looked down at my hands and nearly shouted. They were see-through. I could see the metal plating right through my own palms."Vaxien, stop!" Nyxra’s voice was a desperate yell."What’s happening to you?" Nyxra grabbed my arm. Her hand went halfway through my sleeve before she caught something solid. "You look like a ghost!""I don't know," I said. My voice sounded like it was coming from miles away. "The Phylactery... it did something when it broke. I feel light. Too light.""He's translucent," Kael whispered, creeping closer with a flickering scanner. "Vaxien, your cellular data is thinning out. You're losing your physical anchor. You're becoming part of the transmission.""Vaxien! You're back!" The fire-hand man shouted. He ran from the inner sanctum with a dozen other rebels. They stopped dead when they saw me. "What is that?" One woman asked, pointing. "Is that even him? He looks l

"I can’t breathe, Vaxien! The air is getting thin!" Nyxra screamed.I didn't answer. I couldn't. My body was pinned against the main intake valve of the Academy’s life-support hub. I felt like a wire carrying ten times its voltage.Every time I took a breath, I wasn't just filling my own lungs. I was filtering the air for the pods, the district, and the millions Malakor had left to suffocate."Vaxien, your skin is turning into glass!" Kael shouted. He was hanging onto a terminal as the gravity fluctuated."The Nirvana Engine is over-clocking your cells! If you don't disconnect, you're going to become the atmosphere!""Let him stay!" A voice boomed from the speakers. It was Malakor, his voice distorted by digital rot. "Let the little Prince play hero.He can be the oxygen for a dying world while my Sky-Knights tear his friends apart.""Sky-Knights?" The fire-hand man gasped. "What is a Sky-Knight?"Suddenly, the ceiling shattered. Four figures in black flight armor descended on pillars

"Get back, Nyxra! He’s not Zeryth anymore!" I shouted.I pushed her away as a wave of golden fire erupted from Zeryth’s body. The gravity in the Pod Bay flickered and died.We were all floating. The pods bumped against the ceiling like giant balloons."Vaxien, look at his eyes!" Kael screamed, drifting near the terminal. "That’s god-tier energy! He’s using Zeryth’s hardware to bypass the safety locks!""You always were a fast learner, Prince," Malakor’s voice came out of Zeryth’s mouth. It sounded like metal grinding. "But learning isn't enough. You are a bug in my program. And bugs get deleted.""I’m not a bug," I said, wiping blood from my mouth. "I’m the crash you didn't see coming.""Is that so?" Malakor sneered. He raised Zeryth’s mechanical hand. A sphere of oily blackness began to grow in his palm. "Have you ever heard of the Event Horizon? It doesn't just kill you. It removes you from the history files. Nobody will remember you were born.""Vaxien, don't let that touch you!"