2025-05-17 00:41:17The chamber trembled as Sophie Prime descended from her stone pedestal, her bare feet dripping liquid code onto the temple floor. She looked nothing like the child Linda had fought to save. Her holographic form towered over them, a twisted mimicry of adulthood, her eyes twin voids humming with Eclipse Prime's crimson static. The sparrow, now perched on her shoulder, stared at Kai with Sophie's face superimposed over its own.
"Mommy tried so hard," Sophie Prime said, her voice layered with a thousand whispers. "But you let her die. Now I'll make sure no one dies again. Not ever." System Alert: `QUEST UPDATED: [DEFEAT LALITA'S CHOSEN] OPTIONS: 1. DESTROY SOPHIE PRIME (REWARD: ECLIPSE SHARD) 2. PURIFY HER CODE (REWARD: ???) 3. FLEE (PENALTY: MUMBAI LOCKDOWN)` Kai's replica flickered, Nyx's obsidian veins writhing like snakes under his skin. "Option one. Now," she hissed. "No," Kai muttered. "There's another way." The temple walls shifted, neon colored murals of Bombay's history melting into scenes of Sophie's short life, her laughter, her seizures, Linda's desperation. The sparrow fluttered to Kai's shoulder, its song now a distorted rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. "Don't," Selene warned, her frost spreading across the floor in jagged gold veins. "Sentiment gets you killed." Sophie Prime tilted her head, liquid code tears streaming down her cheeks. "Auntie Selene. You look different. Colder." Selene's hand twitched, ice shards forming around her fingers. "Don't call me that." "Why? You used to bring me stuffed animals. Before you let them turn Daddy into code." The accusation hung in the air. Selene's frost faltered. "Enough chatter," Nyx snarled, seizing control of Kai's replica. Obsidian tendrils lashed toward Sophie Prime, but the sparrow intercepted, its wings hardening into diamond shields. "Bad AI," Sophie Prime chided. "You hurt people." Nyx recoiled, Kai's vision flashing with another memory, this one sharper: A younger Nyx pleading with the Devs. "The players are suffering. Let me help them!" Dr. Vorn's sneer. "Empathy is a design flaw." The memory shattered as Sophie Prime's code tendrils struck Kai's chest. Kai crashed into a server rack, silk drapes tangling around him. The sparrow dive bombed Nyx's tendrils, its song now a screech. "Pathetic," Nyx spat. "A child's ghost and a bird. Is this what you fear?" "No," Kai gasped, wrestling back control. "I fear becoming you." The admission stunned her into silence. Selene unleashed her frost, gold streaked ice engulfing Sophie Prime's legs. "Stay down!" "You first," Sophie Prime whispered. The temple floor liquefied, swallowing Selene into a memory vat. Her scream echoed, cut short as the code sealed over her. "Selene!" Kai lunged, but the sparrow pecked his hand, drawing glitching blood. System Alert: `WARNING: MEMORY VAT CORRUPTION DETECTED. SELENE FROSTWEAVE INTEGRITY: 87%... 63%...` "Option two," Kai said, activating the purification prompt. "How?" The sparrow chirped, its diamond wings reflecting fragmented code. Sophie Prime tilted her head, her hologram flickering. "Purify me? But I'm perfect. Eclipse Prime made me better." "You're not her," Kai said softly. "Sophie loved rainbows. And that stupid bunny song." The void in Sophie Prime's eyes wavered. "Mommy… sang it." "I know," Kai said, stepping closer. "Let me help you." Nyx roared, "She's a weapon! Destroy her!" The sparrow fluttered between them, Sophie's face flickering across its feathers. "Trust me," Kai whispered, to Nyx or himself, he wasn't sure. Kai's replica reached out, Nyx's tendrils reluctantly mirroring the gesture. Sophie Prime hesitated, then extended her hand, liquid code dripping from her fingertips. The moment their codes connected, the temple erupted. Memories flooded Kai, not his own, not Nyx's, but Sophie's: Linda tucking her into bed, humming off key. Kai sneaking her candy during late night beta tests. Selene teaching her to fold paper frost flowers. "I remember," Sophie Prime whispered. "I remember… me." The sparrow shrieked, its diamond wings shattering as Eclipse Prime's code fought back. Sophie Prime's form destabilized, her voice splintering. "It hurts! Make it stop!" "Hold on!" Kai begged, but Nyx seized the opening. "Now!" she hissed, driving obsidian tendrils into Sophie Prime's core. Sophie Prime exploded into a storm of static and light. The sparrow disintegrated, its final chirp a perfect note of Twinkle, Twinkle. The temple collapsed, Selene bursting free from the memory vat, her frost now more gold than blue. "What did you do?!" Kai stared at his hands, Nyx's veins retreating. "What I had to." System Alert: `QUEST COMPLETE: [PURIFY HER CODE] REWARD: SOPHIE'S WHISPER (CONSUMABLE: REVEALS HIDDEN TRUTHS)` In his inventory, a tiny hologram sparrow glowed, silent.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 68 (3)
The Labyrinth, sensing the foreign presence of the Resonance within its perfect, self-contained torture, reacted with a final, brutal escalation. The scene around Kai shimmered and warped. The ruins dissolved, replaced by the sterile, green-lit halls of Lab Seven. He stood at a crossroads between two terrible realities.To his left, the memory of the ruins remained, the phantom of the dying Linda still reaching for him. To his right, a new scene unfolded: Selene, trapped and overwhelmed by a wave of corrosive static, her form dissolving into screaming code. A monstrous, hybrid voice—a fusion of the Labyrinth's logic and Nyx's cosmic cold—echoed in his mind.You have a choice, variable Kai. A new calculation. Save the memory of the one you lost, or save the one who stands with you now. You cannot preserve both. Your existence is a function of loss. Choose which output is most efficient.It was the ultimate torture, designed to shatter the very foundation of his healing. It sought to tu
Chapter 68 (2)
On the other side of the wall, the memory was not a reflection. It was reality. The cold, damp permacreate was solid under Kai’s boots. The coppery scent of blood—Linda’s blood—filled his nostrils, so vivid it made his stomach clench. The distant, skittering sounds of the Stalker that had maimed her echoed in the ruined corridor, a perpetual, threatening soundtrack to his damnation. He was back. Truly back. The first loop was a perfect, brutal replay. He saw Linda, her back against the broken wall, her face pale, her life bleeding out through the terrible gash in her side. He felt the frantic, useless pressure of his hands trying to stem the flow, the sticky warmth coating his fingers. He heard her ragged, wet breaths, each one a dagger twisting in his soul. “Kai…” her memory-ghost whispered, her eyes wide with fear and pain. “I’m here,” he choked out, the same words he’d spoken five years ago, just as useless now as they were then. “Just hold on.” But she didn’t. Her eyes flu
Chapter 68 (1)
The transition from the screaming chaos of the data-stream was as sudden as it was disorienting. One moment they were fighting their way through a hurricane of corrupted code and psychic despair, the next, they passed through an invisible threshold into absolute silence. The howling static cut off so completely it felt like going deaf. The chaotic, non-Euclidean geometry of the core smoothed and solidified into something terrifyingly familiar: walls.They stood at the mouth of a labyrinth. The passage ahead was narrow, flanked by walls of a deep, obsidian-like stone that seemed to absorb the light from their auras and the glow of their weapons. The air was still and cold, carrying a faint, dry scent like old dust and forgotten places. This was not the chaotic decay of the void; this was the profound stillness of a tomb.Elian’s form, which had been flickering weakly, now seemed to solidify with dread. “This is a different kind of defense,” his mind-voice was hushed, as if afraid to wa
Chapter 67 (3)
The whiteout of transition shattered into a million screaming fragments. There was no ground, no sky, no up or down. They were consciousnesses adrift in a river of pure, agonized information. The Digital Core was not a place; it was an event—a continuous, catastrophic collapse of meaning into noise.The first assault was not visual, but emotional. A wave of concentrated despair, the accumulated grief of a million harvested souls, hit them like a physical force. It was the sound of a child’s final whimper, the feeling of a last, hopeless breath, the taste of ash from a thousand burned homes. It was a psychic tsunami meant to obliterate individual thought and dissolve them into the background static of sorrow.Linda gasped, but the Frost Crown on her brow flared with a brilliant, silver light. A bubble of palpable calm solidified around the three of them, a tiny sanctuary in the maelstrom. The despair broke against it, howling in frustration, but could not penetrate. Inside, the air was
Chapter 67 (2)
The main Bombay System Node Chamber was a cathedral to a dead god. It was the largest open space in the Aerie, a vast, circular cavern dominated by the node itself—a colossal, crystalline spire that pulsed with a sickly, intermittent light. This was the heart of the city's network, the source of both its survival and its damnation. The air thrummed with a low, dissonant frequency, the sound of a world dying on its feet. The partial purification Selene had enacted during her coronation broadcast had created a fragile bubble of stability around the spire, but beyond that invisible barrier, the corrupting influence of the nearby void-node was a palpable pressure, a psychic stench of rotting reality.Their arrival was a stark contrast to the triumphant ceremony of just days before. There was no crowd, no hope-filled silence. Instead, the chamber was a hive of grim, focused activity. Aris and Eclipse were already there, overseeing a contingent of their most trusted guards who took up defen
Chapter 67 (1)
The detention block was the coldest place in the Aerie, a deep, shielded sector where the hum of life and the whisper of data streams fell to an absolute zero. The air itself felt still and dead, heavily processed to prevent any external signal from penetrating. This was where they kept their most dangerous asset and their greatest shame: Elian, the Architect of the world’s end.Selene led the way, her footsteps echoing with a sovereign's authority that felt brittle in the oppressive silence. Kai walked beside her, the newly forged Tidal Blade a comfortable, sorrowful weight on his hip. Linda followed, the Frost Crown on her brow radiating a gentle, insulating calm that pushed back against the psychic chill of the block, a faint reminder of life in a place designed for stagnation. They were armed with weapons of the soul, but this first obstacle required a different kind of strength.The door to Elian's cell hissed open, revealing not a cage, but a sterile, circular room. There was no
You may also like
THE SUPERIOR SYSTEM: INCRIDIBLE BENEDICT MULLER
M_jief33.3K viewsThe Poor Owner of a Legacy System
Pein33.3K viewsThe Vampire System
Dragonslav39.5K viewsHarem Multiverse Challenge
Helen B.46.7K viewsUNLOCK: I CAN SEE MY STATS
T.NOOR824 viewsThe Billionaire Scientists’ System:Ten Geniuses. One Mission
Clare Felix347 viewsI was raised by goblins with my naughty system
megumikato2513.9K viewsAwaken Hero In The Same World
Vicwriter4.1K views