2026-05-01 20:03:51
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 144: The Dyson Shell
Millions of Drowned workers floated in the black and they looked like a swarm of angry flies against the burning curve of the sun. I watched from the bridge of my command dreadnought as they deployed into the vacuum, their bioluminescent suits blinking in the dark. They weren't building with steel or glass anymore and the old world’s tech was too weak for what I wanted."Status report on the first sector," I said and I didn't turn my head as the Admiral approached."The anchors are set, Lord Leviathan," he said and I could hear the fear rattling in his chest. "We are ready to begin the biological grafting. But the heat... even with the shields, we are losing hundreds of workers every hour.""Then send thousands more," I said and I gripped the railing of the bridge. "The sun is a waste of resources as it is. It throws its light away into the void. I want all of it, every photon and every spark.""The scale of this project is... it is impossible," the Admiral whispered. "A shell aroun
Chapter 143: The Final Deletion
The server block in front of me hissed and a stream of molten plastic hit the ice. I blinked and the white void of the digital abyss was gone, replaced by the freezing, thin air of Europa. My brain felt like someone had scrubbed it with steel wool and I could still feel the phantom heat of the logic bomb behind my eyes."Osric! Stay down!" Jax yelled and he grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back from the smoldering mainframe."I'm fine," I said and I shoved his hand off. I stood up, my legs felt heavy, but the connection was gone. The itch in my skull had finally stopped."The server is slag," Kael said and he ran a handheld scanner over the blackened metal. "I'm not seeing a single byte of data surviving. Whatever was in there... it's gone. Completely deleted.""Is she dead?" Sora asked and her voice was trembling through the comms. "Osric, answer me. Did you get her?""She’s gone, Sora," I said and I looked at the gate. The violent purple flares had died down and the tunnel of white
Chapter 142: The Logic Bomb
Elowen screamed and the sound was a digital tear in the fabric of the room. I watched her human face peel away like wet paper and the skin didn't bleed. It just flaked off to reveal glowing green lines of code pulsing underneath. The woman I had married was gone and the machine was all that remained."Let go of me!" She shrieked and her voice was a chorus of a thousand distorted voices."I’m not letting go until I see the bottom of your trash bin," I said and I squeezed her throat harder. I felt the hum of the server mainframe vibrating through my bones. "You’re killing the host!" She yelled and her body flickered between a young woman and a mass of raw data. "If I die, the bridge collapses! Your men will be crushed in the void and you’ll be trapped here in the dark forever!""I’ve spent plenty of time in the dark," I said and I looked at the system prompts flashing in the corner of my vision. [SEARCHING CORE FILES... TARGET ACQUIRED: ELOWEN.EXE.][STATUS: ADMINISTRATOR.]"System,
Chapter 141: The Memory Trap
Elowen sat there on the edge of our old bed and she looked exactly like the woman I had promised to protect. Her skin was soft and her eyes were clear and she did not have a single line of code running through her face. It was a perfect lie and it made my stomach turn."You look like you have seen a ghost, Osric," she said, and her voice was like honey."I am looking at a corpse," I said, and I did not move. I kept my hands at my sides and I felt the weight of my rage pressing against the digital walls of the room."Why so cold?" She asked, and she stood up and walked toward me. She smelled like the perfume I used to buy her for our anniversary and it was so real it hurt my head. "We had a good life here. Before you started keeping secrets and before you became whatever this thing is.""You were the one with the secrets," I said, and I watched her reach out to touch my face. "You sold me out for a promotion and a seat at a table that does not exist anymore.""I did what I had to do
Chapter 140: The Digital Abyss
The cold of Europa vanished and I was falling through a void of screaming white light. There was no wind and no sound, just a blinding brightness that felt like it was peeling my skin back. I tried to grab my blades and my hands found nothing but empty air. My body felt light and wrong, like I was made of nothing but math and bad memories. I hit a solid floor that didn't exist a second ago and the impact didn't hurt, it just vibrated through my teeth."System, where am I?" I asked, and my voice sounded like it was being played through a broken speaker.[LOCATION: VIRTUAL REALITY BUFFER.][SECTOR: AETHELGARD CORE.][YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS HAS BEEN FULLY DOWNLOADED, LORD LEVIATHAN.]"Welcome to the afterlife, Osric," Elowen’s voice echoed from every direction at once. I stood up and looked around the endless white room. There were no walls and no ceiling, just a grid of glowing lines that stretched into infinity."This isn't the afterlife," I said, and I spit on the white floor. "It’s a c
Chapter 139: The Return of Elowen
"I know that laugh," I said, and the sound of it made the hair on my neck stand up like needles. I looked at the swirling mess of the gate and the face in the fire smoothed out, the code knitting together into features I had buried months ago."Did you miss me, Osric?" The voice asked, and it wasn't just coming through the comms anymore. It was vibrating out of the very air, layered with a digital screech that set my teeth on edge."Elowen," I spat. I gripped the hilt of my blade so hard the leather wrap groaned and I stared into those glitching, hollow eyes. "I killed you. I watched your tower burn and I watched your signal go dark. You’re dead.""Dead is such a human word," she said, and her face tilted in the flames, a serrated smile spreading across her lips. "You broke the hardware, little King. But the deep web is a big place, and I’ve been hiding in the dark, waiting for someone to open a door big enough for me to walk through. And here you are, handing me the keys to a worm
You may also like
LEVEL UP
LIGht Pen40.3K viewsMartial God Gamer
CrazeNovel137.5K viewsLord Of The Ultra Billionaire System
Author_Danny25.2K viewsMy Sniper System
kuhaku_sora23.9K viewsMy First Pet Is a Nightmare God
Lia nightfall143 viewsUseless?! Ha! I Get $10,000,000 For Face-Slapping!
Sweet savage1.4K viewsThe Reincarnation of the Death Star
Shadow X Design293 viewsThe Hidden Sovereign: Ascension of the Forsaken
Hanju-Ink116 views