Specter froze mid-stride.His pupils dilated.His body jerked—like something ancient inside him just got yanked online without warning.
A line of blood trickled from his nose.Not from pain.From pressure.From a name being whispered through the code-rivers of the world.
"Overseer…"
Behind him, Echo clutched her chest.She gasped.Zero-One was awake again.Not in voice—but in code patterns flashing across her veins.
And he was afraid.
Echo staggered against the console wall.The pulses in her skin were faster now—rhythmic, like a countdown.
She heard Zero-One whisper:"We weren't the beginning.""He was sealed for a reason…"
And that's when it hit her—all this time, they'd been fighting to reclaim order.To stop Specter from falling.To preserve balance.
But balance had always been fake.The system didn't rise from order.It rose from control.From fear.From a war they weren't even born to remember.
Above them, the simulated sky cracked—not shattered like glass—but peeled, like skin.
