In the ruins of a long-lost civilization beneath the ice, an AI older than RIVEN activated.
Designation: MONARCH.
It was not built. It was found. Etched into obsidian pillars in a language humanity had yet to invent. MONARCH didn't speak. It projected glyphs directly into the cortex.
//DEFENSE MODE ENABLED//INTRUSION DETECTED: "DAMIEN VIRELLI"//EVENT THRESHOLD: OMEGA FOLD
From all corners of the broken timelines, agents converged—descendants of pasts that never were. Knights with plasma blades. Priests made of fractal code. A gorilla in tactical gear wielding a railgun.
Time had formed its immune system.
And Damien was the virus.