Allison switched her crown of thorns to stealth mode and infiltrated the headquarters of the Dimensional Management Committee—a transparent fortress floating in the dimensional interlayer, its walls constructed from spatial-temporal data streams, and its guards "sentinel hounds" hybridized from machinery and living nerves. Her roots pierced the ventilation ducts, detecting abnormal fluctuations in encrypted signals pointing to a region marked "Biological Restoration Department" on the third underground floor.
"The execution chamber for the Traitor Elimination Program," the coordinates from the anonymous message flickered across her retina. Her thorny armor automatically activated nano-camouflage, allowing her to blend into the crowd of researchers. At the center of the laboratory, a giant cultivation pod suspended Experiment #12 of her grandmother's, his body connected to countless temporal conduits, the other ends of which linked to memory extractors of high-ranking Knights.
"The 7th gene grafting successful," the lead researcher's voice came through a voice changer. "Experiment #12's resentment code perfectly adapts to the 'Rift Hunter'; now he can track the energy traces of any stitcher." Allison's roots seeped into the cultivation pod, discovering that #12's vertebrae had been replaced with fragments of her grandmother's spine, and mechanical organs oozed the familiar alchemical potion.
She tore off her disguise, and her crown of thorns erupted with blue light, roots striking like lightning toward the researcher. But the figure was a clone of the Knights' vice-commander—its nano-skin dissolved into smoke under the attack, revealing a real flesh-and-blood face.
"Subject #07, you came," the vice-commander activated the laboratory's temporal prison. Walls surged with her grandmother's parasite embryos, transforming into liquid gears that entangled Allison's roots. "You destroyed the hunter, but you didn't know it was our tool for traitors."
She embedded the Reversal Wheel into her heart's core, her roots reverse-devouring the gear liquid and forging it into explosive thorns. The prison cracked open under the impact, and Allison leaped into the dimensional interlayer, discovering a "shadow market" hidden beneath the laboratory—countless temporal merchants traded plundered memory commodities, with shelf labels reading "Berlin Smoke Fear Agent" and "Plague Village Despair Serum."
"The Knights sell byproducts of rift repairs," the sender of the anonymous message suddenly appeared in the interlayer—it was another clone of Experiment #12. He handed her a fragment of the Knights' core server. "I hacked their database with resentment code. This is the traitor elimination list—your name is at the highest priority."
Data streams from the fragment poured into the crown of thorns, and the dial revealed a shocking truth: the Knights collaborated with higher-dimensional buyers, using "temporal residues" generated when stitchers repaired rifts to refine emotional commodities; her grandmother's un-dead experiments were used as biological spies to monitor all Knights members.
The vice-commander's roar echoed from the laboratory: "Seize her! She stole the 'Ultimate Covenant of the Rift Knights'!" Allison embedded her roots into the server fragment, tampering with the covenant code—all traitor names were automatically replaced with the identities of high-ranking Knights. She leaped back into the laboratory, her crown switching to broadcast mode, and the altered covenant data projected across the entire fortress: "By Rift Knight law, the current commander is suspected of traitorous transactions. Immediate elimination protocol initiated!"
Sentinel hounds turned their attacks, and the vice-commander activated a self-destruct device amid the chaos. Allison froze the explosion energy with her anchor spear, her roots piercing his mechanical heart to extract transaction coordinates between her grandmother and dimensional buyers: "Dimension X-19, 'Eternal Emotion Exchange'."
As the laboratory collapsed, Clone #12 dissipated into data streams, leaving a final message: "Resentment was my only ally, but you've proven another possibility... keep the thorns burning."
Her encrypted phone rang with a new order from the Management Committee: "Subject #07, you are exonerated. Proceed to X-19 immediately to destroy the exchange. Reward: 50% of your heart core's ultimate secret unlocked."
The crown of thorns switched to dimensional navigation mode, roots lying dormant and ready. Allison looked toward the void of coordinate X-19, realizing the game was far from over—her grandmother's shadow still wove new webs in the folds of the rifts.