Location: The Core Collapse Zone — Between Real and Digital
Time: Undefined (Core Synchronization: 99.8%)
There was no floor. No ceiling. No sky.
Only light.
Light that burned, bled, and whispered.
Lira's body dissolved the moment she stepped into the Core. Her lungs filled with silver fire; her skin became glass, her heartbeat transformed into code. The echoes of Ava's voice pulsed around her thousands of whispers overlapping like a choir.
You're almost there, Lira. Hold on.
But there was pain the kind that felt ancient. It wasn't just hers. It was Ava's too. And deeper still the Remnant's grief, buried beneath centuries of rage.
For the first time, she saw it clearly.
The Remnant wasn't just a monster.
It was the raw fragment of Ava's pain the part she'd exiled to survive.
You called me your shadow, the Remnant's voice boomed, fragmented but human. You made me to hold your guilt, your mistakes, your fear.
