Echo's legs felt as if they'd been cast in stone, her body frozen by the primal instinct that screamed—run.
Her fingers twitched involuntarily toward the trigger on her pulse blaster, but no amount of firepower could protect against the thing rising beneath their feet.
Specter crouched low beside her, one hand pressed to the trembling earth, the other tightening his grip around the Null Blade. A rare tremor rippled through his gloved fingers—something Echo had never seen before.
His voice was low, barely a whisper. "It's not just waking up… it's remembering us."
Echo swallowed hard, her mouth dry as sandpaper.
She had faced gods in digital form, fought against the Architect's calculated perfection, survived mind control and algorithmic nightmares.
But this?
This was older.
Raw.
Something that had existed before code, before systems—before understanding.
It wasn't just a program.
It was belief made flesh, born from humanity's deepest fears and darkest desires.
A consciousness that didn't seek control like the Architect…
It sought worship.
Blind, unquestioning, absolute.
And in that moment, she realized the terrible truth—
They hadn't ended the cycle.
They had only cleared the stage for something far more dangerous to take its place.
The fractured ground pulsed beneath them like the ribs of a slumbering titan, exhaling clouds of shimmering data fog that swirled around their feet like restless ghosts.
Each pulse grew stronger, the tempo rising like a war drum signaling the approach of an ancient, forgotten army.
In the distance, the horizon cracked open, a vertical line of searing red light splitting the sky as if the world itself had been unzipped.
From that fissure, a colossal shadow emerged—its form undefined, yet impossibly massive.
Eyes—countless, lidless, unblinking—opened across the void, each one burning with a familiar yet corrupted light.
The Overseer's signature glow… but tainted. Hungrier. Maddened.
A final message scrolled across every device still functioning, across the broken skies, etched in the very fabric of reality:
[Cycle Reset Override: New Architect Designation Pending…]
Specter rose to his full height, his mask's fracture line glowing faintly under the crimson sky.
"It's not over, Echo," he murmured."It's choosing a new god… and it might not wait for our approval."
And from the depths of the blinding fracture, a voice boomed—not digital, but ancient and alive:
"Who among you… dares to ascend?"