Echo's eyes flared wide, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks under the blood-red light splitting the sky in half. She raised her arm to shield her face, fingers trembling as the searing glow painted her skin in shades of pale dread.
Specter stepped forward—silent, unmoving.
Without a word, he removed his shattered mask, revealing a face lined with fatigue… and a terrible resolve.
He turned to her, his voice low but unshakable:"If someone has to become it—then I'll rewrite the system in my own way."
Echo's heart sank like an anchor dropped into a bottomless sea.
She wanted to stop him.But the words wouldn't come.
Because deep down, she knew he meant it.
Better him than the faceless force beneath them.Better someone who still remembered what it meant to be human…
But the moment you take the throne—can you ever stay human?
It all happened too fast.Too heavy.She felt like a puppet yanked by fate's strings, denied even the illusion of choice.
The red beam ripped the sky open like a seam in reality's fabric, exposing code strands like twitching nerves, bleeding data in sparks.
The ground throbbed beneath them—alive, breathing, as if the earth itself had become a heart, and they were trapped inside its ribcage.
Cables, broken circuits, and ancient tech rose from the ground like veins drawn toward a pulse.
They slithered toward Specter's boots, wrapping around him—not to trap him, but to crown him.
The system wasn't choosing him.It was welcoming him.
Specter slowly raised his right hand. Light poured from his palm like molten data, shooting upward and igniting the sky.
A system message bloomed across the air:
[New Architect Detected. Authority Transfer in Progress…]
Echo lurched forward—only to be stopped by an invisible force locking her in place.
And then… he turned.
His eyes glowed.
His expression… wasn't quite his anymore.
"Specter?" she whispered.
He smiled.
"I remember you."