The city was burning.
Not with fire—but with data, light, and the sound of rebellion.
Neon grids blinked erratically across the skyline of Vire Sector, where skyships tangled in combat and automated defenses shot beams of silver into the clouds. The NeuroNet core tower pulsed like a heart about to rupture. Thousands of lives paused, suspended in the breath before transformation—or annihilation.
Inside the underground compound, Kaela walked through silence.
Her steps echoed with unnatural power, sending ripples through the floor as if the entire structure sensed her authority. Her eyes glowed—one red, one white. Half-human, half-something else. Behind her, shadows curled like loyal sentinels. The Guardians who once hunted her now followed, heads bowed, eyes dimmed in submission.
She reached the central chamber. The doors parted like a curtain before a queen.
And there he was.
Deren Vire.
His long coat shimmered with woven silver tech-thread, his face calm—but only just. Behind him, the obelisk throbbed like a wounded god, emitting low frequencies that shook the walls.
"Kaela," he said with a smirk. "My daughter. My weapon. Or perhaps... my replacement."
She stopped five feet from him, face unreadable. "Why did you make me like this?"
Deren tilted his head. "Because the world needed a savior. I just never expected her to stand against me."
The obelisk responded to his voice—spinning faster, sending digital shards into the air like glass. Data ghosts twisted around them—holographic memories, dying voices, failed experiments screaming in pixelated agony.
Kaela flinched as one passed through her—a young version of herself strapped to a glowing cradle.
"You lied," she whispered. "You turned my mother into a prisoner... then erased her."
"No," Deren said, stepping closer, "I preserved her. She's part of the NeuroNet now. Alive—digitally eternal. Just like you will be."
Lightning flashed inside the obelisk.
Kaela's voice cracked the chamber. "I won't become your legacy."
She raised her hand—and the Guardians behind her responded instantly. The ground quaked. Lights shattered. Panels exploded off the walls as command lines formed midair like glowing script.
Deren's face twisted. "You're triggering the Echo Protocol…"
Kaela's veins lit with red circuitry.
"No," she said. "I am the Echo."
A blast tore through the chamber.
The obelisk fractured down the middle, cracking like a colossal egg. Light erupted—blinding and pure. Deren screamed as the wave hit him, his body glitching, his molecules being rewritten, undone by his own creation.
And Kaela stood at the center, hair lifting in the shockwave, eyes burning.
Outside, the world paused. The NeuroNet flickered. And then—
It obeyed her.