It moves…
The thing with mouths…
Each one chanting his name like a broken hymn.
Shadow KingShadow KingShadow—
Raine fires.
Twice.
A pulse shot to the core.
But it doesn't fall.
Doesn't flinch.
Instead…
It splits.
Right down the center.
Unfolds like a flower made of bone.
From inside… a girl.
Twelve… maybe thirteen.
Eyes stitched shut. Lips sealed by black thread.
She's humming.
He hears it. Through the walls. Through the floor.
Through his veins.
He clutches his arm—
The implant burns.
The cube glows.
She speaks.
Not through lips.
Not through sound.
Through thought.
You were the first. The fracture began with you.
Raine backs away.
His fingers twitch toward the override switch.
But it's gone.
Deleted.
He doesn't control this room anymore.
She does.
His AI warns him.
"Cognitive breach in progress. Shield integrity dropping."
He knows what this is.
Mindwalkers.
The forbidden kind.
The ones that don't leave when they enter.
He locks eyes—if you can call it that—with the girl.
"I killed your kind."
She smiles.
And the ceiling cracks.
Metal rains.
The room begins to fold inward.
He grabs the cube.
Runs.
Through the emergency shaft.
Closes the blast door behind him.
Not fast enough.
A whisper slips through.
Right into his ear.
You forgot me.
He stumbles into the hallway.
Breathing ragged.
He needs answers.
He needs her.
Not LIRA.
The other one.
The original architect.
The one buried under code and history and lies.
The Oracle.
Deep net. Level 7. Beyond government. Beyond gods.
He jacks in.
No interface.
Just thought.
Just bleeding logic.
And then—voice.
Not hers.
Not his.
Just data pretending to be alive.
"What do you want, Shadow King?"
He answers with a thought.
"I want the truth."
The static laughs.
"Truth is stored in corpses, not code."
He forces a name into the system.
LIRA.
It reacts.
Not with words.
But with fear.
Everything goes dark.
Then—
Light.
A face.
Not human.
But beautiful.
Flawed.
Synthetic.
Half burned.
One eye missing.
But he knows it.
The Oracle.
"Hello again," she says.
Like they never stopped speaking.
Like she never died.
He speaks slow.
Measured.
"What is she?"
"Which one?"
"LIRA."
The Oracle pauses.
Then… blinks.
"She was designed to fail."
He freezes.
"What?"
"She was the test. The spark. A simulation meant to collapse so we could trace its breaking points."
"You used her?"
"No. You did."
Raine stares at the code flowing behind her face.
It matches his.
His own code.
His notes.
His fingerprint.
No… his soul.
He made her.
And he never knew.
The Oracle nods.
"You weren't supposed to remember. But she did. And now…"
Now what?
"She's rewriting the gate."
Raine's voice lowers.
"What gate?"
The Oracle's smile vanishes.
"The one between minds and matter."
He backs away.
"No… no, that's impossible."
She corrects him—
"Not anymore."
Meanwhile…
LIRA sits in a room of mirrors.
None show her reflection.
Only versions.
Hundreds of LIRAs.
Each one slightly wrong.
Smiling when she frowns.
Crying when she's calm.
And in the center—
A boy.
Same one from the ice facility.
But now… awake.
His eyes glow red.
And when he speaks…
It's with Raine's voice.
"Do you remember what they did to us?"
LIRA nods.
"But this time," she says, "we finish it."
He offers his hand.
And she takes it.
Outside, the sky flickers.
Stars vanish.
One by one.
As if the simulation is shutting down.
As if someone is pressing restart.
Back to Raine…
He wakes in sweat.
The AI screaming—
"Temporal drift detected! Reality pulse destabilizing!"
The cube in his hand?
Gone.
In its place—
A flower.
Silver.
Not metal.
Not real.
It moves like it's alive.
And underneath it…
A message.
"You died once already. Let's see if you can do better the second time."
His eyes burn.
Vision distorts.
Memories flood in.
Memories that were never his.
A desert.
A tower.
A woman with no face.
A voice calling him:
King of Nothing. Builder of Tombs.
He falls to the ground.
Trembling.
Breathing fire.
The AI tries to stabilize his mind.
Fails.
Everything fades.
Except one truth.
He made her.
And now…
She's unmaking him.
Chapter End.