Far to the north of Sanctum Aqualis, beyond the radioactive glaciers and scorched skies, a pulse echoed through the forgotten crust of Old Earth. Beneath icefields thick with time, the ruins of Imperium Prime stirred. Its command pillars, shaped like obsidian thorns, lit with ancient gold. Forgotten lights. Ancient power.
The reawakening was not triggered by Jaden. Nor by Lyra. It was the work of Doctor Vael Amon.
Once a lead architect in the Omega Biotech initiative—before the collapse, before mercy—Amon had been exiled for pushing one truth too far: that perfection was not only possible, but required. Now, decades later, preserved in self-modifying stasis, he emerged more machine than man. His spine was a segmented ladder of nanoglass. His eyes glowed an unnatural blue, like frozen lightning.
His voice echoed through the frost-locked vault. "Begin phase one. Purge the variables."
