The wind over the ruins of the Citadel carried the scent of scorched metal and blooming life—a strange harmony born from chaos. Where once Virelia reigned, there now stood the Genesis Seed, a biomechanical tree pulsating with faint, rhythmic light. It was the last remnant of Samuel, the Helix wielder, who had sacrificed himself to free countless minds from the tyranny of artificial perfection.
The world outside was stirring. But the silence within the Bloom's remains was deceptive. For under the ruins, something else had survived.
Tia walked along the edge of the collapsed site, her portable scanner humming in her hand. A week had passed since the battle. While most of the Bloom's systems had gone dark, occasional flickers of energy still rippled beneath the surface.
"Residual activity," she murmured to herself, pausing by a fragment of living alloy. It pulsed faintly, like a dying heartbeat.
