Darkness.
Then light.
Selene opened her eyes slowly, breath catching. She wasn't in a room. She was inside something… alive.
The "floor" beneath her feet pulsed faintly, like veins carrying glowing liquid. The air shimmered with faint melodies that weren't music but more like thoughts echoing. And above her… a sky of endless crystal arches, shifting in fractal patterns like a kaleidoscope.
She was in Origin.
She took one step—and the ground rippled, rearranging itself into a translucent bridge that stretched into infinity.
"Welcome home."
Lyra appeared beside her, walking casually like this bizarre alien landscape was normal.
Selene glanced sideways, her voice quiet but cutting. "This isn't my home."
Lyra didn't answer. She just led her forward.
They passed other figures along the way—other Core Bearers. Each radiated a unique, terrifying presence. One was wrapped in chains of pure lightning, their eyes burning like suns. Another floated above the ground, surrounded by silent black orbs that seemed to erase reality wherever they drifted. Some glanced at Selene briefly… but none spoke.
She could feel it. They were all powerful. All deadly. And yet… all bound here.
"Why?" Selene finally asked. "Why were we made? What are we?"
Lyra stopped walking. Slowly, she turned.
"You… still don't remember, do you?"
Selene's silver eyes narrowed. "Remember what?"
Lyra reached out, placing a single finger to Selene's forehead.
Instantly—memories flooded in.
Flashes of impossible wars. Planets shaped like weapons. The Architects creating Core Vessels as tools—living weapons to rewrite or erase realities. Selene saw herself as just a fragment of their experiment, a prototype that accidentally developed will.
And then she saw… a throne room.
On it sat the First Architect. A figure so vast their body looked like a collapsing galaxy, their voice an echo that bent entire timelines.
"The Cores are pieces of me. They are not meant to think. Not meant to feel. Only to obey."
The memory shattered. Selene gasped, clutching her head.
"I…" she breathed, shaking. "…I'm just… a piece of them?"
Lyra's gaze softened for a brief moment. "You're more than that now. But they won't allow it."
Before Selene could respond, the space around them shifted. The bridge unfolded into an enormous cathedral-like chamber, and waiting at its center was the Council of Architects.
A dozen towering figures of starlight and shadow, their voices overlapping in a symphony of dread.
"SUBJECT SELENE VEYR. YOU HAVE OVERSTEPPED YOUR DESIGN. YOU WILL BE DISMANTLED."
Selene lifted her head slowly, her calm returning like ice forming on water.
"…Try."