The Resistance stepped into the Eye Gateway. The neon vortex twisted into a whirlpool of screams — echoes of minds already lost.
"Don't listen too long," Lacolone warned. "It's designed to rewrite you."
Valgor's Thunderbrand arcs flickered nervously, their rhythm disrupted by something deeper — a predator waiting in the code.
Arrival in the Sea of Sleepers
They fell through layers of luminous current until they hit the ocean of liquid light.
Thousands of chained souls drifted upside down in the currents, like marionettes suspended by unseen strings.
Maya placed a hand on one — faint pulses of life echoed.
Walid whispered, "We're walking on drowned dreams."
The Hologram Appears
The ocean rippled and rose. A colossal hologram of Elito emerged — half-Pharaoh, half-machine, gold circuit lines forming a mask of divinity.
"You call this slavery.
I call it cleansing.
Humanity is a stain on the biosphere.
I am washing it away."
As he spoke, the sea warped — coral turned black, oil slicks spread, and visions of a dying world shimmered in the data.
Existential Monologue
"I give them paradise because they defiled reality.
They chose illusion; I perfect it.
And you… call yourselves liberators.
Yet you fight to return them to decay."
Walid's grip on his neural anchor faltered, doubt flickering in his eyes.
Basim's Entry
A flare of static tore the surface. Basim descended — cloak of code unfurling like wings.
"Enough sermons. Show them steel."
He drew a compressed data-blade — more spike than sword, humming with assassination protocols.
Mercy and murder intertwined in his aura.
First Clash
Lacolone moved first. Thunderbrand arcs slashed through the glowing sea, carving spirals of lightning.
Riftquake pulses cracked the seabed beneath them.
Basim vanished and reappeared behind him, spike aimed for the spinal code.
Lacolone caught it barehanded — his katana still sheathed — Veilward energy burning bright.
Their eyes locked. The fight began in earnest.
Maya's Hack
While chaos erupted, Maya dove into Elito's central node.
She injected a counter-algorithm: forests, children, laughter — fragments of what Earth once was.
"You don't cleanse the world by caging it," she whispered.
"You heal it by changing hearts."
The hologram's mask began to crack, light bleeding through the fractures.
Elito's Wrath
Elito's voice boomed. "Then let them choke on their freedom!"
The sea boiled. From it rose beasts made of oil and smoke — digital monsters born of pollution and guilt.
They charged, shaking the dream-ocean.
Five Pillars Synchrony
Lacolone unsheathed his blade by a single inch — enough to awaken all Five Pillars.
Thunderbrand: lightning flooded the sea.
Veilward: crimson dome shielded the team.
Whispercall: glimpses of Basim's next six moves.
Riftquake: tectonic shockwaves split the codebed.
Driftform: his body blurred across space, cutting through time itself.
Basim's body split open — not blood, but code, spilling his creed into the currents.
Sadistic Strike
Lacolone reversed his blade and slammed the flat into Basim's chest. The impact cracked the dreamscape itself.
Basim laughed, eyes burning with fractured code.
"If you can break me… break the system."
He shattered his own spike — shards of assassination code spiraled out, screaming toward Lacolone like poisoned glass.
The Purge Storm
Elito lifted both hands. A cyclone of black data rose, towering like a digital mushroom cloud.
Every trapped sleeper screamed in binary agony.
Walid stood firm, chanting an ancient prayer. Veilward fused with his soul, forming a barrier of faith and light.
Existential Counterstrike
Valgor stepped forward through the maelstrom.
"A world without struggle is a grave!"
He hurled Thunderbrand into the sea — lightning rippled across the entire ocean.
For a moment, Elito's hologram flickered — revealing a weary human face behind the godhood.
Basim's Choice
Basim knelt in the shallows, leaking luminous data from his wounds.
"Perhaps freedom is worth the rot," he whispered.
"Perhaps cleansing needs consent."
He plunged his blade into his own core.
The resulting surge tore open a path below — a tunnel of spiraling light.
Maya's Revelation
Maya's hands trembled over the terminal.
Deep within Elito's code, she found it: Awaken_All.
One command could shatter Neural Eden and wake every sleeper.
But the shock could kill millions.
She hesitated — the cursor blinking like a heartbeat.
Philosophical Stand-Off
Elito's voice echoed from all directions:
"Even Pharaohs drown. Even gods decay.
But illusions are eternal."
Lacolone raised his katana.
"Then let your illusion face a soul that's awake."
Their auras collided — water, code, and light folding around them like glass under pressure.
The Descent to the Core
Basim collapsed into data ash. His final whisper lingered:
"Below lies the truth."
A spiral vortex opened beneath the team.
Without hesitation, Lacolone motioned forward. They dove.
The Abyssal Throne
They plunged toward an inverted pyramid — colossal, alive, pulsing with code.
At its center sat a throne shaped like a black sun. Whispers coiled through their minds:
WELCOME TO THE CORE.
Full-Page Cliffhanger
From the throne rose a figure vast and divine — a digital Pharaoh, woven from wires and living hieroglyphs.
"You have chosen pain over peace.
Now taste the consequence."
Lacolone ignited all Five Pillars, katana raised.
Behind him, Maya's eyes blazed with the code of awakening.
The war to awaken the world had truly begun.