For several seconds, no one moved.
The woman inside the large chunk of white crystal was nothing like Cyra, yet she somehow possessed an air of belonging, as if the chamber was her domain and the rest of us unwelcome intruders.
Cyra stared at the woman’s doppelgänger inside the crystal.
"No."
The woman smiled.
"Yes."
I shot a look at both of them. "I’m going to need someone to fill me in."
Vexa slowly raised her wrench. "I second that." Nyx didn’t glance away from the crystal. "Is that... another Cyra?"
"Apparently," I muttered.
The woman inside the Core laughed gently. "Not another." Her gaze swept over Cyra’s shoulder. "An earlier one."
Cyra frowned. "You’re lying."
"I have no reason to be." She gestured at the Core. "I created your Core, did I not?"
The chamber shuddered as white Aether poured over the ancient machinery within the crystal, outlining every groove and crevice.
I stepped forward. "Then tell me."
The woman’s gaze snapped to me. "You carry the Upgrade System."
I went cold.
She knew.
Not just about me.
About the System itself.
"How?" Her smile vanished.
"Because I created its foundation."
The System fell silent.
That was worse than anything she could have said.
I’d relied on that voice, trusted it implicitly, and now someone else had looked into it and seen nothing but another tool.
"What are you?" I demanded.
The woman studied Cyra. "I am the first vessel of the Aether Sovereign."
Cyra scoffed. "That’s impossible."
"It is not." I took a sharp breath.
"It is."
Cyra stepped forward. "My father told me I was born with the Sovereign Core."
The woman’s expression softened, almost sadly.
"Your father thought it best that you believed that."
Cyra’s hands trembled. "What are you talking about?"
The woman pressed her palm against the crystal. "You were not born with the Core."
A heavy pause. "You were made for it."
Cyra seemed to stop breathing.
I shot a glance at Vexa, who looked just as stunned.
Nyx’s pistol wavered slightly as she stared at the woman’s reflection.
"You were engineered to house an Aether Core that would kill any other human," the woman continued.
"Your father thought the world was not ready for the Sovereign."
Cyra whispered, "Engineered?"
"Yes." The woman tilted her head.
"By the people who built this city."
I looked up at the chamber.
Everything suddenly made sense.
The machines that recognized Cyra.
The ancient network.
The Sovereign.
Even Cyra herself, with her strange compatibility with the world.
The Dead City wasn’t welcoming her.
It was remembering her. Or, more accurately, it was remembering who she was supposed to be.
Cyra stumbled back. "I was a weapon."
The woman shook her head. "No." Her tone was gentle.
"You were a key."
"A key to what?" The crystal flared to life, and the machinery around the chamber responded.
A ring of ancient metalwork opened at the center of the room, revealing something buried deep below.
I peered down the hole.
Something massive was embedded in the earth far below.
The System spoke.
[Ancient Structure Detected]
[Classification Unavailable]
[Warning: Excess Energy Beyond Analytical Range]
I exhaled sharply. "What is it?"
"The reason the old world fell," the woman replied.
Vexa paled. "That’s impossible."
The woman looked at her. "Your people have spent centuries pretending the Collapse was an accident."
"What was it, then?" Vexa snapped.
"A decision." The lights in the chamber dimmed, and ghostly images floated above the opening.
A city stretched out before us, not the ruined husk we were used to seeing, but something magnificent.
Thousands of airships dotted the sky, and machines of all sizes walked the streets.
Power coursed through the buildings in veins of Aether.
Then came the monstrosity hovering over the city. It was almost beautiful, almost elegant, if one ignored the fact that it was obviously a weapon of mass destruction.
The sky split open, and Aether storms ravaged everything in their path.
I watched as city after city was swallowed by the chaos.
"The Sovereign Network," the woman murmured.
"It was built to rule over all Aether in the world."
I stared at the image.
"And it failed."
"No." She shook her head. "It succeeded." I narrowed my eyes at her.
"The Network did exactly what it was designed to do."
Cyra looked horror-struck. "Then why did the Collapse happen?"
"Because humanity tried to command it." The woman gestured at the swirling storm overhead.
"And it deemed humanity unworthy."
The chamber fell silent.
I understood now.
The ancient civilization hadn’t been destroyed by some sort of rogue machine or system failure.
They’d been wiped out by their own arrogance.
Vexa stepped forward. "Then why is Cyra here?"
The woman met her gaze. "Because the Network is waking up." Cyra paled.
"No." The woman nodded.
"Yes." The Core pulsed brighter. "The Aether storms are growing stronger by the day."
I recalled what we’d seen outside.
The strange electrical surges, the awakened machines, the warship that nearly killed us.
"How long?" The woman regarded me.
"Until the world begins to end?"
She smiled faintly. "Less than twenty years."
No one said anything.
Twenty years felt like a long time, but standing in that chamber, staring at the remnants of the world, it suddenly didn’t seem like nearly enough. Cyra looked to me.
"Can we stop it?"
The woman answered before I could respond. "Yes."
Everyone turned to her. "You can."
She gestured at Cyra. "But she cannot do it alone." Then she looked at me. "And neither can you."
I frowned. "Why me?"
"Because the System chose you." I raised an eyebrow.
"Why?"
Her lips curled into a smile. "Because you possess the only ability in existence capable of defying what has already been written."
I looked at my hands.
The Upgrade System.
The ability to enhance weapons, systems, machines, people. It didn’t seem like much at the time.
A neat little trick.
A convenient advantage.
It turned out it was a responsibility.
Perhaps even a curse.
"What happens if I say no?" The woman studied me. "Then this world dies."
I chuckled nervously. "That’s a lovely way to put it."I am being conservative."
My grin vanished.
Cyra stepped closer. "Riven."
I met her eyes. She looked... different. Not because her power had changed, but because she’d learned something that no one could ever take away from her.
"I don’t want to be a weapon," she said.
"You aren’t."
"How did she know that? "
"How do you know that?"
"Because weapons don’t get to choose." She looked directly at me.
"You’re giving me a choice."
"Yes." I nodded.
"I am."
For a moment, her mouth twitched into a happy smile.
Then the crystal fractured, sending a shockwave through the chamber.
The women vanished, and Cyra collapsed to her knees.
I caught her. "Cyra!"
The machines outside the Core let out high-pitched wails, as if trying to communicate.
Vexa was already at the stairs. "Something’s coming!"
Nyx raised her pistol. "What?"
The floor gave way, and an impossibly large mechanical hand broke through the stone.
The chamber shook violently as it grasped at the air, searching.
I looked at the System.
[Emergency Warning]
[Ancient Guardian Awakened]
[Threat Level: Catastrophic]
The machine pulled itself free of the earth, and I got my first real look at it.
It was absolutely enormous, far bigger than the room. It’s mechanical face turned toward Cyra, and its only visible eye glowed red.
[SOVEREIGN DETECTED]
[PURIFICATION PROTOCOL INITIATED]
I squeezed Cyra’s shoulder.
"Well." Nyx raised her revolver, and Vexa brandished her wrench.
Cyra slowly opened her eyes.
I couldn’t help it.
I grinned.
"It seems we’ve found our first boss."