The ground beneath them shifted again, not from instability but from transformation. Since the confrontation with the Observer—now reborn as Echo—the very fabric of the Singularity construct had begun to evolve. It was no longer just a simulation, no longer just a vault of collapsing legacy data. It had become something else.
Alive.
Orion, Cole, Echo, and Layla stood at the edge of the new interface: a translucent platform suspended above a swirling sea of light and shadow. LUCENT's voice resonated in a deeper, more human tone now—less like a machine and more like a guide.
"You've reached the convergence apex," LUCENT said. "Beyond this threshold is what remains of Protocol Eclipse."
Cole glanced sideways at Orion. "That's the failsafe you mentioned. The thing that could reset everything?"
Orion nodded grimly. "It was designed as the last measure. If all else failed, it would purge the system down to the quantum roots—no memory, no history. Just void."
