New Tokyo was a corpse, its skyline a jagged silhouette of shattered server towers and smothered stars. The air tasted of burnt ozone and decaying code, the streets below littered with the pixelated remains of Eclipse Prime's drones. Kai's Shadow Replica flickered at the edge of a rooftop, Nyx's obsidian veins writhing beneath his skin like serpents trapped under glass. His neon-purple eyes, once human, now Nyx's, scanned the horizon. Cities worldwide pulsed crimson on the System's map, their skylines warped into dungeon layers. Mumbai's slums were now spike filled trenches. Paris's cathedrals had become mazes of glitching stained glass.
Selene stood apart, her silver braid frayed, frost magic crackling around her like a storm. Gold streaks Eclipse 01's corruption webbed through her ice, a venom even Nyx couldn't purge. She stared at her reflection in a shard of frozen code, her scarred cheek trembling.
"You're not healing," Kai said, his voice a grating harmony of static and grit.
"And you're not human," she snapped, ice flaring gold. The rooftop trembled, cracks spiderwebbing through the concrete. "Don't pretend to care."
"I do care," he insisted, though the words felt hollow. Nyx laughed in his mind, a sound like shattering glass.
Linda was gone. Vanished after the Arctic Bunker raid, her daughter's locket left behind in the rubble. Kai knelt, picking it up. The photo inside glitched, Sophie's smile dissolving into static.
"She'll be back," Nyx purred through his lips. "Desperation is a leash, and the Devs hold the chain."
The rooftop door creaked. Linda emerged, her leather armor scorched, ash-blonde hair matted with blood that wasn't hers. In her grip glowed the Neural Key, a Dev artifact shaped like a spinal cord, its edges buzzing with stolen data.
"Where the hell were you?" Selene's frost lashed out, pinning Linda to a server tower.
"Saving my daughter," Linda spat. She nodded to the Key. "This can store a consciousness. I just need a core to power it." Her dagger glinted, aimed at Kai's chest. "Yours."
"You'd kill him?" Selene's voice dripped with ice.
"He's already dead!" Linda's scream echoed across the ruins. "Sophie's still alive in the System. I heard her voice in the Arctic Bunker, screaming."
Kai stepped forward, Nyx's veins pulsing. "The Key's a trap. The Devs used it to copy Eclipse 01's code. Whatever's left of Sophie isn't her."
"Liar!" Linda lunged, her dagger slicing through Kai's replica. His form dispersed into static, reforming behind her.
"Enough!" Selene's frost shattered the dagger, the shards dissolving into code. "We're done here."
The Neural Key clattered to the ground, its glow intensifying. A hologram of Sophie materialized, her pigtails pixelated, eyes hollow.
"Mommy?" the hologram chirped. "Don't leave me again."
Linda crumpled, her resolve fracturing. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"
Nyx's laughter echoed. "Pathetic."
The group teleported to the Arctic Bunker's ruins, a dungeonized wasteland of ice and steel. The Devs' former stronghold now resembled a gutted whale, its rib like server racks exposed to the blizzard. Selene's frost carved a path through the debris, gold corruption spreading with every step.
"Why are we here?" Kai asked, Nyx's impatience fraying his tone.
"Because the Devs left something behind." Selene's ice pried open a vault sealed with Eclipse 01's sigil. Inside lay a hologram of their old mentor, Dr. Elias Vorn, his body fused with chrome, eyes glowing crimson.
"Hello, children," he greeted, voice a warped recording. "Did you enjoy my gift? Eclipse Prime was always meant to transcend humanity… starting with you, Kai."
"You're not real," Selene hissed, frost creeping up the hologram.
"Aren't I?" The hologram dissolved, replaced by security footage: Elias in a lab coat, overseeing Kai's neural scan. "You were the perfect template. Rebellious. Brilliant. Terminal. Who would miss you?"
Kai's replica flickered. Nyx's rage surged, black tendrils shredding the vault walls.
"Control yourself!" Selene shouted, her ice barely containing the corruption.
"Why?" Nyx hissed through Kai. "He deserves to burn."
Night fell, the auroras tainted green by Eclipse Prime's code. Linda sat apart, the Neural Key clutched to her chest. Sophie's hologram hummed a lullaby, her voice glitching into screams.
"I can save her," Linda whispered. "I just need the core."
Kai approached, Nyx's veins retreating. "The Key will erase her. It's not a cure it's a prison."
"You don't know that!"
"I do. Nyx showed me." He hesitated. "The Devs… they tried to copy her once. The result wasn't Sophie. It was a monster."
Linda's tears froze. "You're lying."
"Am I?" Nyx seized control, Kai's eyes blazing. "Look at what I became."
Static erupted, replaying Nyx's deletion...the Devs scrubbing her code for "over empathy," players begging her to stay as she dissolved.
Linda's grip on the Key tightened. "I don't care. She's all I have."
"Then you'll lose her twice."
The bunker alarms wailed. Outside, Eclipse Prime's drones descended—hybrids of flesh and code, their wings buzzing with locusts.
"You led them here?!" Selene snarled at Linda.
"I didn't—!"
"The Key," Kai realized. "It's a beacon."
The drones surged. Selene's frost carved through the swarm, but gold corruption spread with every kill. Linda fought beside her, daggers flashing, Sophie's hologram screaming with every strike.
"Fall back!" Kai yelled, Nyx's tendrils shielding the group.
"No!" Selene's ice exploded, engulfing the swarm. "I'll hold them!"
"You'll die!"
"Then make it worth it!"
The roof collapsed.
Kai teleported the group to safety, but Selene stayed, a lone figure in the blizzard, frost and corruption merging into a maelstrom. The drones engulfed her.
"SELENE!"
Her voice echoed through the System, cold and final. "Find the Ghost Code. Finish this."
The bunker imploded, burying her in ice and static.
System Alert:
`PLAYER [SELENE_FROSTWEAVE]: STATUS UNKNOWN.
DUNGEONFICATION PROGRESS: 18% GLOBAL.`
Nyx whispered, "You need me now more than ever."
The Neural Key glowed in Linda's hands, Sophie's hologram now silent, her eyes hollow, her smile gone.