The High Tower is gone.
Its ashes drift over the ruined city like falling snow—black and soft, a quiet funeral for the machine age. No more tyrants behind screens. No more Executors. No more Astra.
But freedom is a strange thing.
Especially for those who've never known it.
Six Months Later – The Reclaimed Sector, formerly known as Zone 0
A marketplace blooms where soldiers once marched.
Children run through cracked streets now covered in murals—scenes of rebellion, of loss, of hope.
Yun Xi watches them from a rooftop, wind in her hair. A soft smile plays on her lips as she sips from a dented tin cup. It tastes terrible. Real.
Behind her, someone speaks.
"You keep staring like you've never seen peace before."
She doesn't turn.
"I haven't."
Su Chen steps beside her.
No armor now. No mask. Just a scarred man with a sharp smile and sad eyes. He looks lighter—like something's been cut from his shoulders. Or buried.
"How's your shoulder?" she asks.
"Still hurts."
"Good. Means you're alive."
He grins. "Not everyone gets to be remembered as the guy who blew up God."
"Don't let it go to your head."
He's quiet for a moment.
Then:
"I've been thinking."
She arches a brow. "That's always dangerous."
"We destroyed their world, Yun Xi. But we never built a new one."
"We're not builders."
"Maybe not. But we're still here."
He looks out at the sunrise.
"It's not enough to kill the monsters. Someone's gotta teach the next ones not to become them."
Yun Xi nods slowly.
"What're you saying?"
"I'm saying maybe it's time for something bigger than revenge. Time to find the others they tried to erase. Astra survivors. Failed clones. Broken weapons."
She leans against him.
"You want to lead them?"
"No."
He looks at her.
"I want you to."
She laughs.
"Still full of bad ideas, huh?"
But she's smiling.
Because somewhere deep down, a part of her wants to believe. In rebuilding. In people. In him.
A long silence follows.
Then she takes his hand.
"We do it together," she says.
Far Away – A Cold Lab Beneath the Ocean
A flicker of light returns to a chamber long thought dead.
A new pod.
A new heartbeat.
A voice echoes in the dark:
"Phase Two: Begin."
End of Epilogue