The crimson dusk fell over the shattered ruins of Ghoreya District, painting blood over rusted steel and charred walls. The air trembled—not from heat, but from silence. A stillness so thick, it swallowed breath.
Aeden stood amid the rubble, unmoving. The enemy corpses around him were already starting to decay unnaturally fast, dissolved by the backlash of the field's collapse. His lips were tight. His eyes, hollow.
He hadn't spoken a word since the battle ended.
Mira stood a few steps behind, her long braid disheveled and eyes rimmed with ash and concern. "Aeden... you're bleeding."
He didn't respond. Not to her voice, nor to the stinging gash on his ribs. His gaze was locked on the translucent [System] interface flickering before him:
Mission Completed: Intercept Class-B Hostile at Ghoreya
Primary Objective: Success Secondary Objective: Critical Failure
Casualties: 142 Civilians.
Penalty Applied: Empathic Sanction – Lv.1 (72 Hours)
Pain—cold and deep—flared behind his eyes. A migraine that wasn't physical. He gritted his teeth. The [Empathic Sanction] wasn't just punishment. It was a system curse. One that forced him to relive every scream, every death… as if he were the one dying.
"Why didn't you pull out sooner?" Mira asked, stepping forward.
He looked at her now, not with anger, but calculation. "Because I needed data."
Mira blinked. "Data? People died—"
"Yes." His voice was sharp, clipped. "And now I know how many lives the new optimization protocol costs."
Silence.
She stared at him like she was seeing him for the first time. He wasn't the boy from the Academy anymore. He wasn't even a soldier. He was something else entirely now.
Something colder.
Later, in the underground barracks of Zone Null, Aeden sat alone before a sealed terminal. He entered his biometric code, and the black screen flashed blue.
UNLOCKING RESTRICTED SUBSYSTEM
Prototype Node: Architect's Edge – Ver. 0.9
A schematic unfolded like a galaxy—lines of logic, code branches, and behavioral trees looping in fractal spirals.
This wasn't just a system. It was a simulation engine.
Query Input:
"Estimate optimal timeline to eliminate Council Operatives using current skill tree + projected upgrades."
The results were cold, ruthless, and disturbingly specific. Aeden exhaled slowly.
"I need to grow faster."
He typed again:
Request: Inject Neural Ghost – Personality Variant A03 (Tactician Mode)
Warning: Personality Contamination Risk: HIGH
Proceed?
He didn't hesitate.
YES
The room darkened. A second presence sparked within his neural field. A whisper that wasn't a voice, but pure thought:
"Let's begin reconfiguring your humanity."
Aeden's lips curved into a smile—one devoid of warmth.
The countdown to war had already begun.
End of Chapter 5