They pressed deeper into the undercity, following the veins of the map until they reached a chamber vast as a cathedral. Iron arches soared above, gears whirred like choirs, and steam rose in curling incense.
At its heart stood a dais of brass, and upon it — shifting, twisting, never still — was a figure. At first, it seemed made of smoke and steel, its body re-forming with every click of the gears around it. A mask of iron shaped like a human face stared down, though no eyes glimmered behind it.
The voice was unmistakable: smooth, mocking, metallic."Welcome, my faithful disappointments."
The figure shifted, and Elric saw it — a human skull encased within glass, wires burrowing into bone, flesh long withered yet somehow alive. The body was machine, but the mind… the mind was once human.
"Dr. Alastair Greaves," Elric breathed.
The iron mask inclined. "Once. But Greaves was frail. Mortal. I am what comes after mortality. I am the perfection that flesh denied me. I am the Phantom Engineer."
Selene spat. "You butcher Anomalists for their gifts."
"I liberate them," the Engineer corrected. "I take what chaos gave them and render it eternal in brass and steel. Gifts should not die with weak flesh. They should live forever in gears."
The titanic skeletons around them groaned, their frames shifting as if they heard his sermon. The cathedral itself seemed to bow in worship.
Elric raised his cane, though his hand trembled. "And what of humanity?"
The Engineer's iron grin widened. "Humanity will be spared the burden of choice. You will be perfected — or you will be parts."