"When gods fall silent, the sound that remains is always human."
The night Schicksal's walls began to tremble, the moon above Cologne was shrouded in smoke.Below the cathedral towers, deep within the earth, Otto Apocalypse stood in his sanctuary — surrounded by the quiet hum of machines that thought themselves divine.
The air carried a pulse, mechanical yet alive. It was not fear he felt. It was anticipation.
He turned to the nearest monitor. Lines of red alerts crawled across the glass.Breach detected — Sublevel E, Sector K.Identity confirmation: Siegfried Kaslana.
Otto's reflection smiled back at him, eyes calm, precise, unbothered.
"Right on time."
Far below, gunfire echoed through the metallic corridors.Each step Siegfried took left smoldering bootprints on the floor, his weapon a streak of light through the dark.The walls bore the marks of his fury — and the desperation that had brought him here.
He wasn't a soldier now. He was a father.
He passed shattered containment pods, scattered documents, and the scent of scorched coolant. The name Project F-02 repeated across broken terminals, followed by one word: active.
Siegfried stopped at the main chamber doors. His blade gleamed in the red light.One swing — steel met steel — and the world opened.
Inside, the Garden of Glass lay in ruin.
Rows of pods lined the chamber like forgotten prayers.Some had burst from within, their contents drifting in pale mist. Others flickered weakly — heartbeat monitors whispering the rhythm of death.
Siegfried stepped forward, slow, wary. The air here was heavy — warm and gold and wrong.A single pod stood at the center, bathed in a light that did not belong to this world.
Inside floated a girl.Her hair shimmered white beneath the fluid; her body was motionless, peaceful.The faint golden glow beneath her skin pulsed like memory.
Siegfried frowned. "Not Kiana…"
The pod cracked. Once. Twice. Then shattered.
The light that burst forth.Energy rolled outward, harmless yet unyielding, rippling like water across the floor.
When it faded, the girl lay there — breathing.Alive.
Siegfried lowered his sword. "Hey… you okay?"
Her eyes opened. Two colors — Kaslana blue ringed in Schariac gold — met his.
She sat up slowly, voice soft and disoriented. "I heard… too many voices."
"You've been in there a while," he said, half to himself. "Name?"
She blinked. "Florence."
High above, Otto watched through fractured screens.
"She's awake," he murmured, fingers steepled. "And whole."
Technicians screamed orders in the background — containment systems overloading, reactors destabilizing.Otto's hand brushed the console, triggering silent evacuation codes.
"Seal the lab," he said. "If perfection cannot be preserved, it must ascend through ruin."
Reactors overloaded, lighting the chamber in spirals of gold and violet. Alarms wailed, and the floor trembled beneath Florence's feet.
Siegfried moved first, grabbing her wrist. "We have to go!"
She stumbled after him, barefoot on metal, the noise of collapsing steel ringing in her skull.The voices — her voices — called from every direction. Dozens of her, all dying, all returning.
We're here. We're sorry. We're free.
Florence screamed, clutching her chest as light poured from her skin.It wasn't rage — it was memory flooding back too fast. Every fragment that had ever been her was finding its way home.
Siegfried turned, eyes wide. "Hey! Stay with me!"
"I can feel them!" she gasped. "They're burning!"
He pulled her close, grounding her in the noise. "Then hold on to what's left!"
The ceiling split open — fire and debris raining down.Siegfried shielded her as they ran through the crumbling halls.Behind them, containment pods detonated one by one, each death releasing a spark of light that drifted toward Florence and vanished into her chest.
When they reached the elevator shaft, she stopped suddenly, breath shaking.Her veins glowed gold. The pain was gone. The silence was whole again.
By the time they reached the surface, the facility was collapsing into its own ashes.The night was crimson — fire reflected in the river that cut through Cologne's heart.
Siegfried opened a comm channel, his voice hoarse. "Anti-Entropy, this is Kaslana. Extraction needed. I've got… one survivor."
Tesla's voice crackled through the static: "Copy that, Siegfried. Einstein's got the ship ready. Sending coordinates."
Florence leaned against him, dizzy but smiling faintly. "You weren't looking for me."
He glanced down. "No. But you needed saving, too."
Her smile trembled. "Then maybe I wasn't a mistake after all."
Above the smoke, in a tower untouched by flame, Otto watched the inferno consume his work.The fire painted the sky like a cathedral of ruin.
He didn't flinch.
"Every end is an equation solved," he murmured. "And every equation leaves a remainder."
He looked at the faint golden data still pulsing on his screen — a heartbeat signal too stubborn to die.
"Sleep well, my masterpiece," Otto said quietly. "Until I need you again."
In the skies beyond the burning city, the Anti-Entropy shuttle rose into dawn.Inside, Florence slept, her pulse steady for the first time in years.Siegfried sat beside her, watching as sunlight broke through the smoke.
In her dreams, the echoes of her other selves whispered not of pain but of calm.
We are one now. Rest.
She breathed, soft as prayer.
And for the first time, the girl born of Schariac grace and Kaslana fire dreamed as someone whole.