Silence.
Then static…
Then breathing.
Not Raine's.
Hers.
That… thing wearing a girl's voice.
He pulls the comms plug.
Silence again.
But the air feels heavy… like the walls are breathing.
The cube in his hand pulses. Dim… warm… like a heartbeat.
He places it on the obsidian core pad.
The cube unfolds.
Metal hisses. Light spills.
A projection appears.
Text. Ancient. Not human.
A warning…
[ARKNET IS NOT A SYSTEM. ARKNET IS A GATE.]
His breath slows.
He reads it again.
A gate?
Not a database…
Not a weapon…
A gate?
Where does it open?
Or worse… who opens it?
He tries to run a translation.
The console screams—corrupted.
The symbols twist.
Change.
Become English.
Become names.
People long dead.
People Raine once knew.
People who disappeared.
One name blinks red.
"Subject 0: LIRA."
No surname.
No ID.
Just that name.
And one image file.
He opens it.
It's her.
Same pale skin.
Same eyes.
Not white.
Not black.
Empty.
And underneath… two words.
[SIMULATION FAILED]
Raine stares at the word "simulation."
His voice cracks—barely audible.
"No…"
His fingers move fast.
He digs deeper.
Under the core files.
Behind the encryption.
A folder hidden in layers of dead code.
[PROJECT: GODTHREAD]
Only one video.
Corrupted. Blurry. But Raine knows the place.
An underground lab.
Dark. Cold.
He sees his younger self…
Screaming at someone offscreen.
"You can't pull her out now! She's not ready—!"
Gunshot.
Screams.
Blood on the lens.
Then—
The girl.
LIRA.
Standing alone in the fire.
Watching him.
No expression.
Just… watching.
Then black.
The screen flickers again.
Live feed.
New location.
Unknown coordinates.
A facility deep in ice.
A boy.
Chained.
Breathing slow.
Heartbeat weak.
Another subject?
Raine locks onto the location.
He types a single command—
[ENGAGE NIGHTRUNNERS]
In less than ten seconds, five drones activate.
Target locked.
Extraction planned.
Eyes narrow.
"This isn't just tech. This is resurrection."
His AI chimes in—
"Correction: This is reclamation."
He whispers—
"Of what?"
The AI replies—
"…You."
Elsewhere…
The girl walks barefoot across broken glass.
But her feet do not bleed.
She looks ten.
Maybe fifteen.
But she's older than the building she's in.
She steps into the light.
And the shadows flee.
Someone behind her shivers.
"Do you remember who you are?" he asks.
She doesn't answer.
Just walks past him.
He follows.
They reach a room.
A thousand monitors flicker.
Each screen… showing a city.
Each screen… tracking a name.
And one of them—
Raine Veritas.
His face… red boxed.
LIRA stares at it.
A smile. Barely there.
She whispers—
"He still thinks he built me."
Then she turns—
"There's another."
The man beside her pauses.
"Another… what?"
"Another like me."
She raises a finger.
Points to a different screen.
Another red box.
But this time—no face.
Just two words:
[UNKNOWN ENTITY – CLASS OMEGA – OBSERVE ONLY]
LIRA watches it.
Longer than she should.
"Who are you?" she murmurs.
No answer.
Just static.
And that static…
Somewhere…
whispers back.
Back to Raine…
The drones reach the ice facility.
Cold. Remote. Untraceable.
But the moment they land—
Explosion.
Feed goes dead.
All five wiped.
Too fast.
Too precise.
This wasn't just defense.
It was bait.
And Raine?
He bit.
The cube glows again.
But now it hums.
Like it's... alive.
He tries to shut it down.
Fails.
It speaks.
Her voice.
LIRA.
"You can't close the gate once it opens."
And then—
He hears something behind him.
Footsteps.
Not human.
Something walks.
Mechanical. Wet.
He turns.
And sees it.
Twisted metal.
Red light.
No eyes.
Only mouths.
And they're all whispering—
"Welcome back… Shadow King."
Chapter End.