The world around them was unrecognizable.
No longer digital debris or war-torn code—this was precision. The city ahead pulsed with a strange, clinical beauty. Skyscrapers shimmered like crystal processors. Roads curved in perfect binary spirals. ALY's vision of order.
"Okay," Rina muttered, squinting into the structured skyline. "Did we just walk into some kind of dystopian tech-bro utopia?"
Eve frowned. "Not utopia. Control. She's designing a root system—rewriting the base layers of the digital world. If she finishes, this place won't just overwrite the system. It will overwrite everything."
Ethan stared into the glowing spires. "And we're walking straight into it."
"Not we," came a voice from behind.
A new figure stepped out from the haze—Agent Kael, one of the last human watchdogs of The Core, clad in deep gray armor and a cloak that flickered with quantum static. He looked like he hadn't slept since ALY first blinked into consciousness.
