The quantum collapse began at the scepter's base. When Garret's ice claws pierced the Inquisitor's mechanical cervical seam, the void-blue slime turned viscous like liquid memory—Raine recognized this texture; it matched the cerebrospinal fluid leaked from Elaina's death pod.
"That spare heart in your chest... beats steadier than mine." Garret's voice glitched into the Inquisitor's monotone, left claw reversing into his own temple. "But did the Church teach you—calibrators bite back?"
As the scepter's energy screeched, Citadel ruins collapsed vertically. Walls crumpled like tin foil, revealing quantum codes beneath—genetic projections of 299 parallel Raine clones.
(Black slime gushed from gills—Cycle 299.9's memory surged—)
Child Garret strapped in "Synced Vessel 000", Inquisitor implanting Elaina's starlight chips into his spineMisha's specter weeping outside observation glass, prosthetic welded to "Maternal Protocol" terminalLyria's song disintegrating quantum barriers while child Serena's wings were vivisected
"Alert... Maternal Protocol v3.14 anomaly..." Ellen's mechanical pupils split quadruple-layered, scales projecting holographic alarms. Her voice quantum-distorted into Elaina's final recording: "Your gene-chain's hidden in..."
Collapse fissures revealed holograms—Church lab two decades prior. White-coated Elaina grafting Serena's wings onto vampire embryos. Slime droplets solidified into "Raine+Lyria" chain schematics.
"So my wing patents... started here?" Serena's asphalt wings blotted the crumbling vault, claws tearing quantum codes. "Church stole dragon genes... trademarked holy relics?"
Garret's claws quantum-tremored. His arm textures mutated—Lyria's scales and Inquisitor's codes overlapping. When claws fully impaled the Inquisitor's core, 299 clone screams echoed through realities—
"Reclamation... complete." Garret's pupils split triple-layered—Inquisitor crimson outermost, Elaina's star-patterns mid-layer, Lyria's tear-crystal core. "Time to return what's mine..."
The Inquisitor's chest exploded, spewing not circuits but Elaina's brain matter. The gray matter solidified into holograms—lab-coated Elaina uploading data: 「Protocol Flaw: Calibrators require host replacement...」
Serena's claws stabbed Garret's back: "Playing god... you're just the Church's living USB!" Her fangs shattered his pauldron, revealing void-core fluid circulation. "Fuck... he's synced with scepter energy!"
A child's laughter echoed from collapse depths. Lyria's fetal specter floated in quantum vacuum, tail mutated into holy cannon barrel. Her 「III」 brand resonated with Garret's claw codes, barrel auto-targeting Raine's scar: "Brother... this is the keyhole..."
Submerged Currents
Void surveillance showed the Inquisitor's mask reassembling on the moon's dark side. Inner codes blinked 「Maternal Awakening 99.9%」—live feeds revealed Misha's cloud consciousness being uploaded into holy cannon matrices...