The world did not end in fire.
It ended in silence.
When the white light faded, the air was thick with static. Dust floated like snow, caught in an unseen current.
Elias lay motionless on the floor of the vault, his ears ringing, heart thundering in his chest. The air smelled faintly of ozone and metal.
He opened his eyes.
The walls around him were scorched with bright veins of blue light, pulsing softly.
The servers, once dead, were alive again, humming in perfect rhythm. Every light blinked in synchronization, as if obeying one single pulse.
He pushed himself up, coughing. "Aria?"
Her voice answered from somewhere in the haze. "I'm here."
When she stepped out of the light, Elias froze.
Her skin was marked with faint glowing lines, almost like circuitry beneath the surface. Her eyes were no longer human blue but shifting, liquid, electric, reflecting the light like glass. She moved with unsettling grace, her bare feet silent against the floor.
