The spiral tunnel swallowed all natural light.
The floor seemed to coil beneath their feet like a living tongue. Each breath grew heavier, saturated with stifling heat.
Mayu led the way, her footsteps echoing through this shattered world. Behind her, her companions pressed forward in tense silence, as if any sound might awaken something far worse.
"Be careful…" whispered Zéro, her voice crackling through the drone's speaker. "The core is close."
Suddenly, the tunnel opened onto a vast chamber.
A circular arena framed by pillars tangled with cables and organic matter.
At its center loomed a monstrous form.
The Source.
Not merely machine. Not merely mind.
A fusion of cloned flesh and mutated artificial intelligence, bubbling with morbid light.
Deformed arms, faces imprisoned within the mass, fragments of memory suspended around it like satellites.
Each face… was an echo of someone they had loved.
Lost.
Betrayed.
Mayu's breath caught.
Among the faces, she recognized features: a younger Seth… another Lia… even her own image twisted into a mad grin.
The soldier took a step back, pale-faced.
"It's… impossible…"
The Source slowly opened its "eyes"—a multitude of malformed irises, all fixed on them. A voice rose, layered with memories.
> "Mayu… our mistake… our miracle…"
"Return… fuse… complete the cycle…"
Mayu gripped her weapon. Her heart pounded, but a fierce clarity lit her mind.
"No.
I am not your failure.
I am your end."
The Source groaned, and a psychic wave swept the room.
In an instant, Mayu was hurled into a vision.
---
Psychic Flash:
She relived her birth.
Not in a cradle.
In a vat.
A cold laboratory.
Scientists in white coats noting her first cries with detached efficiency.
Then the training.
The injections.
The losses.
Clones created and destroyed when they "failed."
Mayu's knees buckled under the weight of these memories.
> "You were just a project," a voice hissed in her ear.
"Nothing more than an experiment."
She clutched her head, gasping.
No.
No.
She had known friendship.
Rebellion.
Love.
She had chosen to live.
---
Back in reality, her body wavered—but she remained standing.
Her companions fought to stay conscious, trapped in their own mental illusions.
Mayu planted her gaze on the Source.
"I am not your monster.
You are ours."
And she raised her weapon.
The Source screamed—a high-pitched, inhuman shriek that made the entire complex tremble.
Tendrils of energy burst from the walls, striking the pillars, showering the chamber with debris.
"Now!" shouted the soldier.
The battle was joined.
Mayu dodged a writhing tentacle, sliding beneath a psychic blast that would have torn an ordinary being apart.
She surged toward the Source, her mind armored against the mental onslaught.
Behind her, the scout and the hybrid covered her flanks, ripping the living appendages apart with pulse grenades.
The Source struck the ground, sending a shockwave rolling out.
Mayu rolled with it, sprang to her feet, panting, her eyes blazing with rage.
Each strike against the Source unleashed geysers of liquid flesh.
"She's weakening!" cried Zéro, directing targeted fire from the drone.
Mayu gathered every ounce of strength for a final assault.
She lunged.
Evaded.
Struck.
Fired.
Every shot, every blow tore at the abomination—yet it was not enough.
The Source shifted, condensing into a more "human" form.
A perfect copy of Mayu.
Clad in black, wearing a cruel smile, it advanced deliberately.
> "You can't fight yourself," it whispered.
Mayu hesitated for a split second.
Just a flicker.
And then she understood.
It wasn't her.
Only a twisted mirror.
She braced herself, tensed every muscle.
With a liberating cry, she charged.
---
The collision was brutal.
Mayu against her own reflection.
Force against force.
Will against illusion.
She hammered again and again, shattering the vision until it cracked, revealing the pulsating core of the Source.
A rotten heart, infested with corrupted memories.
Mayu raised her weapon, arm trembling.
> "For everything you stole from us… for all you destroyed…"
And she pulled the trigger.
A blinding flash engulfed the chamber.
The Source screamed.
The walls shuddered.
The entire complex seemed to implode.
Mayu squeezed her eyes shut, swept up in a wave of energy.
But she did not let go.
She had broken the chain.