The chamber pulsed with a rhythm older than the city itself.
Bioluminescent roots spiraled from the central core—veins of light snaking across walls of blackened alloy. Suspended in the heart of the room, a crystalline sphere hovered, thrumming with energy. Inside it—memories. Codes. A heartbeat.
Aiko stepped forward. Her fingers trembled as she reached out.
Ryoji grabbed her wrist. "You sure about this?"
She looked at him, eyes glowing faintly. "I've been here before. I was made here."
Flashback Bloom – The Root Protocol
Scientists arguing. Shirow, younger, colder, speaking through a holo-feed:
"This isn't about evolution. It's about survival. If we can anchor memory in a living network, humanity doesn't need a future. We become the future."
Aiko, floating in a growth chamber. Wires feeding into her spine. Artificial umbilical cords connecting her to The Root.
A command echoing in the void:
"Seed the girl with every failed prototype's memory. Start again. Until one survives."
Now – The Core
Aiko touched the sphere.
The room shook.
Light exploded outward—ghost images flickering across the walls. Past test subjects. Revenant prototypes. Division Zero architects. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. All downloaded into her mind in an instant.
She screamed—then went silent.
Ryoji caught her as she collapsed.
Miura moved fast. "We've got company!"
BOOM.
The far door imploded.
Three Revenants entered.
Black steel. No faces. Just eyes like burning knives. They opened fire.
Ryoji dove, dragging Aiko behind cover. "Wake up, Aiko! We need you!"
Miura launched a smoke charge, dropped to one knee, and lit the corridor with suppressive fire.
A Revenant moved through it unfazed—until Miura slammed a mine into the floor and detonated.
One down. Two to go.
Aiko's body arched—then she spoke.
Not in her voice.
In all of them.
"I remember everything."
Her eyes blazed with raw code. She raised her hand—and the lights in the chamber pulsed. The remaining Revenants froze, twitching violently.
Ryoji stared. "You're controlling them?"
"No," Aiko whispered. "I'm overriding the Root."
The sphere above cracked—light pouring from its seams.
Miura pulled Ryoji aside. "The whole place is gonna blow."
Aiko turned to them. "Go. I'll stall them."
"No chance," Ryoji snapped. "We leave together."
The chamber's ceiling caved. Roots tore from the walls, lashing like tentacles.
Miura fired her last flare upward, blasting a hole through the wreckage.
"Exit route—now!"
They ran—Aiko in the center, mind linked to a dying machine-god beneath the earth.
Behind them, the Root screamed—its last signal breaking reality itself:
"REMEMBER US."
Surface – Night
They burst from the crater as the ground behind them collapsed inward, swallowing the ruins whole.
Smoke. Silence. Stars overhead.
Aiko looked back—blank-faced.
Then slowly, she smiled.
"I know what I am now."
Ryoji exhaled. "And what's that?"
She turned.
"The last mistake they'll ever make."
To be continued in Chapter 33…..