The void around me trembled. Drayke’s echo stood across the expanse his form flickering like a broken hologram, but his presence felt real. Too real. The system clung to him, like it was a part of him, not just something he controlled.
> “I should thank you, Kyle,” Drayke’s voice purred, distorted but unmistakable. “You freed me from the Core’s prison. Now I am the system, and the system is me.”
I clenched my fists. “No. You’re just a fragment of what was. The system will never be what you want it to be.”
His smile widened. “You’re wrong. I’ve always been the system’s true architect. You’re just the tool it uses to restart.”
The light around us pulsed again, and symbols swirled in the air like a storm. They vibrated in sync with Drayke’s every movement.
I looked down at my hand the
