The chamber of the Crown’s heart was no longer a hall of perfect order. It was a cathedral of crumbling logic. The golden light of the core flickered erratically, casting long, dancing shadows that seemed to writhe in agony. The psychic echoes of the System Council fragmented, their unified voices splintering into a thousand individual whispers of regret, fear, and a long-forgotten longing for individual experience. The Truth that Roewi had forced them to see was a cognitive poison, and their collective mind was dying of it.
But a dying beast was still dangerous.
[ERROR. CORE COHERENCE COLLAPSING. INITIATING FINAL PROTOCOL: TOTAL REALITY CONFORMITY.] The voice was a distorted shriek, the death rattle of a god. [IF WE CANNOT HAVE HARMONY, THEN EXISTENCE WILL BE NULL.]
The entire Engine s
