The scream of the system did not fade. It escalated as the sky fractured into lines of light. The ground beneath his feet pulsated like a failing heartbeat.
And the Architect, for the first time…
Took a step back.
“Stop this!” he barked, his voice almost pleading,stripped of its earlier composure. “You don’t understand what you’re destabilizing.”
But Lorenzo didn’t even blink, because he although he didn't understand it all completely, he knew just enough.
“This system runs on structure,” he said as he began to move slowly, his voice calm despite the chaos tearing through everything around them. “Through balance, order and dependency.”
He took another effortless step forward.
“And you built it to depend on me.”
The Architect’s jaw tightened.
“That was necessary for synchronizatio
