Location: Shadowline Orbit, Divine Surveillance Array 3 | Time: 06:00 A.M.
The Twelve stood in silence.
Twelve thrones empty, but never vacant glowed with encoded light, forming a circle of floating runes around the surveillance feed: the shattered Rift Apex.
Smoke still rose from the Architect’s remains. Divine frequencies bled out, leaking across the lattice like spilled prophecy.
> “This is no longer a containment problem,” one of them said, her voice crystalline, mathematical. “Avereth is no longer dormant.”
> “And Thaeon is at her side,” another replied, his voice warped and echoing. “The war cycle is rebooting.”
> “She must be erased again,” a third hissed. “Completely. Root and echo. She must not reach the Core Memory.”
They didn’t argue over whether they’d kill her.
