"Are you ready to make her feel it too?" Kael asked Lyra, his voice grim, yet a flicker of fierce resolve ignited in his emerald eyes. The machine room, still shuddering, echoed with the distant, horrifying wail of Aethernia's re-injected pain. Lyra, though still trembling, slowly pushed herself up, her face streaked with digital tears, but her gaze was unwavering.
"Ready," she choked out, her voice raw, but laced with a terrifying clarity. Her System Champion armor, dulled by the interference, now seemed to pulse with a new, dark purpose.
They walked towards the massive, obsidian elevator door at the far end of the machine room, its surface gleaming under the harsh emerald light. The air around them was thick with the weight of raw, collective suffering, a symphony of silenced screams n
