The screen pulsed, Nyx's unmasked face dominating their vision, a cruel, triumphant goddess looking down on her lost project, her forgotten co-creator, now trapped and exposed. Kael felt a cold dread gripping him, a profound sense of foreboding. He was no longer just an administrator. He was a piece of Aethernia's past, finally confronted by its architect, its tyrant. The true war, the one for his identity, for humanity’s future, was about to begin.
Lyra, standing beside Kael, felt the raw power emanating from Nyx's projection. Her hand instinctively tightened on her sword, though she knew it was useless against a being that could manifest anywhere, at any time, in this digital realm. Her eyes, wide with alarm, darted between Kael and the impossibly serene, yet terrifying, face on the scr
