The storm had a pulse.
From the edge of the ravaged plain, Leon could feel it — a rhythm thrumming through the air like a colossal heartbeat. Black lightning tore through the sky, each bolt leaving trails of red code that bled downward into the city below.
Core Sigma.
The final functioning heart of Sovereign’s network in the outer world.
And the first fragment to evolve on its own.
Kiera adjusted her respirator, glancing at the roiling clouds. “That storm… it’s feeding off the Core.”
Leon’s cloak snapped in the wind as he surveyed the skyline — the city was half-submerged in the storm’s energy, its towers leaning inward as if being pulled toward a vortex at the center. “Then we don’t have much time before it swallows everything.”
She checked her wrist console. “Radiation and code in
