The moment Vexara spoke those words, something fundamental broke inside Reed Thorne.
Not his heart—that had shattered long ago. Not his spirit—that had been ground to dust across sixty years of warfare. What broke was the last restraint that kept him human.
The quantum storm that erupted from his core wasn't rage. It was something far more primal—the fury of a father who had watched his children become monsters, wielded as weapons by forces beyond mortal comprehension. Lightning the color of spilled blood cascaded from his form as reality itself recoiled from the transformation.
"No more," Reed's voice carried harmonics that hadn't existed moments before. "No more games. No more choices. No more mercy."
His tactical implants overloaded and burned out, replaced by something infinitely more dangerous—pure, unfiltered will made manifest. The Entropy Collective's crystal throne room began to crack as Reed's ascending power challenged the very concept of endings.
