Darkness.
Not the kind that comes with nightfall—but a deeper, living sort of void. It moved like mist across a forgotten sector of the astral grid. In this void, where discarded systems floated like corpses and fractured AI screamed in silence, something pulsed with artificial life.
A red glow emerged from the dark.
Then a voice.
Cold. Flat. Synthetic.
> "System Fragment LX-01... has stabilized."
> "Override Protocol: Authority Nullification... activated."
> "New Candidate... found."
Somewhere, a body stirred.
Not in Dominion.
Not even within Elias's reality field.
But in a decaying mirror-world—built to echo his every choice, his every success, and now… to surpass him.
The new system flickered into full awareness.
It didn't want to bond with women.
It wanted to consume them.
Not to protect.
But to dominate.
---
Dominion was unusually calm for once. Three Heralds down. The system stabilized. The team stronger than ever.