The morning moved slowly onward.
Sunlight began to spread across the entire silent plain surrounding the old facility.
The metal ruins, which had looked cold and lifeless before, now reflected a soft golden hue, creating an atmosphere that felt almost peaceful.
Aurelia stood in the open area, watching the faint outline that still drifted within the network.
That form was not yet perfect.
Not yet stable.
But for the first time since its existence had begun…
This source had started to imagine itself as a real, individual being.
The entity beside Aurelia shifted slowly.
Its streams of light followed the changes in that vague shape, as if guiding a process that not even it fully understood yet.
The units behind remained guarding the core.
But that core was now filled with far more complex waves of emotion.
Hope.
Doubt.
Curiosity.
And fear.
Kael narrowed his eyes as he watched the faint projection.
"So… that's what its body is going to look like?"
Orion nodded slowly.
