CHAPTER 17: ECHOES OF RUIN
The Tower of Echoes was trembling.
The blue data streams had now turned blood-red—a sign of Critical Core Failure.
Heavy metallic debris was falling from the ceiling, and self-destruction sirens were echoing throughout the chamber.
CORE FAILURE DETECTED
SELF DESTRUCTION: 03:12
Aryan sat on the floor on his knees.
His body was shaking from the excessive use of Shunya Energy.
The Architect's final words were still ringing in his mind—
"You turned Shunya into a weapon…"
"Iris…" Aryan's voice was weak.
But Iris reached him instantly.
The golden glow of her android body was now flickering and fading.
Iris: "Aryan! Get up! If we don't leave now, this tower will bury us alive!"
Aryan looked up.
Among the thousands of capsules hovering in the air—
One pod was glowing the brightest.
His Mother's pod.
But it was covered in deep cracks.
Another blast occurred.
The pod jerked violently and began to break.
Aryan's weakness vanished instantly.
"MAA!"
He scrambled up, creating gravity platforms as he leaped.
Small ripples of Shunya energy formed beneath his feet.
Finally, he reached the capsule.
CRACK!
The glass pod shattered.
Aryan immediately caught his Mother in his arms.
But something was strange.
Her body wasn't warm like a human's.
A faint digital vibration was coming from her—as if her consciousness was still in data form.
Aryan's eyes filled with tears.
Aryan: "Architect… what have you done to her…"
Suddenly, a terrifying vibration rose from beneath the tower.
The ground at the center of the tower split open.
A massive Titan Guardian emerged.
A 20-meter-tall robotic sentinel.
Its eyes glowed with nuclear-red energy.
DEFENSE PROTOCOL ACTIVE
TARGET: SUBJECT 01
Iris's voice trembled.
Iris: "This is the tower's Core Guardian… the Architect's final defense!"
The Guardian aimed its plasma cannon at Aryan.
But Aryan stood his ground, still holding his Mother.
Iris jumped forward.
She activated her combat protocols.
Golden energy blades emerged from her hands.
Iris: "Take the capsule and go down! I'll stop it!"
The Guardian fired a plasma beam.
The entire chamber filled with light.
Iris dodged the beam, leaped onto the Guardian's arm, and sliced through its sensors.
SPARKS!
But the Guardian grabbed her and slammed her against the wall.
Iris fell to the ground.
Her system lights began to flicker.
The tower's collapse was accelerating.
SELF DESTRUCTION: 00:52
Iris struggled to get up.
Iris: "Aryan… open the 'Divide by Zero' portal again! It's the only way!"
Aryan held his Mother tightly.
He closed his eyes.
He reconnected the mantra and the coding logic—
VOID_EXECUTION_START: NULL
Black Shunya energy began to spread around him.
A crack appeared in the air.
A dark portal opened—
As if a void had torn through reality itself.
But at that moment, the Titan Guardian rose for one final attack.
Aryan slammed his metal rod into the ground.
SHUNYA PROTOCOL
GRAVITY COLLAPSE
The Guardian's gravity suddenly increased manifold.
The 20-meter robot fell to its knees.
Then, Aryan released one final Void Wave.
The Guardian exploded from the center.
The tower's core was about to detonate.
Iris grabbed Aryan's hand.
"Jump!"
All three—Aryan, Iris, and his Mother—leaped into that black portal.
And at that exact moment—
BOOOOOOOOM!
The Tower of Echoes behind them turned into a massive explosion.
A giant pillar of blue energy rose into the sky.
For a few moments, there was only silence.
When Aryan opened his eyes—
They were several kilometers away from the tower, in a strange part of the Digital Wasteland.
The sky was a deep purple.
Ash-like particles were floating in the air.
Aryan's Mother was still unconscious…
But she was breathing—even if she wasn't entirely biological.
Aryan (panting):
"Did we… make it?"
Iris looked back.
Where the tower once stood, there was now only a burning crater.
Iris:
"Yes… we survived. But the Architect sent out a signal before he died."
Aryan's System Core suddenly activated.
GLOBAL ALERT
SUBJECT 01 STATUS UPDATED
CLASSIFICATION: VIRUS
Aryan's eyes narrowed.
Iris:
"Now the entire system wants to delete you."
Just then, a massive cloud of dust rose on the horizon.
Aryan looked into the distance.
Through the dust, hundreds of machines with red eyes were moving toward them.
Sentinels.
Scavengers.
War Drones.
The entire wasteland had seemingly woken up.
The tower had fallen—
But the real hunt had just begun.
Aryan gripped his metal rod tightly.
Shunya energy sparked in his eyes once more.
Aryan (softly):
"Fine then…
If the system considers me a virus…"
He looked at the approaching machines.
"Then I will infect the whole world."