Astra closed her eyes, trying to suppress the tremor still shaking her body after the rewriting of her first scar.
But the moment her eyelids shut, the darkness behind them did not bring peace. It detonated.
Visions surged in with such force that Astra instinctively dug her fingers into the slime-covered floor of the Labyrinth. Reality around her vanished. Instead of pulsating cables and phosphorescent walls, another world unfolded before her—vast, radiant, impossible.
White cities floated above transparent oceans. The sky was no rusted "Sky" of Sector 01, but a real one—deep, velvet-black, scattered with stars. And above it all hung the Moon. A true Moon. Massive, silver, perfect, bathing everything in soft, living light.
Astra saw a woman.
A woman uncannily similar to herself—the same sharp cheekbones, the same black hair, the same stubborn curve of the lips. The woman stood on a wide terrace of a white city, holding a small child in her arms. A girl. The child laughed softly, reaching toward the Moon.
But instead of a normal sky, a pure Omni-field shimmered above them—an endless network of golden and silver threads connecting all life into a single harmonious system. No rusted pipes. No synthetic voices. Only pure, pulsing life.
"This is not a dream, Astra," Thanatos said.
His voice emerged directly within her mental space. His form was woven from stardust and dark matter—a tall silhouette with eyes containing entire rotating galaxies. Neither male nor female, he was absence itself shaped into something her mind could comprehend.
"This is blood memory. A memory the System tried to erase from you before your first breath. You were never 'garbage' from the ghettos. You were not born in the lower tiers. You were stolen from a perfect world. Stolen to become a battery for this mechanical nightmare. A living generator meant to power their false order."
Astra stood in the vision, wind from the real world brushing through her hair. She could smell the sea and flowers—scents she had never known in her life.
"Who am I?" she asked into the void of her own mind. Her voice sounded both loud and distant.
Thanatos approached. His stardust swirled around her, almost tenderly.
"You are the key. You are the error that was meant to fix the System—but instead will destroy it. Your blood carries the pure code of the first Omni-field. A code the Corporation stole, distorted, and tried to weaponize. But they could not contain it. It awakened in you… and called me."
Astra reached toward the woman in the vision. The woman turned her head and looked directly into her eyes.
For a moment, Astra felt warmth—true maternal love she had never known.
"Look at the Dead Moon, Astra," Thanatos continued. His voice deepened, resonating from the core of the cosmos itself. "It is not a satellite. It is not a relay. It is a mirror. A vast mirror reflecting the true world—the one you were torn from. When you truly look into it, when you accept what flows in your veins… the world will tremble. The System will fracture. And the old Omni-field… may return."
The vision began to fade. White cities dissolved, the Moon lost its silver brilliance, becoming the familiar violet-rusted silhouette of the "Dead Moon." The woman with the child slowly dissolved into golden light.
Astra abruptly opened her eyes.
She was back in the Labyrinth. Pulsating cable-vines whispered faintly above her. Nearby, Kai and Lira sat by a small fire made from chemical tablets, both watching her with concern.
Her first scar on her left shoulder glowed brightly in violet, echoing the spiral pattern she had seen in the vision—the same one etched across the terrace of the white city.
"Astra?" Kai cautiously touched her hand. "You drifted away again… your eyes were glowing so intensely, Lira thought you might dissolve into the air."
Lira said nothing, but her gaze was sharp. She clearly understood that something important had happened.
Astra slowly ran her fingers over the scar. It no longer simply ached. It pulsed in sync with the distant "Dead Moon" hanging far above them, beyond kilometers of metal and lies.
"I saw…" she began quietly, her voice still trembling slightly. "I saw where I came from. And what they took from me."
She lifted her gaze toward the Labyrinth ceiling, as if she could see through all layers and pipes.
"The Dead Moon… it's not just a satellite. It's a mirror. And when I truly look into it… everything will change."
Thanatos said nothing.
But Astra felt his smile—ancient, patient, and deeply satisfied.
The first true scar on her body was not just a mark.
It was the beginning of the journey home.