"You think you've locked her in a loop of regret, Ethan?" Yuan whispered, his hand glowing with a sickly indigo light as he touched the monolith. "You forgot that I was the one who taught her how to feel."
Yuan didn't attack the security grid. He activated the Hidden Protocol: Malignant Parasite. In a fraction of a second, he sent a pulse of Null-Logic through the obsidian. This pulse wasn't a virus; it was a "Memory-Key." It triggered the exact moment Lia's blade had pierced his heart 50 years ago, but with one crucial Logic-Twist:
In her mind, the image of Ethan Vance was swapped with a demonic entity, and Fang Yuan's dying face was replaced with that of a "Sacrificed Savior."
[SYSTEM ERROR: CAUSALITY MISMATCH...]
[REWRITING NEURAL MAP: LIA_VANCE_01]
The monolith shattered. Not from outside pressure, but from the internal eruption of Lia's mana. The golden threads that once pulsed with regret turned into jagged, violet lightning.
"LIA! STOP!" Ethan's holographic avatar shrieked, his digital form flickering as the mana-grid he controlled began to bleed back into the chamber. "The boy is a monster! He's rewriting your—"
Suddenly, a hand made of translucent porcelain and violet energy shot out from the dust. It grabbed the holographic projection's throat—an impossible feat. Because Lia was reaching Rank 4: Dimension Walker, she could now touch the "Digital Dimension."
Lia rose from her 50-year slumber. Her eyes opened—they weren't silver anymore. They were a hollow, terrifying indigo, reflecting the soul of the boy standing before her.
"My... Master..." Lia rasped, her voice vibrating with enough power to shake the planetary core.
She turned toward the holographic Ethan, her gaze filled with an artificial, programmed hatred. With a single flick of her wrist, she tore a segment of Aegis-0's code out of the air and crushed it.
"No... this is impossible!" Ethan's voice faded as his connection was severed.
Mira fell to her knees, unable to breathe under the pressure of a Rank 4 entity. But Yuan stood perfectly still. He reached out and patted the cheek of the woman who had once killed him. She leaned into his touch like a loyal hound.
"Good girl," Yuan said, his childish face twisted into the cold, triumphant smile of the Galactic Overlord. "Ethan thought he won the war. He only won the first act. Now, we use the global grid to broadcast your 'Resurrection'... and my return."