As Lia—now a Rank 4 puppet—stood motionless behind him, Yuan looked at the flickering remains of the digital world. His mind drifted back to that final night 50 years ago.
The Council thought they had cornered him. They thought the Prime Code had locked his soul. But Fang Yuan knew that as long as he lived in that body, he was a prisoner of their physics. To win, he had to delete himself.
"You remember, don't you, Ethan?" Yuan whispered to the empty air, knowing the AI was still listening through the backup sensors. "I didn't lose that night. I chose the exit."
He had triggered the Causality Overload intentionally. He had forced Lia's blade into his own heart to use her "Regret" as a quantum battery for his rebirth. By killing himself, he bypassed the Destiny Locks they had placed on him. He died a King to be reborn as a Virus.
"And now..." Yuan turned to Mira, who was staring at him with pure terror. "The sacrifice is over. The harvest begins."
Yuan reached into the air, his small hand weaving through the violet mana leaking from Lia. He wasn't just sending a message; he was hijacking the planetary consciousness.
Every screen on Earth—from the neon billboards of Neo-Tokyo to the retinal implants of the High Council—flickered. The golden sun-symbol of the Vance family was torn apart, replaced by a single, indigo eye.
[BROADCAST INITIATED: THE RETURN OF LOGIC]
"People of Earth," Yuan's childish voice echoed, but it carried the depth of a thousand dying stars. "Your 'Saints' are digital ghosts. Your 'Gods' are genetic thieves. I am the one who gave you fire, and I am the one who will take it back."
In the High Palace, Kaelen Vance stood up, his solar-aura flaring in panic. He looked at the screen, then at his own hands, which were beginning to turn grey. The mana was no longer obeying him. It was flowing toward the Core.
"Lia," Yuan commanded, his eyes glowing with absolute authority. "Go to the surface. Bring me the head of the Solar Tyrant. I need his heart to stabilize my Rank 2: Space-Time Weaver ascension."
Lia didn't nod. She simply vanished into a rift of violet lightning.