The porcelain walls of the Lunar Apex began to ripple like water. The sterile white light of the Archivists was slowly being replaced by a deep and suffocating crimson. Ren stood in the center of the hall with his golden eyes fixed on the holographic pillar. The name of Subject 001 didn't just sit at the top of the list. It was consuming the other names as if it were a living organism.
Anya gripped her blade until her knuckles turned white. she asked Ren where the target was. She looked around the vast hall but saw nothing but shifting shadows and red light. Elara checked her device and whispered that the energy readings had gone off the charts. She said the entire moon was now vibrating at a frequency that shouldn't be possible.
Ren felt the hundred voices in his head go silent. It was a terrifying and absolute quiet. Even Zero who was now a part of his subconscious seemed to be holding her breath. Ren told the group to stand back. He explained that they weren't dealing with a creature of data anymore. He said Subject 001 was the reason the Caelum 7 was created in the first place.
A door at the far end of the hall opened with a heavy and mechanical thud. A man stepped out. He wasn't wearing a robe of starlight or the armor of a general. He wore a simple and tattered grey cadet uniform from the first iteration of Aegis Academy. He looked remarkably like Ren but his hair was shock white and his eyes were a dull and matte black.
The man stopped ten meters away and looked at Ren with a expression of tired pity. He spoke with a voice that sounded like dry leaves skittering across a grave. He told Ren that he had been watching the 100th iteration with great interest. He admitted that he hadn't expected the 004 line to achieve a collective consciousness.
Ren asked the man if he was the one Silas was trying to replicate.
Subject 001 let out a soft and hollow laugh. He told Ren that Silas was a fool who thought he could capture lightning in a bottle. He explained that he was the original donor for the entire project. He revealed that he had been living in the core of the moon for a century as the primary processor for the Harvest.
Anya stepped forward and pointed her sword at him. She called him a traitor to his own race. She asked how he could watch his own brothers and sisters be deleted for a hundred years.
Subject 001 looked at Anya and the blackness in his eyes seemed to deepen. He told her that she was a charming specimen. He explained that he didn't see the iterations as brothers. He saw them as backup files. He revealed that every time a Ren died, his experiences were uploaded into 001 to refine the perfect Sovereign soul.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Threat Level: Sovereign Rank S.
Condition: Absolute Predominance.
Warning: All current skills may be ineffective.
Ren felt a cold sweat on his neck. He realized that the ninety nine ghosts inside him were not his allies but 001's stolen data. The man in front of him wasn't just a fighter. He was the sum total of every strategy Ren had ever used.
Ren looked at the man and asked why he had come out now. He asked if 001 was there to stop the independence of Earth.
Subject 001 shook his head slowly. He told Ren that he didn't care about the Earth or the Archivists. He explained that he had allowed Ren to defeat the previous administrator because he was bored of the cycle. He revealed that he was there for a trade.
He pointed to Ren's chest where the golden light of the fusion was still pulsing. He told Ren that the Sovereign Rank E was a beautiful evolution. He said he wanted the fusion data. He offered to let Ren and his friends leave the moon and live in the Wastes in peace if Ren handed over the golden core.
Elara shouted that it was a trap. She warned Ren that without the core he would lose his connection to the lunar system and the Earth would be defenseless.
Ren looked at 001 and saw a microscopic flaw in the man's posture. It was a slight lean to the left. It was the same habit Ren had when he was overthinking a tactical move. He realized that 001 was powerful but he was also stagnant. He had been a processor for a century while Ren had been a soldier in the dirt.
Ren told the man that he refused the trade. He explained that a Sovereign doesn't negotiate with his own shadow.
Subject 001 sighed and the red light in the room intensified. He said it was a shame. He told Ren that he would have to take it by force.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Skill Activated: Sovereign Static.
Effect: Nullifying all administrative overrides in the sector.
The golden light around Ren's body suddenly flickered and died. The holographic slate in his hand turned black. The hundred ghosts in his head began to scream in agony as 001 began to pull them back into the primary core.
Ren fell to one knee as the pain of the identity fragmentation returned with a vengeance. He felt Zero's presence being ripped away from him.
Anya lunged at 001 with a roar of defiance. She was fast but the man didn't even move his hands. A wall of matte black energy erupted from the floor and sent Anya flying across the hall. She slammed into a porcelain pillar and fell still.
Ren watched Anya fall and something inside him finally snapped. It wasn't the tactical mind of the Architect or the Sovereign. It was the raw and primal rage of a boy who was tired of being a lab rat.
Ren reached into the deepest part of his mind. He didn't look for a skill or a code. He looked for the one thing 001 couldn't have. He looked for his failures.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Secret Condition Met: Embracing the Void.
New Path Identified: The Nihilist Sovereign.
Ren stood up and the golden cracks on his skin turned into a deep and obsidian black. He wasn't glowing anymore. He was absorbing the light in the room. He told 001 that he was right about the data. He admitted that 001 had all the successes.
Ren stepped forward and his voice was a cold and hollow echo. He told the man that he had kept all the pain. He explained that a perfect soul couldn't handle the weight of a hundred broken hearts.
Ren grabbed 001's arm and instead of uploading he began to bleed his agony into the man. He showed him the smell of the gas in the library. He showed him the sight of Gage dying. He showed him the loneliness of the White Room.
Subject 001's black eyes widened. He tried to pull away but Ren's grip was like a dying star. The shock white hair of the original Sovereign began to fall out in clumps. He started to scream as a hundred years of suppressed trauma flooded his "perfect" mind.
The red light in the room turned into a chaotic vortex of black and gold.
Suddenly a massive alarm sounded throughout the moon.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Warning: Sovereign Core Instability.
Lunar Shipyard: Self Destruct Initiated by Subject 001.
Ren looked at the man and realized that 001's mind had broken. In his madness the original Sovereign had triggered the final purge. He wanted to take the entire moon and everyone on it into the void with him.
The floor began to tilt as the lunar engines began to fire in random directions. The Earth in the sky started to spin wildly as the moon was pushed out of its orbit.
Ren looked at Elara and the children who were clinging to the floor. He saw Anya trying to stand up with blood running down her face.
The older Ren who was still a ghost in the system appeared for a brief second. He told Ren that there was only one way to stop the descent. He said Ren had to take the 001 core and merge it with the Earth's defense grid.
Ren looked at the dying 001. He realized that this was the final choice. If he took the core he would become the most powerful being in history but he would be tied to the Earth forever as its guardian. He would never be free.
Ren reached into 001's chest and pulled out a pulsing black sphere.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Sovereign Rank S Core: Acquired.
Integration: 1%... 5%...
Suddenly a group of strange ships appeared on the lunar sensors. They weren't Archivists and they weren't Sovereigns. They were ships made of wood and gold that looked like they belonged in a fantasy novel.
A voice came through the comms. It was a feminine and melodic voice that sounded like music.
"Subject 004. You have successfully cleared the Science Tutorial. The Magic Expansion is now downloading. Welcome to the real game."
Ren looked at the sky as a massive portal opened. A dragon made of mechanical parts flew out of the rift and breathed a flame of green fire onto the Archivist fleet.