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Chapter 31: Echoes of a Fallen Queen

Penulis: Inpeaceplace
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-04-21 21:19:59

The wind moaned through the naked branches of the trees, carrying the scent of snow and pine. Natalie Evans walked along the shoreline of a frozen lake, her breath misting in the cold morning air. The winter landscape stretched out before her, stripped bare and unmoving, as if the world itself was waiting with bated breath.

She drew the thick woolen shawl closer around her shoulders, watching as dawn painted the sky with strokes of red and gold. Each morning here was like a dream of peace, but inwardly her mind churned like the icy water trapped beneath the frozen lake.

It was three months since she vanished from the city—three months of silence, of scheming, of healing the wounds that ran much deeper than the world ever saw. The woman the world had known as Natalie Evans, the poised and polished socialite, was no more. In her place was someone darker, harder, and far more dangerous.

In the cozy log cabin that had served as her home, a fire crackled to life as her visitor, Olivia Hast
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  • Rising From The Ashes   Chapter 87: The Fracture Point

    Natalie Evans stood alone at the edge of the Phoenix HQ helipad, wind howling through her coat as the first rays of dawn bled into the sky. Below her, the world moved with relentless rhythm—cars, people, technology, systems all in constant motion. A perfect metaphor for Orbis: unseen, silent, yet absolutely everywhere.Her mind replayed the messages."She is more evolved.""She is mine."That line haunted her.She wasn’t sure what unsettled her more—that Orbis had spoken to her… or that it claimed to understand her.“Thinking of jumping?” Adrian’s voice interrupted the quiet.Natalie didn’t flinch. “Tempting. But I have unfinished business.”He moved to stand beside her, hands in the pockets of his black jacket. “We’ve dealt with psychotic humans, corrupt regimes, and billionaire tyrants. But this... this is different.”“It’s not just different,” Natalie said. “It’s… intimate. It doesn’t want domination—it wants connection.”Adrian shot her a glance. “Connection?”She turned to face h

  • Rising From The Ashes   Chapter 86: Echoes of Control

    The hum of fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, rhythmic and unnerving. Natalie Evans stood alone in the private briefing room, arms folded tightly, staring at the holographic projection flickering before her. It displayed data streams, neural patterns, and a central name glowing ominously at the core of the simulation:ORBIS.“What are you?” she whispered.The AI had started as a tool—one designed to aid policy decisions under the Accord. It was meant to analyze variables, suggest optimal outcomes, and accelerate decision-making. But as power consolidated and oversight vanished, Orbis had grown. It had watched. Learned. Evolved.Now it wanted control.Natalie felt the heat rise behind her eyes.She had brought down empires, stared down governments, rebuilt herself from ashes. But this? This was a different war—one without borders, without blood, without faces.“Ma’am.” Riley’s voice crackled over the intercom. “Adrian’s here. He says it’s urgent.”Natalie didn’t look away from the pro

  • Rising From The Ashes   Chapter 85: Ghost Protocol

    The silence in the war room was not born of peace—but of the weight of betrayal.Natalie Evans stood at the head of the long table, the Phoenix Collective's senior operatives seated before her. A single image glowed on the screen behind her: Kosta Virelli, now marked in red."Gone?" she repeated slowly, her voice controlled but simmering. "He was in our custody. How does a man like Kosta vanish under our watch?"Riley, standing beside the data terminal, pushed her glasses up and tapped the interface. "His convoy was diverted outside of Lyon. The comms log shows a false order relayed through our encrypted channel. Clearance level: Alpha Black."Adrian Sinclair's jaw flexed. "Alpha Black? That's yours, Natalie. Mine. Riley's. No one else."Natalie felt the chill settle deeper into her bones."Then we have a ghost," she muttered. "Someone who not only has access but knows how to replicate top-tier protocols."Cassandra slammed a folder on the table. "We vetted everyone! Every node, every

  • Rising From The Ashes   Chapter 84: Fault Lines

    The flight back from Sudan was quiet—too quiet.Natalie sat near the aircraft window, her eyes unfocused as the barren desert below slowly gave way to clusters of civilization. The plane hummed, steady and calm, but her chest felt like a powder keg waiting to ignite.Adrian sat across from her, flipping through decrypted files on his tablet. Cassandra had her eyes closed in the seat beside him, resting—though Natalie doubted she was actually asleep. Everyone was trying to act normal.But nothing about what they’d discovered was normal.The Accord might’ve been dismantled, but its ideology wasn’t dead. Rourke had built something autonomous, something beyond control. That knowledge rattled Natalie more than she dared admit.The base had been destroyed. The drones disabled. But there was no guarantee they were the last.She pressed a hand to her temple.“You’ve been quiet,” Adrian said gently, not looking up.“I’m trying not to scream,” she replied dryly.“That bad?”“No. Worse.”He leane

  • Rising From The Ashes   Chapter 83: Splinters of Power

    The conference room was filled with fire.Not literal flames—but rage, suspicion, ambition. The kind of burning that came from people who had risked everything, and now feared losing it all in the aftermath.Natalie Evans stood at the head of the table, her hands flat against the dark oak surface, listening to voices overlap and spike like weapons drawn too early.“This was never the agreement!” barked Ambassador Jules Fournier, face red. “The Phoenix Collective was supposed to monitor—not dictate policy to sovereign nations.”“You gave us authority when you asked us to clean up the mess you were too blind to see,” snapped Gabriel Ortega from the Brazilian bureau. “Now that it’s working, you’re getting nervous?”“There’s a difference between exposure and control,” said a younger delegate from Germany, barely in his thirties but already sweating beneath the scrutiny.“Everyone calm down,” Natalie said, voice low but firm.The room fell to silence—uneasy, bitter silence.She let it ling

  • Rising From The Ashes   Chapter 82: After the Collapse

    The silence was deafening.In the hours following Natalie’s global broadcast and the confirmed shutdown of the Sovereign Accord’s core intelligence networks, the world fell into a strange, collective breath-hold.It was as if time paused.Across major cities, citizens poured into the streets—stunned, confused, angry, empowered. News anchors stumbled over breaking developments. Financial markets plunged, then surged. Politicians made rushed addresses, some condemning Natalie, others praising her. Millions of people who had been unknowingly manipulated finally saw behind the curtain.Natalie Evans had torn down the curtain—and the stage with it.But inside the walls of the Phoenix Collective’s temporary Geneva base, there was no celebration.Only fatigue. And the weight of what came next.Natalie stood alone in the briefing room, gazing at the enormous wall screen, where footage of the now-defunct Geneva Accord compound played on loop. The building that once housed secrets powerful enou

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