The descent through the Thorne Citadel was not a battle; it was an execution.With every floor they breached, Aero felt the dual-consciousness of the "Merger" grinding against his new reality. To Lyra, he was still the brother-consort, the sun to her void. But to Aero, every spark of golden fire he threw felt like a betrayal. If he was Architect DNA, then the fire wasn't his soul—it was his programming."Aero, look at me!" Lyra’s voice echoed inside his skull, more thought than sound.They were standing in the ruins of a high-security barracks. Around them, Thorne’s cybernetic soldiers lay in heaps of melting alloy. Lyra’s eyes, swirling with black gravitational ink, searched his. "You’re flickering. Stay with me. We have to reach the Core.""The video, Lyra," Aero rasped, his voice sounding like grinding tectonic plates. "If I’m one of them... then what am I doing to this place?""You’re ending it," she snapped, pulling him forward. "Blood or code, it doesn't matter. You chose
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