The prompt on my internal display didn’t just flicker; it burned a terminal red, a digital screaming that vibrated through my quartz marrow. [AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED: FINALIZE PETRIFICATION OF SOVEREIGN UNIT.] The logic was flawless. The math was absolute. To keep the Golden Basalt dome from turning into a pile of glass under the pressure of Project Desiccate, the capacitor needed more stone. It needed Leo’s heart to stop beating and start grounding.My consciousness, braided into the silver-mercury conduits of Rebirth City, thrashed against the command. I am the floor, but I will not be his coffin. I forced a surge of geothermic heat toward the central server, trying to scorage the Admin’s cold arithmetic."Administrator," I projected, my voice a rhythmic, tectonic grind echoing in the empty hall. "Cancel the finalization. The Sovereign Unit is not a component.""The King’s respiration is down to thirty-one percent, Phoenix," Kael’s digitized voice replied, devo
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