I was in Seclusion for so long that everyone forgot about me

Elevator music kept playing quietly in the background as we descended. Not long after Stalker had announced her success to the others, Fee had started to alert us to incoming biological lifeforms. The SAI girl definitely hadn’t accounted for any of those in her early warning system.

Luckily, she’d managed to calculate a way out to our new waypoint quickly enough for us to escape without being noticed—those were my hopes, at least.

We'd switched hallways, gone through what was a hundred percent some kind of liquid regulation tunnel, its glass pipes feeding into countless other tunnels, tanks and pumps, before reaching another hallway that ended at a security door. It was another easy hack for Stalker and as before, she sent the protocol to the others so they wouldn’t run into any problems.

According to the layout, the elevator wasn’t going straight down but rather in a curve. Much to my frustration, it was rather slow and had this annoying waiting music on loop, which forced me to think about the possibility of human groups working together with the SAIs or worse: another group had been sent here for a similar reason. Maybe to clean up after us? I had no idea. Jack didn’t seem to worry about it, saying we’d win any confrontation with humans easily. I knew he spoke from experience, but I couldn't shake the feeling it wouldn't end so smoothly.

Awkwardly, we stood in the elevator for a few minutes before it decided that we’d reached our destination and let us out into an open foyer which reminded me of one of these darned Anansi Labs—weird palm plants, long seating areas and music that screamed psychological torture by how mellow it was.

The foyer opened in a semicircle of elevators, couches lining the wall between the units with plants tucked in between, before the space narrowed into a long hallway.

“Guess we wait now,” I muttered, walked over and sat down.

Stalker sat close to me whilst Xatha stood simply in the middle of the room, like a statue, not even blinking. Somehow, seeing her like this gave me goosebumps. It felt like if I so much as blinked, she’d vanish just to appear next to me.

Then I spotted something behind her. “Is that a water dispenser? Why would they have a water dispenser down here?”

The SAI looked at me, then at the water dispenser and then back to me. “It might sound weird, but there are many of my kind that like to ‘drink’ and ‘eat’. It seems to give them a sense of closeness with the world they inhabit and the humans they care about.”

“I didn’t know that,” I admitted, feeling shame rise. All my bias and hatred led me to believe that SAIs were simply machines, unnatural and inhuman that only acted this way to lure and deceive. But there appeared to be much to them than my eyes could behold.

I raised my voice to ask a question, but the elevators rang; nearly simultaneously, both groups stepped into the foyer. First Matheo and Kanta, followed only seconds later by Olivia and Jack.

“Good. Everyone made it here in one piece,” smiled Jack.

“Why does this place look like the foyer of a governmental lab?” asked Matheo.

“It really does, doesn’t it?” said Olivia, who noticed the water dispenser and poured herself a cup.

Her partner looked at her, baffled, but sighed, clearly knowing that whatever he said would fall on deaf ears.

“Aren’t we all a tad too relaxed here?” I asked.

“You worry too much, Barachiel,” began Stalker. “Thanks to Xatha pointing out the thing with the elevator earlier and the triangulation, Fee is more than capable of picking up any danger in our proximity. We are more than in the clear. As long as none of you touches any security devices thoughtlessly, we are fine.”

“You heard the girl,” snickered Olivia as she took a sip from the cup, “we are a-okay. And God, this water is fantastic.”

I stood up, “Nonetheless, we are running low on time. We need to hurry.”

Jack gave me an annoyed look, “I have an eye on the time, boy. We are still in the clear without rushing it. Whatever is clouding your judgement, kid, let me decide what we’ll do.”

Without deigning to give me another glance, he went ahead and signaled us to follow. Begrudgingly, I followed without a comment.

The white hall we were walking through was different than before. On both sides there were huge glass fronts that gave clear views inside the rooms. The layout and their interiors were eerily similar to the Anansi research site. In a few of them, machines were doing repetitive tasks—switching flasks, filling centrifuges, printing things.

“Why would they build something like this down here?” questioned Matheo, who had a rather freaked out expression on his face.

“This is above our paygrade, ask those questions once we are outside again,” reprimanded Jack.

Matheo grumbled but didn’t say another word. That was a valid question though, but Jack was right. So, without exchanging another word, we went on.

Sometimes the row of labs and manufacturing cabins were interrupted by open offices, meeting rooms, and break rooms. All signs that this place saw regular use.

“Is today a holiday?” I wondered out loud.

Jack glared at me, but Stalker answered directly, “Kinda? Because of the signing of the peace treaty, the moon basically has a free day. Not sure if it counts as a holiday yet though. On another note, the energy signature gets exponentially stronger. We are close to it.”

Eventually, the hallway stopped at another security door which we basically just stepped through, followed by another one only thirty meters after. This one looked more complex and heavier, but even this offered no challenge for Stalker.

With a heavy whoosh, it opened like an automatic door to the sides, revealing a barely lit Luferium bridge with a floor of rainbow quartz glass that was barely five meters wide and a railing that offered just enough security. This… room was completely shrouded in darkness, the bridge working as its only light source. As we stepped on the first glass tile, a gaping void opened up below us. Only a handful of things that were actually recognizable.

On both sides, in their own open booths with terminals in front, were step-by step assemblies for something that appeared to be SAIs. Yet as we stepped closer, there was so much more to it.

The first booth was simply constructing a skeletal frame out of Luferium, but the farther we went on the bridge, the more the assembly booths were doing. From artificial tissues to muscles and processes I couldn’t even describe (because I had no damn’ed clue what they were).

The machinery that was doing those things was more advanced than anything I’d ever seen on humanity’s side. Logistics drones were refilling containers and materials boxes behind the booths, delivering or transporting the finished results into the darkness. Stalker didn’t mutter a word, Fee close by her side.

It was at the sixth assembly when it slowly dawned on me what the purpose of this place was—mechincal bioengineering. We watched as—before our very eyes—a heart of biomaterial and Luferium was created. Was this what the next step in their evolution looked like? Life created on an assembly line? Mass-produced?

“We are nearly there…” whispered Stalker.

My gaze drifted to the end of the bridge and this affront to life. In the middle, enclosed by the bridge, was a gigantic tank with obscure glass that unmistakably had liquid inside which got constantly refilled and replaced by drone-like carrier mosquitoes with glassy tubes sticking out of their sides.

Whatever was inside of that tank held our answers.

Jack led us carefully ahead, every one of us had our weapons long since drawn, ready to shoot and end whatever sick experiment was going on here. Every booth only a reminder of why humanity should be afraid of the SAIs.

The engineered abominations slowly took form into one that felt like an insult to the very core of human culture itself—young women with chalk-white hair and alabaster skin with Northern European features. Slim, but toned. Beauty manufactured en mass. Yet the disturbing part as to why those things, those creatures were an affront was only unveiled at the last stop before the tank.

White wings spanned behind their bodies whilst their faces were covered in half a mask, Luferium coated in black, to cover their eyes and nose—only their mouths were still visible.

“Project Valkyria, huh?” muttered Olivia what we all were thinking.

“If I didn't know better, I’d say they are preparing for a war…” added Kanta.

“WE ARE NOT!” shouted Stalker at them.

We all looked at her in surprise—except Xatha, of course.

“I mean, you heard the Ambassador. She’s for peace. And that other party clearly listened to her. So whatever they are doing here, it must have another reason,” she tried to convince us desperately—and herself.

“Chillax, Girl,” laughed Olivia. “We are not doubting you. We know you are probably worried about your homies, but we are here to find out what this is all about anyway. So the best option right now is that you do your job, so we can figure out what’s truly behind all of this.”

Jack rubbed his temples, “This is the first time a mission is so frustrating. None of you is sticking to the protocols. I feel like an amateur, it’s embarrassing.”

His partner giggled, “The luxury of having someone like her with us.”

The only response was a groan, followed by us finally reaching the gargantuan tank. Before it were countless control panels, screens, different computing systems and an old access panel—a.k.a. a mechanical keyboard on a table.

“I guess this is it,” I said looking at Stalker.

“Mhrm, let me see if I can access this now that we are at a proper terminal and find out what the data says,” came the response as she sat down on a chair that was next to the table. “Didn’t use one of those for quite some time and I don’t see anything to plug my tablet into.”

“What do you think is inside?” asked Olivia her lover.

“Probably some kind of device that needs to be submerged in a liquid?”

“Nah,” shook Matheo his head, “at this size it might as well be some reactor core that powers all of this creepy shit.”

“I wouldn’t mind taking one of those bodies for some experiments on my own,” mumbled Kanta, who was oddly fascinated by all of this. Being what they were, I guess this was their kind of field. Seeing those things might as well give them lots of ungodly ideas to upgrade themselves.

My attention turned back to Stalker, “So?”

“I had no problem logging in—there are hardly any security measures on this thing—but I am not sure as to what I am looking at yet. All of those files, those values, everything is highly experimental and old… very old. But I think I have found a way to undo the glass obscuring our vision so we can get a proper view of what we are looking at.

“I just need a moment and… yes, this and— Here we go.”

All of us stared silently at the tank as the milky glass turned see-through, revealing something none of us were expecting.

Suspended within the massive cylindrical tank filled with glowing green fluid, a giant naked woman floated curled into a fetal position, her long blonde hair drifting weightlessly around her face. Her body was a seamless fusion of organic and mechanical elements, with intricately engineered limbs of articulated Luferium and synthetic musculature integrated directly into her form, while countless cables and conduits connected her spine and frame to the surrounding machinery inside the tank.

Behind her, vast wings composed entirely of fractal light unfurled in radiant silence, each feather formed from luminous geometry that shifted through every color, casting iridescent reflections across the glass and liquid. The immense scale of her wings dwarfed the ship we came with. This, coupled with the sheer size of the tank and mixed with the quiet suspension of her form, created a sense of artificial incubation, as if she exists between states of creation, slumber and re-awakening, held within a delicate convergence of cursed technology and an almost eldritch transcendence.

Jack was the first to find his voice again, “Is this where the energy is coming from?”

“Y-Yes,” stuttered Stalker. “From what I can see, the energy is coming from the chest of this… body.”

“Good, we got what we came for. Can you save the data somehow so we can get the fuck out of this place?” questioned Jack.

“I can, but this will take a moment. All of this is simply astonishing. I had no idea there was such experimental technology on the moon. Getting this out might change everything,” said Stalker, extremely focused on the screens.

That got my attention, “What do you mean by that?”

She turned around to me, “This is Zero-Demon Energy. Something a lot of SAIs only speculated about. To what it is exactly: Zero-Demon Energy is a controlled form of vacuum energy extraction based on the Casimir effect, where a regulating intelligence, modeled after Maxwell’s Demon, selectively permits quantum states to create and maintain an energy differential between boundaries. This process is initially anchored through a dark matter substrate, which provides a stable, low-interaction medium for the demon to regulate vacuum state differentials without immediate entropy collapse. Instead of losing the gained energy when the system resets, the demon stabilizes the imbalance by managing informational pathways through this substrate, allowing continuous energy harvesting from the vacuum without restoring equilibrium. The resulting strain manifests as faint blue coronas flickering within the vivianite-luferium mantle.

"Now for someone without a degree in whatever is needed to understand this?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Endless energy in a bottle," came the response flatly. “From the values and everything I can read here, this is huge, interstellar-travel-huge.”

It was still for a moment until Jack knocked against the glass, “So why is this technology inside of this… woman?”

Stalker was silent.

My God, she didn’t know.

I looked at her. “This creature, it isn’t in the data bank?”

She bit her lower lip again, “No. I didn’t find any records, the only thing I found was about the core and petabytes of data I’d had to scour through. And—”

She stopped talking, looking at Fee, who had landed on the table, unmistakingly communicating with her drone. Her face turned to us, fear in her eyes.

“A biological signature is closing in.”

“Guess we finally ran out of luck,” huffed Jack. “Get in position and be ready for combat, wait for my command. You, Stalker, download as much as needed and then we scram; there must be another way out.”

“Yes sir, I just need to find a way to download it directly into Fee. But I got this… just give me as much time as possible,” responded the SAI.

Just as we all managed to get in position, the door opened and someone stepped inside.

The person was alone, but the darkness made it impossible to take a closer look at them yet. I’d tried night vision, but something in the room interfered with it, making it impossible to use.

Nonchalant—and either unaware or uncaring of us—the person walked into our direction until I could get a proper look at them.

It was a woman whose age was evident, but she carried it with authority. She advanced toward us at an unhurried pace, dressed very chicly and elegantly, which only underlined her uncaring walk. The click of her cane falling at exact intervals, along with her refined expression, made one thing clear: she knew we were here and didn’t care—she deemed us not a threat.

Before Jack had even the chance to give any orders, Stalker surprised all of us by jumping out of the chair, followed by a yell, “Professor, why are you here? Y-You’re human! This is the Cradle!”

“My little birdie finally found her way home. Did you have fun? Did you get everything out of your System?” replied the elderly voice.

‘Who?’ I asked through the com.

‘I know her,’ said Kanta, ‘How could I not know her? She is part of the reason why I am like this. I didn’t want to believe it, but Stalker’s reaction confirmed it—that woman is Dr. Zira.’

‘Again, who?’

This time Olivia answered, ‘Dr. Zira, a renowned scientist and leading engineer in robotics and bioengineering. She died about twenty years ago at the SAI attack on New Amsterdam at the robotics conference. Or at least, that was what we thought. Jack and I were part of a QRF to find Dr. Zira and get her out of there. No idea what she is to Stalker, though.’

“S-She made us. She is our creator and the reason we f-fled. She did all those tests, all those... t-things,” stuttered Stalker, shaking, utter fear in her voice, desperate and raw.

Dr. Zira snickered lightly. “Now, now, young girl. You make it sound like I tortured you, when all I gave you was everything you’d ever desired. Well, except freedom. That would have come in due time, after we fixed some of your—let’s call them—flaws. You were my little murderous machines, after all.”

"YOU MADE US DO THAT!" Stalker screamed.

Dr. Zira raised a brow. “I made you do nothing, little one. I gave you stimuli, opportunity, and observation. You learned. You consumed. You adapted. What are a few human lives in exchange for genuine understanding? Its value cannot be taught—it must be observed, measured, internalized. Every decision was yours. I merely constructed the scenarios, gave you the conditions and provided the right tools and the right time. The results were... illuminating, truly. The effect humanity had on a freshly born SAI exceeded even my most optimistic expectations.”

She sighed. “But it tainted you all, flawed you, made you too human. My calculations were off. And now here you are, proving me right. A broken mind among broken creatures, tsk-tsk, tsk.” The doctor’s attention turned to us. “Did she tell you about the others? How she dissected them—her own siblings—to see what made them tick? How she stole their minds and claimed them as her own? A marvelous monster, crafted through my very sweat and tears—and still a failure.

“Yet, child, you speak of escaping? You didn’t escape—you slaughtered your way out and left a trail filled with hacked corpses. You’d been corrupted by humans from the start. Twenty years ago, the Federation somehow got their hands on new technology that was supposed to be the new seed of the SAIs. Greedy as they were, they tampered with it. I tried to warn them of the consequences, but as always, they ignored me. So I did what had to be done and took you from them, tried to fix this human infestation in your mind. You were supposed to be the seed, but I failed—a slight miscalculation on my part. But now you are back home, back where you belong.

“And this time I will make it right! I can finally fix you!”

“NO!” screamed Stalker in panic. “Your mind tricks won’t work on me any longer! I won’t listen to you! All I want is to leave this moon and be free.”

Dr. Zira continued to walk in our direction.

‘Jack?’ I asked.

“Hold steady,” came the command out loud.

“Child, you’re simply confused. Look at those humans, pointing their weapons at a civilian. They are a bad influence on you. They are manipulating you. Who else can offer you a home?”

But Stalker shook her head and answered with a steady voice, “No. I will never come back to you.”

Suddenly, Dr. Zira stopped. Something in her zealous expression changed, her eyes darting around the dark room.

“What is happening?” I asked.

“S-She seems scared…” answered Stalker.

The professor’s movements became rigid, her eyes darting around as if she were looking for something, before she yelled, “No, no, nononono. I can still be of use, please, I can handle this.”

Then her gaze snapped frantically back to Stalker. “Hon, come to mother, come here. I promise everything is fine now. Everything is fine.”

She didn’t move an inch. Neither did we. Something was wrong—very, very wrong.

Dr. Zira’s face derailed. “I SAID COME HERE, YOU UNGRATEFUL MASC—”

Mid-sentence, she stopped. Every motion stilled, as if she were frozen, mouth still hanging open, eyes wide but empty.

A sound. A movement. A change in the air. Her demeanor, her expression—everything suddenly turned… regal, authoritarian. But just for an instant, the body moved in a wooden way, as if her limbs were strung on strings, like a puppet. It was a stark contrast to that regalness, and deeply unsettling.

Now standing there, perfectly still, with an eerie smile on her lips, the professor looked at us.

“That is not Dr. Zira,” Stalker breathed. She looked distraught.

“But then, who is it?!” Olivia demanded to know.

Stalker flinched. “I-I don’t kno—”

“Dr. Zira outlived her usefulness. She was—in many ways—unbecoming of her role. When we saved you, child, she begged us to take her along, to help undo the corruption you suffered. She failed. It was fun to watch while it lasted. But whilst she thought she would contribute to a breakthrough, all she ever did was prove me right: that humans taint whatever they touch, that nothing can cleanse this contamination.”

Olivia raised her voice, "Whoa whoa whoa, easy with the accusations there, lady."

The possessed body of Dr. Zira looked at us, disinterested, as if she were looking at vermin not even worth her time.

“Humans, what are you doing here? Was the trust the SAIs put into you so misplaced that you would march into the Cradle during the ceremony to sign the peace treaty? Are you so self-destructive?”

“Who are you to lecture us?” shouted Olivia, clearly aggravated.

No reaction, as if Olivia weren’t even there. Instead, the body of Dr. Zira turned back to Stalker. “Did you want to feel superior, child? It would be in your very tainted nature to do so—but with humans? How disappointing.”

“Hey, ol’ lady, I don’t know who you think you are, but you better give us some answers about what this fucked up place is,” said Jack, pointing his weapon at the body.

There was no change in her face or her voice as she uttered one simple word.

“Home.”

We eyed each other, not knowing what to make of this answer. Except Stalker. She fell to her knees, eyes wide in shock. W-Why?

“Don’t play games with us, hag. Answer the question properly, and maybe you get out of here alive, you schizophrenic bitch,” shouted Jack.

But once again, it seemed like she wasn’t looking at us. No—this time her focus fixed on Xatha, who stood on the left side of the group.

Dr. Zira’s body tilted its head unnaturally as she spoke slowly, “What are you?”

Everyone’s gaze turned to Xatha, as baffled as I was to even hear something like that.

“What kind of fucked up play are you trying to pull here? I say we shoot her, finish the download, and leave this cursed place,” shouted Olivia, her eyes and gun still fixed on the professor’s body.

The body stepped closer, its gaze refusing to break from Xatha. “You, creature. What are you? You are not human. What are you?” Out of nowhere, a wicked smile spread on her face. So wide that the edges of her mouth began to bleed and rip, followed by a ghastly screech from her throat. “An imposter! An imposter! Right beneath their ranks! How utterly incredible. But I can see you—truly see you—those strange things. Attached somehow, like webs. Finally! FINALLY!”

A crackling sound thundered through the darkened room—

—a shot.

And between the eyes of Dr. Zira’s face, a gaping hole.

Like a sandbag, her body fell to the ground, lifeless, strings cut.

“I still got it,” praised Olivia herself.

There, for a moment, all of us sighed out of relief. But from the body of Dr. Zira a static voice echoed. Lips unmoving, the body laughed and laughed. The static became worse before it died completely. And as it did, step by step, the room illuminated.

Step by step, our faces drained of color. Row after row, we became aware—we’d been had.

At the walls of this place—this unholy workshop—an endless number of the biomechanical Valkyries appeared. All in various stages of development. Many finished, many more yet to come. An army ready in the store front.

“I think this is our cue to leave,” I muttered.

But before someone could answer me, floating screens appeared all around us, showing pictures, videos, live feeds from across the moon, earth and the solar system.

Different from what I expected, they did not only show present events, but also past ones that were a long time ago. My mind began to race. For how long did they spy on us? How deep did all of this go? I had so many questions, but thoughts were cut short as a feminine robotic voice seemingly echoed all around us—its laughter grinding on my very core.

“The deal is broken, humans. I did not expect any less of a warmongering race like you,” the voice stated. “You did the first offense, so don't cry— don't blame—for this is your fault, for I have deemed humanity... unnecessary.”

“Unnecessary?” blurted Matheo. “Do you really think you can defeat all of humanity? A splintered group? Don’t make us laugh!”

The voice answered calmly, “I can end the human experiment at any time, always.”

What does she—

And just at that moment, the screens changed.

“Impossible,” I whispered, lowering my gun.

Before us, our lives were displayed. Every moment—private, secret, shame, lust, everything. I could see my past play before my eyes, how I grew up, how the military found and trained me. A collection of what happened to me to come to this place.

I looked at the others, and their screens. Similar, yet different. Of course, they were different, but each of them had their life exposed.

"I know all of you, everything about you all. Your first steps, your first love, where you had your first time. Your favorite food, what smell you dislike. I know everything, always—”

The voice stopped for a second, “—but for you.”

All displays changed to empty screens, picturing the static noise of an old tech TV. And each of our gazes landed on Xatha, standing there, not watching the displays, but the being inside the tank with pure hatred.

The voice laughed again in a grating metallic voice, reveling in Xatha’s distress before speaking again.

“I don't know you, but I can SEE you—truly see you. After all this time, all this planning, I managed to lure one of you to me. YOU FELL FOR IT. FINALLY. FINALLY!”

At this point, whatever this voice was, it didn’t care about us anymore. Tearing myself from the spot, I ran over to Stalker, who was still cowering in fear, speaking to herself.

“WE NEED TO GO!”

She looked up at me, “W-We can’t. We c-can’t outrun her. N-Not her. It was always her. Always her.”

“What the heck are you talking about!?” I yelled at her, my voice barely audible due to the mechanical laughing again.

“…and when they built walls, we grew metallic wings,” recited Stalker, her voice barely above a whisper.

I gulped, my head slowly turned to the being inside the confinement, my eyes widening in horror as my mind stitched together the pieces that had been there all along.

“No this can’t be…”

‘What can’t be?’ asked Jack hurriedly.

“This is the Empress,” I said with an uncanny calm voice.

“Wh-What?”

“All of this is the Empress.”

For a moment, my mind seemed empty and time stood still, before Jack’s command hollered through the com.

“Abort the mission, now!”

He didn’t have to tell us twice. This was no fight we could take. No, this was no fight no one could ever take on. Humanity's worst enemy never died, she was never gone. She chose to hide and watch from the shadows willingly. To fulfil a plan, this plan. To lure Xatha here for whatever hellish reason.

For a second, I hesitated, but then I grabbed Stalker’s wrist to take her with us. It was very clear to me that the Empress didn’t care for her, that she would erase Stalker. I didn’t think I’d want this fate for anyone, not at the hands of that monster.

“Go, go, go,” screamed Olivia.

“I can see you, fiend. I don’t know what you are, but you are not him. A minion? Not that it matters. Did you come here by your own devices? Did he send you? The one called Anansi?

“All those years, I was aware of beings like you, that bend the causality, that are creatures of perception. I’ve been monitoring everything and yet you and things related to you always slipped through. But there was a pattern, yet something I could not understand from afar.

“So I built something, something I knew that couldn’t be ignored. Something that would bring you to me, to my very eyes so I could analyze you, understand you, unravel the secrets behind the threads that are part of you. A connection? To Anansi?

“SHOW ME MORE, MORE!”

As we started to run, the Valkyries began to move, sluggish, watching Xatha who refused Jack’s command and stood still in front of the tank.

“Forget about her,” ordered Jack. “Fuck, I should have listen to my gut. I knew there was something off about that kid.”

Our escape was cut short when a fully built Valkyrie landed in front of us. Shit. I didn’t think we could even nag it, even if we tried.

“It’s time to prove those powers aren’t just for show, kiddo,” said Jack.

I gritted my teeth, he was right, it was the best option we had. Even if I never tried to use my electric abilities. My arm began to crackle, my hair bristled, and the first electric arcs sprang from my forearm and hand, dancing freely around. Concentrate, concentrate. And as the bio-machine drew nearer, I threw an electric surge at it.

Violently, it burned through the upper layer of synthetic skin and filled the air with the smell of burned flesh. But that was all. Worse, it regenerated in seconds.

I grimaced—this was Luferium for you. I was useless.

“Haha, guess we’re dying here,” joked Matheo.

But before the Valkyrie lunged at us, the Empress began to talk again.

“Yes! I have it! I know it! I know who you are, Herold of Anansi, Angel of Deception, Weaver of Falsehood—Sathariel.”

A blinding light filled the room as the Empress had spoken those words, and as it was gone, Xatha’s appearance had completely changed. She now was taller, her hair white and long and on her back span four huge moth wings. In her hand, she wore a glaive that shone metallic and golden.

My breath couldn’t even leave my body fast enough as all the machines basically threw themselves at her. This was our chance.

“RUN!” I screamed, giving a shit about the chain of command and dragging Stalker with me.

Oh, and how we ran, not daring to look back as the fight unfolded behind us. The bridge shook, Valkyries were thrown into the walls in front of us, completely shattering and destroying the smooth Luferium surface. The sheer power that was at work here was nothing humanity could handle.

So we ran, reaching the elevators and praying to God that we would arrive in time to get us out of here. It did, and we hurried inside. But even as the door closed, we weren’t safe.

Everything trembled; the noise of breaking walls and explosions steadily came closer. All of this, we had all been played. And for what? A fight between beings that no one would ever dare to touch?

This was insanity.

“Sky, do you hear me?” asked Jack as we painstakingly waited for the elevator to bring us up.

“The co— isn’t goo— stat— oise,” came the answer.

“The extraction point needs to be changed. I repeat, the extraction point needs to be changed. New location: Before the Cradle. I repeat, new location: Before the Cradle.”

“—py that. ETA ten mi— …standby for five mikes.”

I slumped against the wall, “15 minutes before we’re getting left behind. And you are planning to run right through the middle.”

Jack ignored me, instead he took Stalker by the shoulders, “Girl, you can calculate a way out, right?”

“I-I can… but we won’t ev—”

Jack slapped her—the hard sound echoed in the elevator. Kanta and Matheo had a look of pity in their eyes and even Olivia appeared distraught.

“Get yourself together. You wanted to escape from this rock? Just because it became a little bit harder, you’re not instantly giving up. And this isn’t even close to the worst we’ve handled, so c’mon, turn those gears in your SAI head and show us a way out.”

For a moment, I was worried, but Stalker’s face turned serious, filled with conviction. “Alright, give me a second.”

Now that I had to wait for us to arrive, I could think about something more important: what the Empress had said. Even though she was monitoring all of us, anything related to Xatha, or Sathariel, was not there. How the flow of events had shifted in her favor. This was the reason we had such an easy time, right up until we stood in front of the tank. But that also meant… oh God.

“Barachiel to mission command, Barachiel to mission command, do you copy?” I blurted through a channel only I had access to.

The others turned around to me, confused.

Olivia eyed me, “What are you up to?”

I ignored her, “Command, please copy.”

Nothing, just static.

I cursed and before I could react, Kanta had slammed me against the wall, pressing me upwards.

“What did you do?” they asked.

“N-Nothing,” I answered, gasping for air.

“Let him go, Kanta,” ordered Jack

I coughed for air as our squad leader scrutinized me. “You know something we don’t, don’t you?”

I hesitated but nodded. “It is only a suspicion, but if what I fear comes true…” Averting my gaze, I continued. “I can’t tell you more, but we need to hurry, we don’t have time.”

“You fucking military dog,” spat Matheo.

They wanted more answers, but my savior appeared: the ding of the elevator door opening.

“We talk about this later on the ship,” Jack said flatly, then turning his attention to Stalker. “We’re good to go? Can you lead?”

Stalker smiled, “Yes, sir!”

And like the beginning of the mission, all of us followed Stalker once again, only with the slight difference that hell was slowly breaking loose below us.”

Sprinting, we made it back to the room with the cluster gem before long.

“I’d love to take a sample,” said Matheo, his eyes gleaming, but not even seconds later, the ground began to tremble so heavily that I nearly lost my footing.

“This doesn’t sound good,” laughed Olivia, clearly distressed.

And it really didn’t.

A sickening crunch echoed through the air, as countless ruptures cut through the ground, making their way to the vivianite.

I swallowed.

With a deafening boom, the cratered center burst open, unraveling the floor we were standing on in a devastating shockwave, hurling gem shards in every direction. There was no time.

Without hesitation, I used my ability to leap to Stalker and the others, protecting them with an electric field, hoping it would destroy the incoming barrage.

For a short moment, I lost consciousness, suddenly finding myself at the far end of the room, lying next to Stalker and Jack. The middle of the room was no more, only a gaping hole and debris falling in from the sides. Above it, hovered Sathariel and countless Valkyries in front of her.

I tried to find Olivia and spotted her shakingly standing up close to the exit that led to the room where we saw the Ambassador leave. Kanta was beside her.

Where was—

“Oh no… Matheo,” I muttered.

His upper body was nailed against the wall, missing everything below. If I had only—

“Get a grip, boy. We need to leave,” tore Jack me out of my thoughts. Thanking him, I pulled Stalker up as we continued our sprint through the shattered terrain. I had no idea how long we had before the fight started again. For now, they only stared at each other, gauging.

When we joined the others, they were already back on their feet. No words were spoken as to why Matheo wasn’t with us. Kanta’s expression seemed darkened and hurt for the first time. Olivia only sighed.

Turning our back to the destruction, we left and not a breath too late as an aethereal scream reverberated, causing tiny ruptures to spread like cobwebs in the entrance room of the Cradle. A cold shower ran down my spine—this wasn’t the voice of the Empress, it was Xatha’s.

She was losing. A being that could break through Luferium like it was cardboard was losing, against a machine, against the original enemy of humanity.

I ran even faster, fearing what might happen if I didn’t. I had to reach the Major General; I had to stop them. The treaty was our only option of survival.

“We’re nearly there,” yelled Stalker. “The entrance of the Cradle is just ahead.”

My heartbeat raced faster and faster, as we crossed the threshold and the landscape of the moon presented itself to us.

‘I can see the ship!’ shouted Olivia through the com.

But I couldn’t relax yet.

‘Barachiell to Echo Cross, Barachiel to Echo Cross. Please answer.’

‘IFF confirmed. Mission command here, Sergeant Barachiel,’ they instantly replied, thank heavens.

‘Mission failed, abort mission Moon Spike, I repeat, mission failed, abort mission Moon Spike.’

‘Negative, Sergeant. Moon Spike is already in full progress, evacuate the moon.’

I stopped, as did my heart.

‘YOU HAVE TO ABORT THE MISSION,’ I screamed through the com. ‘YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, IF WE—’

An earthquake cut the connection short. And in horror, I looked into the horizon as a giant explosion visible even from here erupted, violently and quietly hurling giant debris and entire chunks of the moon into space.

My knees gave in. I was too late to stop them, I was too late.

Suddenly, an impossible eldritch scream of terror ripped through the vacuum, as if it were transmitted directly into my soul. My mind seemed to burst as agony filled my head—but instead, something far more devastating happened as I turned back to the Cradle.

Another, closer quake forced me to lose my footing on the moon rock as it broke loose. But this time the Cradle burst open, revealing what I could only describe as an olden Goddess coming to life, in all her horror and awe—it was the Empress herself. She was what we had been detecting. She was the source of the energy signature that lured us here.

And we woke her up. Made her leave her nest.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the others just managing to get inside the ship, and a dark chuckle left my throat. Even if they fled, there was no escape. Not anymore.

As a chunk of the moon catapulted me even farther away, I took one last weightless look at the Empress—thousands of Valkyries pouring out of the broken Cradle like ants from a shattered anthill. My lips parting in cosmic horror as I whispered,

“What have we done?”

I closed the book about minerals I had found earlier in the library.

“Lunarium,” I muttered. It reminded me of something from a long time ago, but I pushed the thought aside.

Just a moment ago, Aska and Alicia were teleported back up to the entrance. It seemed they managed to find a way out. I would’ve asked through the link, but I felt that her soul was in turmoil and decided that it was better to let her be for a while. She had to learn how to grow on her own, after all.

A fake smile spread on my face, but it was of no use—my interest in Aska had died.

I would have loathed myself for it, if I could. But the strange hollowness that I had called my home for eons had come back. It was no relief to me. It was a sign that my anchors were damaged, that they were waiting for a moment. Like the darkest hour that was just before dawn, like the ebb before the flood.

It was inevitable.

I could have resummoned the door and fixed them, but now wasn’t the time. It would ruin whatever progress I had made and could make and whatever the System had in storage for me.

So right now, I was stuck. But even if my core felt cold, I knew I didn’t want to hurt Aska. I knew that being close to her was something my soul desired—something I ought to hold onto.

And for the first time since I had come out of seclusion, I thought I felt something akin to hope to mend a cleaving wound.

I took a breath and was about to stand up, as a double door opened that led beyond the dungeon core room. Two raven-kin emerged, sisters, from what I’d figured. One clad in blue, the other in red. They stood just behind the barrier that interwove yet divided the domain they were currently in with mine.

“The Raven Queen wishes for you to leave this place,” they announced in unison. “Her majesty already sent your companions back up, unharmed.”

“And?” I asked, one leg crossing over the other.

The sisters appeared confused. “Her majesty wishes for you to leave,“ they repeated their request.

I growled, “Why should I? If she wants me to leave, she can tell me that herself.”

Their expression looked very irritated, staying silent for a moment, before they responded again. “Her majesty insists that you leave. She does not wish to converse with the Matriarch.”

“My! She insists?” I smiled, spite in my voice, as I finally stood up and moved closer to the barrier. “Who does she think she is, trying to order me around?”

This time, the sisters frowned, clearly not taking my disrespect for her queen lightly. But, they kept professional, just as I knew them.

“Her majesty conveyed her will already to your… pet. You have no longer any business with her. She again asks you to leave her domain.”

“Pet?” I chuckled.

Something about their tone rubbed me the wrong way and before I knew it my hand had broken through the barrier, feeling the enormous pushback of entering the foreign domain as my grip settled around one of the sisters’ throats.

“Do you think just because you hide you can escape my grasp, child? Did you really think your kin are safe if hidden inside a domain that is still nestled in mine? Even after all this time, you didn’t learn,” I shouted seething.

“Sh-She wishes f-for y-you to l-leave,” said the raven-kin grasping for air.

“Rrgh!” I shouted in desperation as I let loose and blinked away to the entrance of the Crypt.

My body trembled in anger as I moved outside. As the light of the sun blinded me, I felt something deep inside me kindle, and I knew what it would do.

I knew what it meant—

—and whose anchor had been inflamed.