"The star map has already been provided to you, Architect. If you wish to quickly reach the location where my dormant body resides—the Ark, Installation 00—the Ark's portal on Erde-Tyrene offers the swiftest route."
Architect (Builder): Among Forerunners, this refers to the ruling class responsible for managing the entirety of society.
Although unaware of Selene's true identity, nor having detected any Forerunner genetic instructions (Geas) within her, the AI shard from the Keyship had already been guided, influenced, and subtly prompted by the deferential attitude the Reclaimer humans displayed toward her.
Consequently, the AI naturally assumed Selene belonged to humanity's ruling echelon. Unsure of the proper title to address her by, it resorted to the equivalent title used in its creators' society—the Forerunner—referring to her as an Architect seemed perfectly acceptable.
After all, it wasn't like calling her something as significant as "Master Builder," the supreme leader's title.
Simultaneously, as expected of a creation embodying the pinnacle of Forerunner technology—even after repeatedly falling dormant and suffering partial personality fragmentation over tens of thousands of years, the Keyship's AI shard retained one lingering obsession—recommending Erde-Tyrene.
Erde-Tyrene, also known as Earth, was humanity's homeworld and the original destination of its redemption mission, making its intent obvious.
Still harboring reservations about fully trusting Selene or even Halsey, Master Chief, and other humans, it proposed using Earth's Ark portal ostensibly for a faster journey. Its true intent, however, was likely verifying the resurgence of human civilization on Earth.
If Selene genuinely represented Earth—or Earth truly belonged to Selene—and wasn't merely exerting control over a handful of humans, it would then wholeheartedly assist her in inheriting the Forerunner legacy.
Otherwise, well… it couldn't really resist, making its position contradictory. For some unknown reason, its underlying consciousness framework kept urging it to act in this manner.
"With your recharge, Architect, the San'Shyuum restraints upon the Dreadnought have been lifted. With your permission, I can initiate the Dreadnought's spatial slipspace jump..."
Hovering beside Selene, the AI shaped like a large floating mask emitted flickering light blue glows, intermixed with speckles of purplish-black particles, as if slowly being contaminated.
It remained unaware of these subtle, ongoing changes.
"That won't be necessary," Selene declined.
With a wave, after a period of analysis, Selene successfully navigated through the full Forerunner star map provided by the AI, bypassing the Ecumene worlds and life-sample escort missions, pinpointing the information she most desired—locations pertaining to the Halo Array and the Ark, Installation 00.
Ecumene: The three-million-plus prosperous worlds that comprised the Forerunners' territories across the Milky Way Galaxy.
Of course, that was before the devastating destruction wrought by the Flood War. How many worlds still remained afterward was unknown.
Although the Keyship wasn't a Forerunner navy battleship, its primary function was to escort and return preserved life-samples to their home planets, making it exceptionally knowledgeable about the coordinates of various galactic civilizations.
Clack clack clack—!
The moment Selene activated the Keyship, a tremendous rumbling instantly filled the air.
"Architect, do you intend to directly initiate a slipspace jump with the Keyship to Installation 00? With all due respect, the Dreadnought's slipspace capacity is insufficient to achieve a direct return jump..."
"With the coordinates from the star map, I have my own methods."
"First step."
Snap!
In an instant, the ground beneath Selene transformed into writhing purplish-red. Within the trembling ship compartment, through massive geometric crystal panels, the San'Shyuum sealing devices within began breaking inch by inch.
Speaking of misfortune, the Keyship had unexpectedly crashed during a slipspace jump, causing its AI shard to fall into slumber.
Finally sensing Forerunner artifact signals associated with the Requiem sequence after endless dormancy, it awakened only to discover the arrivals weren't humans, but three San'Shyuum—the three High Prophets.
After displaying holograms of all related events, the AI attempted to break the Dreadnought away from High Charity to reach Requiem, but was short-circuited again by the Lekgolo (Hunter) worms previously responsible for scanning internal facilities.
Eventually, it was permanently sealed away by the Prophet of Truth, aiming to prevent truth's exposure.
Buzz—!
Facilities around Selene began lifting into the air as if mere children's toys, exerting enormous force against Master Chief and the others. Several Spartans stepped forward, firmly shielding Dr. Halsey and UNSC officers behind them.
"Doctor, generals, hold tight and stay steady."
Simultaneously, the anomalies occurring atop High Charity attracted numerous gazes.
Pfft!
"What's happening now?"
"Is that... a sacred relic?!"
Pulling an energy sword from the fallen Jiralhanae warrior's chest, the Sangheili councilors halted their actions, looking up in disbelief at the sharp, purplish-red beam piercing High Charity's upper dome.
That cold violet sun's emergence created a visible fissure across High Charity's skies!
In the next instant—
Boom—!
An enormous rumble shook High Charity entirely, making it seem on the brink of collapse. Outside, the Covenant escort fleet bobbed like small boats adrift in stormy seas.
Visible to the naked eye, a colossal entity tore through reality itself. Giant purplish-red energy tentacles emerged, wrapping around High Charity's "Mushroom Cap."
What on earth was this?
Under such circumstances, fighting became impossible. Even the fierce Jiralhanae were intimidated by this eerie and majestic spectacle, feeling as though even the starlight bore hostility, filling them with dread.
Unggoy scattered chaotically, clutching their heads and screaming, while Kig-Yar weren't faring any better, frozen in shock.
At this moment, High Charity's broadcast system activated again, illuminating the sky in purplish-red light. "This is Supreme Fleet Commander of the Sangheili—Xytan 'Jar Wattinree."
The screen displayed Xytan 'Jar Wattinree, clad in unique, luxurious silver armor emblazoned with golden Forerunner symbols, stepping onto the heavily wounded Prophet of Mercy.
"By supreme wartime command authority, I hereby declare the San'Shyuum guilty of violating our god's will. All religious duties are revoked. Execution will be immediate!"
In the next instant, a crimson energy blade flashed forth, and under the shocked gaze of countless High Charity inhabitants, the Prophet of Mercy's head fell.
"How dare he!" shouted the arriving Jiralhanae reinforcements furiously.
"Damn him! Does Wattinree even understand what he's doing?"
"He is destroying the unbreakable Covenant!" The Sangheili councilors instantly panicked.
Boom! Crash!
Following Xytan 'Jar Wattinree's personal broadcast, more high-ranking Sangheili commanders loyal to Selene surged downward from the upper levels, cutting down Jiralhanae on sight while shouting at other species' warriors:
"The betrayers, Prophets of Truth and Mercy, are dead!"
"Exterminate the San'Shyuum! Eliminate the Jiralhanae! Our god are watching you! Execute!"
"Execute the command!"
Motivated by this order, more Sangheili warriors raised their plasma rifles and energy swords, closely followed by Unggoy loyalists to the Sangheili. Soon, the fighting resumed.
Within Covenant ranks, particularly among the Sangheili, Xytan 'Jar Wattinree was a living legend. He commanded such respect that his sole weakness was being exiled to guard remote borders, far from the political heart.
Had it not been for Selene, Xytan 'Jar Wattinree might not have returned from the frontier until after the Prophets had betrayed the Sangheili.
"Architect, please allow me to… bzzt—! bzzzt…"
The AI shard was about to continue advising Selene, but when it sensed certain peculiar factors emanating from the rift, it immediately lost composure.
Initially, the AI perceived Selene's actions as an ordinary slipspace transition tide. However, that notion quickly became terrifying as it detected an extremely unnatural, eerie neural fluctuation from the ominous tear Selene created.
It recognized this fluctuation all too well. Even though faint and barely noticeable, it was unmistakable.
Once, it was precisely this kind of eerie neural wave-emitting fleet that had betrayed its creators, launching an assault on all life in the galaxy.
Precursor neural technology, biological entities comprised of Flood Super Cell structures (FSC)—the Flood!
Although the AI's underlying framework shouldn't contain protocols for fear, recalling those horrifyingly prolific organisms caused its personality to seemingly freeze. Its computational speed faltered, and metaphorical cold sweat ran down its programming structure.
Selene was unaware that due to her connection with remnants of a Precursor construct—the Star Roads—the AI had mistaken her actions for those related to Flood neural technology.
'Step two: Connect to the Star Roads…'
As the Keyship opened a slipspace rift to a corner of the Forerunner star map, under Selene's command, Honkai energy surged upward like tidal waves.
Zzt—breaking through the constraints of reality, it began reconnecting to ancient Precursor Star Road pathways previously destroyed by intersecting neutrino waves from Forerunner Halo Arrays.
In the starry expanse, dim, invisible, and colorless Star Roads slowly started gleaming brilliantly as they became suffused with dense Honkai energy.
'Step three: Identify reference points, verify star map locations, filtering...'
Across the vast galaxy, amidst countless stars, without a complete star map or reference markers—or even subordinates to place beacons—Selene had never visited before, making it impossible to accurately pinpoint a teleportation exit.
This wasn't yet the Honkai Dimension fully under Selene's control, limiting her precision temporarily.
Though her senses could cover Orion Arm sectors and surrounding areas of the galaxy, a comprehensive short-term scan of every galactic detail currently exceeded her capabilities.
However, after fully absorbing the 117th Universe of the Astartes' Second Legion Punishers, Selene's strength would vastly increase, allowing her such capability.
'…Location confirmed.'
After a moment, Selene opened her eyes, a smile curving at her lips.
"Found it."
As Selene's golden-rimmed, scarlet eyes shifted downward, the AI shard hesitantly asked, "Architect, that ripple earlier… was it the Flood?"
Listening to the slowly building confusion in the AI's tone, Selene chuckled lightly. "It has nothing to do with the Flood. It's the Precursors… though, hss, not entirely unrelated either."
"Just like the Forerunners' Domain, they both exist due to extraordinary neural-physical technology. I've transformed the Precursors' Star Roads into hyper-spatial webways, effectively claiming one of the Precursors' most valuable legacies."
"Then… are you a Precursor?"
With a flick of her finger, Selene spun the AI shard rapidly in midair, chuckling softly, "What do you think?"
She then turned to Master Chief and the others, waving her hand to envelop everyone, including the AI shard and Dr. Halsey.
"One final journey. Once this concludes, I'll allow you all a brief return to Earth. The galaxy—it's time to unify it."
"Understood."
The instant Selene drew everyone into the webway, their vision abruptly darkened, accompanied by a sudden sense of weightlessness. However, since it was their second experience, everyone adapted quickly.
The sensation rapidly faded, replaced by the appearance of an extraordinary spatial passageway.
Constructed from remnants of the destroyed Precursor Star Roads, this passageway, visible to Master Chief and the others, emitted faint, unsettling purple-red barriers, and an unnerving, subtly permeating glow. The entire tunnel was eerily silent, devoid of any sound.
…
An indeterminate amount of time passed, with everyone forcibly propelled forward by Selene at extreme speeds. Even Master Chief's vision blurred significantly, let alone the others'.
Finally, the light at the webway's end grew intensely bright, culminating in an abrupt halt. Gradually, the brilliance reflected onto their retinas softened.
"The Ark," Selene's voice resonated with noticeable excitement.
Everyone opened their eyes, their pupils gradually regaining focus. As their vision extended beyond the white-haired beauty before them, gasps of astonishment erupted spontaneously—the scene before them was utterly breathtaking.
Previously, the Night Lords' Legion flagship, Nightfall, and High Charity of the Covenant had already stunned them, but the construct before their eyes now surpassed all expectations.
Blossoming like a lotus flower, with an entire planet as its core, mountains, oceans, and forests forming the petals—it was profoundly beautiful.
Seeing was believing; hearing was deceptive. The visual impact alone compelled Selene to silently applaud its majesty.
"Observing the Ark's displayed technology and awe-inspiring magnitude, it's no wonder the San'Shyuum and the Covenant worshipped Forerunner civilization as gods."
In terms of architectural grandeur, few creations had ever managed to impress Selene to this degree.
After all, the wonders of her empire were numerous.
Though the Forerunners' individual combat prowess might not amount to much in comparison, their civilization's technological achievements truly warranted being revered as gods!
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