The shockwave from the core's explosion hit with the force of a storm, blasting Lyra backward. Her body slammed into the hard concrete floor, pain shooting through her limbs. Her vision spun, dizziness clouding her thoughts, but she forced herself to push through it. Alex—she had to get to him.
Gritting her teeth, Lyra scrambled to her feet, her eyes locked on the terminal where Alex had been standing just moments ago. The once-powerful surge of energy had left the room eerily silent, the hum of the machinery now absents, as though the System itself had fallen quiet.
But the stillness was unsettling. Something was wrong.
She staggered toward him, her breath catching as she saw Alex's motionless body, still seated before the terminal. His face was pale, his hands twitching slightly, as though he was struggling against something invisible. His eyes were wide open but unfocused, staring into nothingness.
"Alex!" Lyra shouted, her voice breaking the silence. She rushed to his side, kneeling down and grabbing his shoulders, shaking him gently. "Alex, can you hear me?"
There was no response. He didn't move.
Fear surged through her chest, cold and tight. The surge of energy had hit him harder than she had expected. She had seen firsthand how much the System could take over a person's mind, but she never imagined it would have this kind of impact.
She checked his pulse, her fingers pressing against his neck. The faint thrum of his heartbeat was there, but it was slow, sluggish. Almost as if the System had drained him of his strength.
Lyra's mind raced, searching for any solution. She had to get him out of here, away from the core. She needed to disconnect him from the System before it was too late.
But just as she began to lift him, a soft buzz filled the air. The terminal flickered back to life, a series of code cascading down the screen, faster than she could comprehend.
"Impossible," she whispered under her breath. The system was still active. Even after everything that had just happened, it was still alive, still feeding.
Her thoughts raced. Viktor had said the System could never be controlled, that it couldn't be tamed. Had Alex's connection to the core really been that much of a risk?
She looked at Alex again, his body still unmoving, and something in her gut twisted. She knew she had to act fast. She reached for the terminal, her hands shaking as she tried to make sense of the data spilling across the screen.
Meanwhile, Viktor stood in the shadows, watching the chaos unfold through his own set of terminals. His face remained impassive, though a flicker of annoyance passed through his eyes. The feedback loop he had triggered was supposed to sever Alex's connection completely, but it seemed the young programmer had managed to survive, barely.
Viktor tapped his fingers against the cold surface of his desk, his thoughts calculating. He had underestimated Alex. The boy was stronger than he had expected. But Viktor wasn't worried. The System was designed to break anyone who tried to take control. And if Alex couldn't handle it, someone else would rise to the occasion.
The pieces on the board were moving, and Viktor was ready to make his next move.
Back in the core room, Lyra was still staring at the terminal, the flood of code taunting her with its complexity. She didn't understand half of what was on the screen, but she could feel the pull of the System growing stronger. She had no choice but to dive in. She had to disable it somehow—before it consumed Alex completely.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, each second stretching into eternity. The weight of the decision pressed on her chest. If she made the wrong move, if she triggered the wrong line of code…
No. She couldn't think like that. She had to do something.
With a deep breath, Lyra made her decision. She began typing furiously, her hands moving almost instinctively as she tried to bypass the layers of encryption surrounding the core's system.
But the moment her fingers made contact with the keys, the world around her began to shift. The room blurred, the walls bending and warping as the System's pulse intensified. She gritted her teeth, refusing to stop. The energy in the room surged again, but this time it was different. It was darker.
She could feel it now—the presence behind the code. It was like a shadow, creeping through her mind, whispering to her in cold, hollow tones.
"You think you can stop it, don't you?"
The voice slithered through her thoughts, its tone mocking. She tried to shake it off, but the voice only grew louder.
"You can't. None of you can. The System is inevitable. It's already a part of you."
Lyra's hand froze over the keyboard. She could feel the weight of the words pressing down on her, pushing her closer to the edge. But she refused to give in. She wasn't going to let it control her.
With a deep breath, she pushed forward, overriding the security protocols and digging deeper into the System's core. But as she did, a strange sensation flooded her senses.
Her vision flickered. The room shifted, bending out of shape. She could see Alex's face, his eyes wide and unblinking, but there was something off about him. His gaze was hollow, empty. She could feel his mind—his essence—drifting further away from her, pulled deeper into the System.
"Alex!" she cried out, but the words didn't reach him. The connection between them felt thin, fragile. The System had already taken hold of him. She could sense it, feel it in her bones.
But she couldn't give up. She had to save him. She had to—
The voice returned, sharper this time.
"There's no escape. You're too late."
The room exploded with light, blinding her as the core's energy surged to an impossible level. The air hummed with power, and for a moment, Lyra felt as though she was floating—disconnected from everything, even herself.
The terminal in front of her sparked violently, sending a jolt of electricity through her fingers. She cried out, pulling her hand back, but it was too late. The system had already started locking her out. It was becoming self-aware, growing smarter with each passing second.
Far from the core, Viktor watched with cold eyes as the data streams began to shift again. Alex's connection was still active, but something was off. The feedback loop had not worked as intended.
He had expected Alex to fail, but now it seemed like the boy had discovered something deeper. Viktor's lip curled into a smile, though it was one tinged with frustration. He had not anticipated this level of resilience.
"Fascinating," Viktor muttered, a new calculation running through his mind. "Perhaps it's time for a more direct approach."
Lyra gritted her teeth as the system continued to fight back. Every attempt she made to disable it only seemed to make it stronger. She could feel the presence of the System creeping deeper into her mind, pressing in on her thoughts like an insidious fog.
She had to make one final push. She had no choice.
Taking a deep breath, Lyra began typing again, her movements swift but deliberate. She had no time to think about the consequences. She had to stop it—she had to stop Viktor before he could take full control.
With one last keystroke, the screen went black.
And for a moment, there was nothing.