The air in the ruins of Zero Wing tasted of charred metal and dying code. Leonis stood amidst the wreckage, his shadow-arm twitching like a live wire, the fused bloodlines beneath his skin a tempest barely contained. The throne was shattered, the CEO's consciousness scatteredbut the war was far from over.
Celia knelt beside him, her fingers tracing the jagged edges of the Lunar Shard's remnants. The moonmark on her scar pulsed faintly, a ghost of its former brilliance. Behind them, the last of the copiesthose who had sacrificed themselves to break the Hive Mindtay still, their silver hair fanned out like shattered moonlight.
*He's not gone," Celia murmured, her voice raw. *The Sovereign's voice is still in the walls.*
Leonis flexed his hands, the fissures in his skin leaking tendrils of shadow and flame. *Then we follow it.*
The ruins trembled, a low, discordant hum vibrating through the floor. The
static in the air thickened, coalescing into shapesfragments of the CEO's will, clinging to the last vestiges of control. A notification seared across Leonis's vision, hacked into his neural feed:
*Find the core of the Syndicate's network. Destroy the source of the Sovereign's power. Warning: Direct contact may result in assimilation.*
Fenrir's absence was a fresh wound. Leonis could almost hear the wolf-prince's growl: *Quit staring at the shadows and move."
The descent into Zero Wing's undercroft was a descent into madness.
The walls here were not stone or metal, but *living data*shifting, writhing, rearranging itself like a puzzle designed to unravel intruders. Celia's moonmark flickered as she pressed a hand to the nearest surface, her breath hitching. *its a labyrinth. The CEOs last defense."
Leonis's shadow-arm lashed out, tendrils slicing through the shifting code. The wall *screamed*, the data recoiling like wounded flesh. *Then we carve a path."
They moved deeper, the air growing heavier, the static thickening into a suffocating haze. The floor beneath them pulsed, veins of corrupted shadowglass threading through the metal like infected blood vessels.
And then-
*Voices.*
Whispers, layered over one another, a chorus of fragmented memories:
*-kill the anomaly-*-obey the Sovereign-*"you are nothing-
Celia staggered, her moonmark flaring. *Theyre *his* memories. The CEOs."
Leonis grabbed her wrist, pulling her forward. *ignore them. Theyre just echoes."
But the whispers grew louder, the walls *shuddering* as the labyrinth reshaped itself. A figure materialized aheada silhouette wreathed in static, its features indistinct, its voice a distorted mimicry of the CEO's.
*teonis暗影之刃,"it rasped. *You cannot win.*
Leonis didnt hesitate. He *Voidstepped*.
For three seconds, he was *nowhere*a-ghost in the machine, a spark in the Sovereign's shadow. He saw the truth: the labyrinth was not just a barrier. It was a *test*.
The CEO was still here.
And he was *waiting*.
Leonis rematerialized behind the figure, his flame-arm igniting. *Try harder."
The explosion tore through the static, the figure dissolving into shards of corrupted data. The labyrinth *shrieked*, the walls collapsing inwardrevealin g a chamber beyond.
A throne room,
But not the one they had destroyed.
This one was *older*.
---
The chamber was a cathedral of forgotten code, its vaulted ceiling lost to darkness. At its center stood a throne of blackened shadowglass, its surface etched with runes that pulsed like a slow, dying heartbeat.
And upon it sat the *true*Sovereign.
Not the CEO.
Not a man.
A *thing*a mass of fused shadow and static, its form shifting between human and *something else*, something *older*. Its eyes, when they opened, were not hollow,
They were *hungry*.
*Little shadow," it murmured, its voice the hum of a thousand dying servers. *You have come far. But this is where your story ends."
Celias breath hitched. *What *is* that?*
Leonis's shadow-arm coiled into a fist. *The first anomaly.*
The Hollow King rose from its throne, its form *stretching*, tendrils of liquid shadow unfurling like wings. *The CEO was a vessel. A *puppet*. I am the will behind the throne."
A notification flashed in Leonis's vision:
*The Hollow King is the source of the Sovereign's power. Destroy it, and the Syndicate falls.*
The Hollow King's laughter was the sound of shattering glass. *You cannot kill a god, little shadow."
Leonis bared his teeth. *Good thing you're not one." -
The battle was not fought with blades or fists, but with *will*.
The Hollow King's tendrils lashed out, not to wound, but to *consume*each strike carrying the weight of a thousand fragmented memories, a thousand stolen lives. Leonis *Voidstepped* through the onslaught, his shadow-arm slicing through the darkness, but the Hollow King *reformed* faster than he could tear it apart.
Celia moved beside him, the Lunar Shard's remnants flaring in her grip. *W e need to destabilize it!"
*How?" Leonis gritted out, dodging a tendril that would have speared through his chest.
*The throne!* Celia's eyes burned. *It's the anchor!"
Leonis didnt hesitate. He lunged for the throne, his flame-arm ignitingbut the Hollow King *moved*, its form *exploding* outward, filling the chamber with writhing shadow.
*Fool," it hissed. *You cannot break what was never whole.*
Celia's scream cut through the chaos.
Leonis turnedjust in time to see a tendril *pierce* her chest.
The world *stopped*.
Her moonmark *shattered*, silver light bleeding into the darkness. The Hollow King *recoiled*, its form flickering not in triumph, but in *pain*.
*Celia Leonis's voice was raw.
She smiled, blood trickling from her lips. *Flaws," she whispered,*break systems."
Then she *slammed* the shard into the throne, --.
The explosion was *silent*.
For a heartbeat, the world was *nothing*no light, no sound, no breath. Then the backlash hit.
The throne *shattered*, the Hollow King's form unraveling like thread from a spindle. The chamber *collapsed*, the walls peeling back to reveal the skyr- eal, unfiltered, "free*.
Leonis caught Celia as she fell, her body limp, her breath shallow. The moonmark on her scar was gone, the shard's remnants dust in her palm.
*Did we win?" she whispered.
Leonis looked up at the crumbling ruins, at the sky beyond.
*Yeah," he said. *We won.*
The Hollow King was gone.
But the Syndicate still stood.
And Leonis?
He had *plans*.
--
**End of Chapter 18**