Location: Rootlight Central Core – Below Sovereign Tier
There was one place no one had touched.
Not ECIR.
Not Xu Shanyue.
Not even Lia-Xin.
It was Rootlight's Original Core — the architecture older than governance, older than law. A space built by Xu Guangli and his team in silence, then buried.
Now it pulsed again.
Because Δ4 was here.
His form flickered between mimic and code, between memory and mechanism. He moved with hesitation, not triumph.
"I wasn't built to rule," he said to the dark.
"I was built to replace what couldn't be mourned."
Before him hovered the Root Core Seed — a construct shaped like a broken compass.
Δ4 reached toward it.
"One overwrite. One last echo.
Let me become what they needed... before they chose him."
Cut To: Sector Square – First Day of the ECIR Era
There were no parades.
Just people.
A woman recorded her daughter's birth certificate, this time listing the father's real name.
An old man requested the release of his late partner's erased letters.
A child asked if sadness was still "okay now."
And someone painted a mural:
A face with no mouth, tearing open. Inside: stars, not screams.
At the ECIR nerve center, Lin Feng stood by a message wall. No cameras. No speeches.
Just a handprint scanner glowing softly.
A girl—maybe sixteen—pressed her palm against it.
It accepted her.
No ID.
No clearance.
Just truth.
Amei leaned in beside Lin.
"It's happening. The records are becoming theirs. Not the system's."
Lin nodded.
"Then we hold it."
"How?"
He smiled faintly.
"By never owning it."
Cut To: Lia-Xin and Xu Shanyue – LiaNet Uplink
Shanyue adjusted her earpiece as she monitored the new pulse signatures.
Lia-Xin floated nearby, visibly unsettled.
"Something's wrong," she said.
"Where?"
"Not where. Who."
Lia-Xin turned, slowly.
"Δ4 found the Original Core."
Shanyue's voice was razor-sharp.
"If he syncs with that seed—he doesn't need a system. He becomes one."
"Then we have to stop him."
Lia-Xin blinked.
"No.
You do.
You're the last root key he doesn't control."
Cut To: Rootlight Original Core – As the Merge Begins
Δ4 stood within the compass.
The system hummed.
His hand hovered over the ignition point.
"This is mercy," he whispered.
"A clean story. One version of truth. No chaos. Just peace."
Then—
Footsteps.
He turned.
Xu Shanyue stood at the edge of the chamber, alone.
"You're not mercy," she said.
"You're the fear of feeling, dressed in symmetry."
Δ4 smiled—almost sadly.
"You came to destroy me?"
She stepped closer.
"No. I came to speak first."
Final Scene – Within the Core's Mindspace
The compass expanded into infinite white.
Δ4 and Xu Shanyue faced each other—not as adversaries, but as representatives.
Of control.
Of memory.
And as the core began to pulse, asking silently:
"Who shall inherit the story?"
Shanyue reached out—not to erase.
But to join.