25.4

*ACT YoE 4,173/LT May 22, 2072, at 0700

Arasaka Headquarters

Floor #317

Eve floated lazily a half-meter above the floor, her cyber-linked Crown rotating slowly over her head. A long, lazy, disinterested expression marred her face as she gazed down at the city being reborn below. Without her exceptional sight, everyone would appear as ants from the just-below-penthouse suite of Arasaka Tower. The conference room she occupied was a masterpiece of minimalist opulence—polished black marble floors, walls, and ceiling reflecting the soft glow of embedded silver mana runes. A massive glass wall stretched from floor to ceiling, offering an unobstructed, south-facing view of the sprawl below. In the center of the room sat a boardroom table carved from a single slab of enchanted obsidian, its edges faintly glowing with protective glyphs. High-backed chairs upholstered in dark crimson leather encircled it, each marked with the Arasaka emblem subtly etched into the headrests.

Just over two years had transformed the city from a battleground of gangs and megacorps to one held in a singular iron grip wrapped in a silken glove. With precision strikes bordering on supernatural clairvoyance, Michiko Sanderson had wielded Crystal Moss’s talents to their fullest. Those who bent the knee and sold their shares under the sweet poison of Cho Eun-Kyung’s voice survived. Those who didn’t? Vanished into the dust of history’s databases. Once carved up like a multi-layered cake, the city now had only one master.

Beyond the tower’s glass facade, Noir City stretched out like a living tapestry of light and shadow—skyscrapers pulsed with eldritch glow, towering over winding streets where mana-powered vehicles hummed in near silence. Neon-lit air traffic lanes wove through the skyline, now a necessity rather than a novelty. Suspended gardens drifted between the towering monoliths, their bioluminescent flora casting eerie, dreamlike hues across the cityscape. Rune-infused neon flickered along the sprawl, painting the streets below in ever-shifting shades of red, blue, and gold.

Arasaka Corporation now ruled unchallenged through quiet, murderous silence. Its reach was absolute, its influence woven into the very infrastructure of the city. The Seals hidden within the urban landscape were more than reconstruction projects; they were control nodes, anchoring the megacorp’s dominion. The NCPD and City Council had been bought and discarded. Meanwhile, Arasaka’s enforcers completely replaced their functions. And with the recent Arvin Accord negotiations, after the Colonel’s mad slaughter spree in Pacifica, Arasaka had managed to slip in a clause allowing the purchase of other Free Cities. At the time, NUSA’s representatives had dismissed the idea as impossible.

The Magi-Tech revolution had flipped that assumption on its head in the blink of an eye. Eve smirked, her grin flashing like a wolf scenting blood. Her attire seamlessly blended elegance and lethality—a sleeveless black dress shimmering with silver-threaded rune patterns. A crimson sash at her waist secured her signature blade, Mugen No Gin’un, its metallic hilt inlaid with dragon bone and intricate glowing sigils. Two slits in the dress offered glimpses of alabaster legs—smooth, sculpted, lethal. Her long black hair, braided with delicate silver chains, caught the dim light, subtly contrasting her dark silhouette. Enchanted steel reinforced her high-heeled boots, their soft clicks against the marble floor a rhythmic counterpoint to her measured movements.

Who knew it would be so profitable to undercut nearly every industry? Michiko had ruthlessly seized the energy market; the rest had crumbled like old infrastructure. Mana was cheap, efficient, and fast, shattering CHOOH2’s stranglehold with brutal finality.

Now, mana batteries have replaced gas tanks. Runes replaced power lines. Rituals subsidized power plants. Arasaka was at the forefront, phasing out cyberware in favor of bionic rune-enhanced equivalents. The old dogma—flesh is weak—had been rewritten into an unshakable truth.

Flesh was progress.

Invulnerability. Incorruptible. Indestructible. Everlasting.

And it wasn’t just corporate hype. Eve had personally demonstrated the effectiveness of rune reinforcement in the most public way possible—through dedicated hunting exploits on the city’s leaderboards. More than a few rebels, arena junkies, and cyberpsychos had been sent six feet under. Crystal couldn’t be everywhere at once, and so, a slightly bored Patron had to pick up the slack. Eve’s Mugen No Gin’un had ruthlessly carved through targets in broad daylight, just as Crystal’s Blood Athame whispered its executions in the dead of night.

As per the Contract, Michiko immediately set about restructuring Noir City. But the advent of mana had brought unintended consequences—the uprising of Beasts. At first, the Wasteland had been a godsend, its irradiated terrain a natural barrier. But with the world fragment’s restoration, as greenery overtook poisoned soil, the consequences had been obvious in hindsight.

Mana-based flora and fauna had proliferated with unchecked voracity. Entire industries had risen on these new creatures' bones, blood, and flesh—dungeons, farms, and wild-hunted stock. The Nomads had evolved into a dominant Hunter force, sweeping across their enemies in a crimson tide.

Eve’s thoughts snapped back to the present as she scanned Arasaka Tower. A flicker of a frown crossed her face. The expected trio for the monthly conference—Michiko, Crystal, and Cho—had yet to arrive. That was unusual. Their meetings helped ensure smooth operations and prevented accidental cross-purposes among allies. Kudzu, Felix, Nota, and the Hut all played their roles, especially now that atmospheric mana levels had stabilized.

Even Kei wasn’t in sight. That was a problem.

Her silver eyes narrowed as she performed a deeper scan. The results made her blood run cold.

A flicker of Spatial Step later, and she was a hundred floors below the conference room. Her arrival chilled the air, but not fast enough to alert the interloper.

Kei, Rabbit, and Fluff twitched against the wall, caught in the throes of a nightmarish control spell. A few seconds of mana analysis told Eve everything she needed to know.

“W-What? S? Since when is this an S-grade mission? Taking control of this city shouldn’t be above a B-grade!” sputtered a kneeling man dressed in Arasaka executive garb. Externally, he was flawless. Internally, his Soul Mana burned like an infernal matrix—something far beyond a mere corporate climber.

Soul replacement? Infiltration technique? Unique…but sloppy up close.

Eve’s simmering rage crystallized into frostbite fury. The syringe in his hand, glowing with pale green droplets, was momentarily ignored. Instead, she spared only a glance for the unconscious trio of Michiko, Crystal, and Cho on the floor beside him.

From the mana flow, there was no permanent damage. Kudzu could fix this.

With a fraction of a thought, Eve sealed the surrounding space. The entire Arasaka Tower was her Territory. With barely a blip the Arasaka Cybernet shifted into online maintenance for this floor and became local-only. No escape. No reinforcement. No digital backup.

Once preparations were complete, Eve stood still like a silver-etched statue. Appearing to stand still didn’t mean a lack of motion. With a horror-esque vibe, the distance between the babbling invader and Eve shrunk a fraction at a time. It would have been impossible for anyone watching to track Eve’s movement, even with AI-assisted optics. That was because she wasn’t moving.

No, she wasn’t moving. The space was.

By the time the infiltrator realized something had gone wrong, liquid silver strands already decorated the air around Eve. Witch’s Dust was an adaptive, curious, prodigy of combat and a massive quality of life improvement. It was defense, offense, and utility all in one. This was why when the meat puppet executive stood, turned, and thrust a fist crackling with necrotic energy, she didn’t even blink.

The strands moved without conscious thought. The moment the enemy’s necrotic fist struck; it pulped. Kinetic energy was redirected with bone-shattering force, mangling the man’s right hand.

As the shocked enemy individual processed the sudden nervous system signals of pain, Eve raised a single eyebrow in admonishment. In response, Witch’s Dust strands made multiple fractional movements at lightspeed. Like a store manikin severed by an invisible obsidian sword, the meat puppet man collapsed on the floor.

“You won’t bleed out. I’m not that kind.” Eve said with soul-chilling finality. Mugen No Gin’un hadn’t been removed from the sheathing, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t active. Liquid silver flowed, striking with compressed blade edges that seemed to nick open space at the seam. She flayed the enemy's body expertly, dissecting every component except for the severed yet functional head.

After completing her initial examination, Eve ripped the depleted syringe from the now limbless torso’s arm, cracking open the hand’s fingers with telekinesis. Her silver-shaded eyes carefully examined the residual mana in the glowing green liquid as her iris lit with concentric runic circles. It was immediately apparent this wasn’t standard Cyber Depths magitech—this required an Alchemist far beyond what Arasaka had access to.

Eve had plenty of time to register what had happened before the enemy’s severed limbs reattached themselves. Flesh knitted seamlessly, like smoothed clay. A twisting yellow sign appeared branded on the executive’s forehead. Before combat commenced once more, she sent her six allies away with a twist of space.

Eve’s senses flared immediately as the others departed. She sidestepped as a burst of black necrotic mana erupted where she had previously stood, the air twisting with the acrid scent of soul decay. The infiltrator lunged, his restored limbs crackling with raw, parasitic yellow energy. It's too slow by far.

She didn’t bother weaving through his strikes; instead, twisting space directly, her body became a flicker of stop-still motion frames. Eve wasn’t willing to risk whatever power-up the strange yellow sign provided an opportunity before she could neutralize it. Moments of rapid pace combat occurred frenetically until Witch’s Dust finished analyzing the mana of the yellow sign. Seconds later, strands of liquid silver, guided by Mugen No Gin’un, cleaved meat in retaliation. The flowing blade connected quickly again, severing the enemy’s arm cleanly—only for the wound to attempt to knit itself back together as if time had reversed. That won’t work a second time, my dear enemy.

The man glanced at the clean mirror-bright silver coating her blade had left behind. Immediately connecting the dots, the thing in a man’s form snarled. Eve watched his form warping, muscles expanding unnaturally beneath eldritch skin. A new arm regrew in a fraction of a second. Her silver irised eyes narrowed in calculated icy rage. Adaptive regeneration. Not enough to counter me. Yet.

The meat puppet man lunged, a rapid, jagged movement too chaotic for even the best AI combat algorithms. Eve’s Rituals effortlessly bent to processing the pattern, the flow. She twisted space, bending inhumanely low, her dress a silent flutter, as she countered with a precise severing slash of silver fluid that chopped both feet adrift in a single strike. It’s over unless it can learn spatial manipulation in the next few seconds.

Blood sprayed in a thin arc, painting the floor in a bubbling crimson crescent, glowing, irradiated, angry red against the white granite flooring. Before the enemy fell, Eve felt a shift in the world crackling with a titanic enraged roar. Uh oh.

There was a reason Eve had bargained for entrance instead of smashing her way into the Cyber Depths. A world, even a fragment of one, had a Crystal Wall. They were the defenses that prevented things from outside reality, such as casual entrance. Before, the yellow sign had been sneaky, but clearly, something had gone wrong during combat.

It didn’t do to ignore a local overlord of reality

It didn’t bode well to cross the threshold uninvited.

The oldest Rituals were more than just polite forms of address.

A pulse of energy imploded on the invader’s form, holding him aloft above his severed feet. Mana was stripped from the man’s form with the ease of removing unglued wallpaper. Eve flickered back, landing softly on the ground as the surrounding walls cracked from the pressure of an enraged world.

“Tsk. How ignorant to violate the boundary.” Eve sighed as the sensation of being watched took root. Even though she hadn’t been the one to violate the rules, she still felt like an insect under amber.

The meat puppet screamed a terrible, inhuman sound like a thousand pigs being tortured. The yellow sign brand disintegrated into dust, unraveling the parasitic soul connection. When reality woke up, it was entirely within reason to expect repercussions.

Even a Patron’s influence couldn’t usurp the World’s Will.

Desperation flashed in the enemy’s corrupted green eyes. Eve watched with amusement as he attempted to phase out, slipping into the border between spaces. She merely glanced at the attempt disdainfully, did this idiot think her barriers were paper walls? Without mercy the invader’s Soul Mana was chained, tethered to inoperable flesh with a final, keening wail. There is no escape, even in death, when you break the world’s own rules.

Silence settled. Eve exhaled, silver dust cleaning the blood, splattering the floor. Her clothes were immaculate within moments, and all traces except a floating hairless disembodied head were gone. Many micro-runes coated him like thick silver paint, from the executive’s lower neck to the upper scalp. “Now, to find out what you know,” Eve said as she lifted the head with telekinesis.

Hours later, she looked at the whimpering mess of a humanoid head bound in a box. Once she explained it, it took seconds for the Arasaka AI to realize the individual had been replaced, not at the cellular level, but at the root, the soul. Mana testing had further proven the deviation was more than skin deep. Eve’s three strongest allies had been incapacitated within moments. Even more confounding, they were momentarily removed from her sight. Under relentless operant conditioning, the truth had been obtained. It was to be expected, as pleasure broke willpower faster than pain for certain types.

“Truly, a headache,” Eve said, reading the mana surrounding the individual now that the yellow sign shielding was broken. Instead of the typical structure she was familiar with from System Wilson, something completely new was shown.

[Status of Contestant: Klaus Vincento

Code Name: Santa

System: Order

Main Mission World: Cyberpunk 2077

Main Mission Status: On hold

Mission Time Limit: 2 yrs

Mission Grade: S+

Equipped Title: Not Applicable

Mission Credits: 0]

“It makes far more sense now how defensive Wilson is. I had wondered why ally with a Primordial such as Dust, but now it is clear.” Eve floated in a mimicry of pacing as she kept her eyes on the quivering mess of an invader. “Not just one System attacking, but many.”

“M-Monster…” Klaus muttered from his disembodied head even as a creepy smile of ecstatic, delirious ecstasy lit his face. “Lie, lie, the Grade lied, it was supposed to be C+…!”

 “Idiot to believe the eldritch entities you serve to speak true,” Eve spoke with an eye roll. She continued to reach through the peeled layers of her victim’s mind, sorting and categorizing the information into the Eternal Library. The broken thing before her had almost cost her entire investment in this world. As such, she was fresh out of mercy or kindness in any way. Even now, Michiko, Crystal, and Cho lay barely breathing in regeneration pods engineered by Kudzu. Green Alchemy gradually restored their broken forms, reinforcing them to a more substantial peak while removing the invader’s serum effects. It had been a near thing; had she arrived even half a minute later, there was no telling if Kudzu could fix things fully.

As she continued absorbing knowledge, Eve’s lips thinned in irritation. Sealing this world fragment was a project barely sixty-five percent complete across all the Free Cities, and now dimensional invader interruptions were already starting to cause delays. Unbelievable. Inconsiderate. They should have waited to arrive after I left, now I have to deal with them myself!

Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for these soul replacement types, their mana was distinct, patterned in a detectable methodology up close. After catching this agent, it had been child’s play to remove the rest of the pests within Arasaka-controlled territory via drone scans. A few more hours had the entire city cleansed. By week’s end, the only place these parasites could exist would be outside the cities. The problem wasn’t with the invaders but with what they revealed.

An alleged Primordial Tower. Eve thought as her source of information finally died an agonizing death after revealing everything they knew. The mere bindings keeping these invaders from talking were easy to circumvent, requiring deciphering. Runic Skeleton Key V handled that possible land mine without error. “What do you think?” Eve’s voice echoed into empty air as she finished disposal via Witch’s Dust. Her body flickered to the previous conference room at the top of Arasaka Tower’s Floor #317.

Space itself contorted as Felix, Kudzu, Hut, and Nota arrived individually, each sitting around the sleek, obsidian table. At the head, Eve materialized silently into her chair, her presence marked only by a subtle distortion in the surrounding air. With a mere flourish of her hand—an echo of her command over spatial energies—she exiled the unwelcome invader’s head to the garbage incinerator, a grim reminder of her uncompromising authority.

Kudzu, whose avatar resembled a sinuous vine adorned with short, animated branches reminiscent of ancient arboreal wisdom, swept his limbs with an expert flourish. He initiated the conversation in a calm and deliberate tone, “The six will make a full recovery using Green Alchemy,” his voice resonating with the natural cadence of growth and renewal. In response, Eve’s eyes sparkled with quiet satisfaction, a subtle nod affirming that her early alliance with him had been a well-chosen strategic move many years past.

Felix, a being of crystalline sapphire facets that vibrated with resonant, sonic tones—a testament to his mastery over harmonic computation—thoughtfully added, “Our existence alone is outside their sight or Calculation. There is no other logical explanation for why the invader didn’t account for Eve.” His crystalline form shimmered, sending ripples of sound that harmonized with the ambient energies of the room.

Eve’s gaze then fixed on the assembly as she declared with unwavering certainty, “My recent Ritual prevents all manner of time fuckery.” Her eyes glowed fiercely, pulsing like a lantern shroud barely able to contain the fierce light of her arcane energies. “That means synchronizing with the world fragment is expensive.” Her melodic and forceful voice underscored the delicate balance between cost and consequence in her field of temporal manipulation.

Nota, ever the scholar with her perpetually open ancient tome—a repository of esoteric lore connected to the Eternal Library—turned a page with a casual flick of her wrist while casting a measured, sidelong glance at Eve. Her tone was equally pragmatic and steeped in analytical clarity as she remarked, “The cost rises, but so does the profit margin. Before, there was no Mana in this Cyberpunk Depth’s world fragment.” Her choice of words betrayed her deep familiarity with both mystical economics and digital realities, and the subtle mimicry in her attire echoed the style of her master-servant style bond.

Eve offered a nonchalant shrug, as graceful as a practiced dance, and mused, “Nothing would allow a resource-rich world to remain un-plundered. Invaders are to be expected; that’s what we are.” Her statement carried the weight of someone who had navigated countless cosmic incursions and emerged unscathed.

Felix’s crystalline tones took on a cautious timbre as he responded, “Do you think they have an endless supply to send?” His voice, layered with harmonic caution, reflected his expertise in probability and calculation.

“Immaterial,” Eve replied, her eyes flickering as she tapped a rhythmic dance on the armrests—each tap echoing the measured beat of her arcane clockwork. “Once the Seals are complete, our part is done.” Her calm assurance resonated with the certainty of one who had mastered ritual and destiny.

The Hut, a being whose form was a shifting pile of animated dust particles, contributed in its own enigmatic manner. Manipulating the surrounding air to shape its words, the Hut’s response was delivered in a tone as steady as the slow drift of time itself, “Agreed.” Its dust-like form shimmered as it articulated each syllable with practiced precision, a subtle nod to its intrinsic connection to the elemental forces of decay and rebirth.

Eve then reasserted her leadership, her fingers momentarily stilling as if to emphasize the moment's gravity. “Since we are gathered, let us confirm choices.” The assembled beings leaned in as she continued, “I will take Sarah and Crystal as two of my four for the Ritual of Immortality.” Her decision was conveyed with the assuredness of someone whose field spanned both the mystical and the pragmatic.

Felix’s resonant voice interjected, echoing the long-held discussions regarding the Ritual of Immortality, “The Demon: Brick.” True to his nature, even as an inanimate object in this cosmic debate, he affirmed his choice with an unchanging tone that spoke volumes of his computational precision and loyalty to tradition.

With the cool detachment of a seasoned strategist, Nota announced, “None. I’ve decided to free up my choices for the World of Monpoke.” Her tone was measured and deliberate, much like the methodical turning of pages in her ever-present book—a gesture that conveyed both scholarship and the freedom of unbounded possibility.

Finally, Kudzu's branches, now poised with finality as if sculpting nature’s decree, clearly stated, “Kyo.” His gesture pointed and resolute, underlined a long-standing debate over the fate of the short, fluffy beast-kin girl—a topic that had been a recurring point of contention. For a brief moment, Eve considered explaining the future to quell their endless debates, only to rue that time could not be rewound. Some knowledge was best left unknown, the better to save her sanity.

“None, too.” The Hut said, finalizing the current choices. With that matter now on record and closed, Eve moved to the first world after they departed the Cyber Depths. “To escape the Primordial Dust, we need power. Enough power to beat something that eats Galaxies.”

Eve had learned about Dust eating galaxies through her recent invader source. It was one thing to know the local champion; it was another to realize that what you knew was just the tip of the iceberg. From that, it was easy to extrapolate that escape would require more power than they currently had on tap.

Fortunately, her memories pointed out a path. The recent interrogation session further smoothed the plan—the World of Monpoke, War of the Stars, and Forty Thousand Millenniums of Stellar Empiricus. These three were the key to Eve’s gamble.

If something could eat galaxies, you needed more.

More than the power of a single sun or a thousand thousand exploding stars.

You need power that crosses universes. Eve thought. The power that was acknowledged even in the many stories she had read to be of obscene depths. There were few such sources, even among myths and legends. What did she care for, something that let her dominate a world? Dust snacked on World Cores like she ate street food. She needed the power that had no limits, crossed dimensions, and was readily within reach. Sure, if she Cultivated as an already-immortal to Immortality on some obscure universal power trip like a certain boy with a certain dragon ring it might eventually work. There was another route, though, that would give her the power and positive karma.

The Warp.

It met all the requirements. Had all the stuff needed. Sure, there were a few minor snags, four majors, and many minor ones. That was why the two previous Worlds were so important. They were preparation for success. Groundwork. If she arrived without such done, she might as well feed her immortal soul to a Star Eater. It would certainly be less painful.

“The world of Monpoke is deceptively weak.” Eve said letting her eyes move among her allies. “Make no mistake though, the Gatekepeer into that Multi-verse is quite the reverse.” The diety of Monpoke was a universe creator. A multi-spanning one to boot, in every single iteration that their children were. “I will likely be unable to enter as anything less than a child.” Eve continued without missing a beat.

“So, we will be your Command Creatures?” Kudzu said his branches wiggling in delight. Experimenting in the lab might be his favorite thing, but that didn’t mean anyone at the conference table didn’t like a good fight.

“Correct. There are some that match everyone here rather decently.” Eve replied while pointing at Kudzu, Mugen No Gin’un, and Nota. “Tangrowth. Honedge. Haunted Tome.”

“What about both of us?” Felix chimed in.

Eve looked at the Hut and Felix with dead fish eyes and said, “We’ll have to make something plausible up. The world of Monpoke isn’t well explored. With enough confidence, we can sell it.” She ignored how a sapphire crystal and pile of sapient dust seemed depressed even when their body language wasn’t human.

“Our target will be a creature associated with emotion. We don’t need the creature itself, just a piece.” Eve said, using Witch’s Dust to build a holographic image of the being they were targeting.

“With a piece, Green Alchemy can solve the rest,” Kudu said as their branches waved wildly.

“Perfect,” Eve replied; before she could continue, Nota interrupted. “There is a suspect at Eden.”

“Oh?” Eve said with a devious smirk as she connected to Eden’s security system. Eden was a venture by Crystal, a Dollhouse, servicing those who preferred exotic-yet-edible. The standardized human form, with twists, but nothing too far from the baseline.

Security footage scrolled on the conference table’s surface allowing all present to see. A man appeared to be picking from the catalogue of Eden. Once the choice was made, each of the selections would be made available in a private room. That was the normal standard operation, and it was a model that provided excellent profits. He’d do his business and both parties appeared to enjoy it, immensely.

The problem that had flagged in the system was after a session with the customer things got wierd. Every. Single. Doll. All of them, broke their contract and paid the penalty. Not to mention where they found the credits, it was a mind-boggling amount of profit that vanished down the drain. Even paying the contract breaking fee, Eden was losing out. Stranger still, not a single Doll that had been freed was listed as leaving the premise.

Eve rose and shifted everyone to Eden in the blink of an eye. A quick scan of the premise located the suspect, and she shifted everyone immediately to his location. As they arrived, another Doll was listed as breaking their contract. Eve had just enough time to watch the woman blink out of existence before she slammed spatial barriers and locked the Dollhouse cybernet down.

The handsome man looked at Eve and her party before saying, “Oh, fuck this. World Escape.”

As soon as the words left his mouth both parties stared at each other. Eve’s side was calm and composed, while the suspect was less so.

“Let’s all remain calm. I’m sure there is a logical explanation for this.” The suspect said to Eve’s party before spouting in a panicked tone, “World Escape!”

“That won’t work.” Eve replied to the panicking man. “I’ve already sealed the surrounding space.”

The suspect wilted and said, “Fucking dystopia. I should have bailed the moment I realized there was mana in a Cyberpunk world.”