9:31 PM – Ridge Collapse Zone
Ash fell like snow.
Not smoke, not fire—data-ash, each flake a fragment of broken memory, scattered from the shattered Godthread array. Where it landed, machines shut down. Ghostline signals stuttered. For a heartbeat, the entire Ridge felt like the world had been unplugged.
Aiko stood at the center, her hands still raised, her pulse syncing with the glow pulsing from the Seal. Her wings had vanished, but the mark remained—etched now into her entire forearm, like a living conduit.
Miura knelt beside Ryoji, applying a makeshift tourniquet to his ruined leg.
"He needs medical evac now," she muttered. "No more delays."
Aiko didn't turn. Her voice was cold—fractured.
"We don't have time for evacuation."
Cut to – 9:32 PM – Division Zero Overseas Nexus // Executive Neural Core
The Director's personal chamber was dim, lit only by the slow spin of the central processor. He stood alone, watching a flickering map of the Ridge zone. Red tags turned white—dead units, lost uplinks. And beneath it all, a pulsing glyph now infected the system's lower threads.
BLOOM.EXE – Active
A knock.
Then a voice through the sealed chamber door.
"Sir. The containment AI has fractured."
He didn't turn.
"Send the Division Prophet. Tell her it's time to speak to her daughter."
Cut to – 9:35 PM – Ridge Lower Basin
Something moved beneath the ash.
A whisper.
Then a scream—long, low, electric.
Not SK Units. Not Division operatives.
Specters.
Echoes of failed experiments. Neural shadows left behind in the Godthread's original tests. They dragged no bodies, bore no weapons—just the shape of what they once were, bleeding digital afterimages as they clawed through the trees.
Ryoji lifted his head, face pale.
"Tell me that's not what I think it is."
Miura's jaw clenched. "The Ghostline's turned inside out."
Dozens of ash-specters surged down the slope like smoke made flesh.
Aiko looked toward them—and didn't flinch.
"I can hear them," she said.
"They're not coming to kill."
"Then what?" Ryoji coughed.
She didn't answer. She stepped forward instead—and the first specter stopped.
Its head tilted. Its mouth opened.
And it spoke.
In Aiko's voice.
"I died here. You lived. Now let's switch."
9:37 PM – Memory Collapse Zone // Internal Division Protocol Layer
The Seal flared again, this time with a ripple—like a signal fighting itself.
Inside her skull, Aiko saw them all.
Hundreds of failed Seeds.
Voices layered over one another.
They weren't just memories.
They were waiting.
A code written across her nervous system that said: You are the last bloom. But you are not the only one planted.
She fell to her knees, eyes wide. Her hands trembled.
"Aiko!" Ryoji yelled, trying to rise.
Too late.
The specters reached her.
And instead of attacking—they entered her.
One by one.
Not a possession.
A merging.
The Seal began to crack. Not break—but fracture, revealing a deeper core beneath it—something glassy, metallic, pulsing with unreal code.
ASHGLASS.
Division Zero Codename: DIVIDE//Ω
She screamed—
And the sky responded.
Above the Ridge, clouds folded into themselves. Signals rose.
And far to the south, across the blackened sea, the Division Prophet opened her eyes.
To be continued in Chapter 66 .....