9:39 PM – Ridge Collapse Zone / Neural Sync Breachpoint
The sky turned inside out.
Colors bled upward—violet into white, black into static. Trees bent the wrong way. The wind reversed. Every living thing went still, as if the world had been caught holding its breath.
Aiko collapsed onto the fractured soil, limbs twitching. Her pupils dilated, then locked into pinpricks. The Seal was no longer pulsing. It had gone silent.
And from within that silence, a voice spoke—not aloud, but inside every cell of her mind.
"Daughter."
Cut to – 9:40 PM – Division Prophet's Private Sphere / Neural Projection Layer
A dark expanse.
Empty, but for a single chair.
Yuriko sat with her hands folded on her lap, dressed not in armor but a white clinical gown. The only thing that moved was her voice—and the trembling light where her eyes should be.
"You've reached the Threshold. The bloom was the opening act. This... is the pruning."
She looked upward. And in the void above her, a mirrored version of Aiko stared down, suspended, flickering like a dying signal.
"Tell me, Aiko. Do you know what was removed from you to make room for the Seal?"
Cut to – 9:41 PM – Aiko's Mental Core / Signal Collapse
Aiko's breath returned as a gasp.
She stood now in a cathedral made of memory, wires for vines, stained glass shaped like neurons. The ash-specters surrounded her—not threatening, but waiting.
Ryoji's voice echoed from far away—but she couldn't reach him. She was inside.
"You stole my memories," Aiko said aloud.
Yuriko's voice responded, disembodied, cold.
"No. I stole your future. And left you a design."
Flashback pulses tore across the cathedral.
Aiko at age seven—wired into a neural cradle. Yuriko standing over her, whispering apologies to a child already sedated. Engineers watching her brainwaves like a religious text.
Yuriko again:
"You were never supposed to remember me. But the Seal is failing. And now the last phase begins."
The stained-glass neuron above Aiko cracked—
And through it stepped Yuriko, in full Division Prophet combat form, veiled in black mirror-armor, the Seal's inverse spiraling across her throat.
"Come home. Or I burn what remains of your mind to keep the Seed pure."
Cut to – 9:42 PM – Ridge Exterior / Reality Sync Drift
Ryoji limped toward Aiko's body, still twitching on the ground.
"Aiko! Wake up!"
He touched her—and was thrown back by a burst of static.
Miura caught him. "She's not just unconscious. She's gone inside. We can't reach her unless…"
She looked at the spare neural sync unit clipped to her belt.
"…unless one of us jacks in too."
Ryoji took it without a word.
"This isn't optional."
Cut to – Aiko's Mind / Final Seal Threshold
Yuriko raised one hand—and every ash-specter turned into a weapon. They floated like blades made of memory, circling Aiko's head.
"Choose," Yuriko whispered. "Merge with me. Or die broken."
But before Aiko could answer—
A second voice cut in.
"She already chose."
Ryoji stood behind her in the memory cathedral, a line of neural sync scars glowing down his jaw.
"And she chose herself."
Aiko reached forward—
And touched Yuriko's chest.
The Seal exploded into glass and fire—
And Division Prophet screamed.
The entire mental realm shattered into ashlight.
Cut to – 9:44 PM – Ridge Collapse Zone
Aiko's eyes snapped open.
The Seal had changed again.
Now not just etched—but embedded beneath the skin, like circuitry grown from within.
She stood without help.
And the sky above her was no longer blue.
It was split.
Two layers.
One real. One ashglass.
And everything was about to bleed through.
To be continued in Chapter 67....