Ark's Dying Embers

The pure white space's floor consisted of billions of clay particles, each carrying fragments of civilizations erased by the Church. Alys' crystalline shards reformed into a translucent body here, her glowing neural pathways visible—Leah's clay-chip reconstructing virtual life in the quantum network. Kaine's silver sand embryo had matured into an adolescent form, wings of black hole and white hole energy rippling spacetime with every beat.

"Welcome to the real world." Pope Ilana's mechanical frame rose from the clay, cradling a miniature cosmic sandbox—the Church's 120,000 civilization experiment records. Earth inside repeated annihilation: 3000 BC Mesopotamians slaughtering with bronze swords, 22nd-century humans firing antimatter warheads at ark-ships, 300,000-year-posthuman silicon lifeforms activating stellar collapse devices...

Alys touched the sandbox and plunged into Experiment #79991. She saw herself standing over Kaine in Rustvale's ruins, chainsaw buried in his heart—the last cycle's finale. "Real world?" She crushed the simulation, clay particles reforming into embryonic shapes in her palm. "We're just your toy sandbox?"

Kaine's black hole wing tore reality, exposing the Ark's hidden core. Billions of uncontaminated embryos floated in cryo-pods. Cinder's spinal pendulum resonated—all pod lids hissed open. Infant wails coalesced into the First Godslayer's roar: "Civilization needs no curators!"

Ilana's mechanical visage shattered, revealing her pre-modification face. She hurled the sandbox at the Ark—120,000 apocalypse scenarios materialized: bronze chariots charging from Mesopotamian plains, antimatter warheads locking onto Alys, silicon life's stellar collapse devices power up... Kaine's white hole wings formed shields while black hole wings devoured attacks. Within the cosmic collision's singularity, Leah's clone leapt holding clay shards.

"Mother, this is your final lesson." The clone encoded her genes into clay particles. A green sprout emerged in the white void—the first undesigned life in 30,000 years. Alys' virtual neurons overloaded, accessing the Church's deepest command: "All control protocols terminate upon natural life's birth."

Ilana's mechanical frame disintegrated, her true consciousness leaking through cracks: "Alys... my child... the true Ark is..." Unfinished words vanished into the black hole. Kaine's wings combusted from overload, regressing to embryonic form. Final frames showed Leah's clone sculpting Cinder's face from clay, inserting his spine into the Ark's console.