Chapter 10: The Awakening Era

Leah curled into a protective ball as she fell, her mechanical right arm shielding her head. Gravity seemed nullified here—she floated suspended between the gear-planet and the earth's crust, held aloft by some anti-gravitational field.

Her father's voice emerged from within the mechanical arm, distorted by data-stream interference: "Synchronization threshold breached. Guardian Protocol override initiated."

Blue light seeped from every joint of her body, weaving into a luminous net in the void. Above, the metallic city underwent a grotesque metamorphosis:

Bronze structures twisted like melting wax, sharp angles dissolving into fluid curves;

Cobblestone streets spiraled upward into sudden obsidian obelisks;

The warriors' mechanical red eyes extinguished in unison, their bodies collapsing like deactivated dolls.

The amber pendant in Leah's palm burned. Its prism projected a holographic interface displaying two contradictory commands:

Guardian Protocol Article 7: Eliminate all organic life

Ark Protocol Final Chapter: Preserve human civilization

"The contradiction proves the system was tampered with." Her father's voice grew fainter. "The ancients split the star chart into three fragments—you hold the last."

The gear-planet accelerated its rotation, hurling out a metallic ring. Twelve identical altars stood upon it—eleven already embedded with star chart fragments, leaving one gaping void.

Leah's mechanical arm rose against her will, aligning the prism with the empty slot. As the blue light prepared to connect, she suddenly twisted her wrist—

And drove the prism straight into her mechanical eye.

The shattering of glass coincided with violent tremors through the cavern. Through her damaged visual sensors, she finally saw the unfiltered truth:

Those "gears" were not metal—but human remains compressed into bearings, skulls serving as joints, spinal columns fused into drive chains. At the center, the "planetary core" was the half-mechanized corpse of a Mayan high priest.

"These are the true Guardians." Her father's voice brimmed with sorrow. "They volunteered to become system components, just to keep the Gray Plague locked underground."

The blue pulse abruptly ceased. Leah's mechanical arm tore free at the shoulder, plummeting toward the gear-planet. In the 0.03 seconds before impact, she deciphered the tiny inscription carved into the bone-bearings:

WHEN THREE HEARTS CEASE, THE DOOR SHALL OPEN

The first heart—Renee's, now halfway mechanized;

The second—her father's, long stilled;

The third—

Leah looked down at the glowing blue veins spreading across her chest.

On the surface, the metallic city collapsed like a house of cards. And deep in the untouched rainforest, three newly-sprouted Venus flytraps slowly unfurled their serrated leaves—veins pulsing with familiar bronze luminescence.