My head throbbed with a dull, agonizing ache, as if someone had hammered a spike directly into my skull.
Slowly, I forced my eyes open. The blinding static that had consumed my vision during the neural backlash was gone, replaced by a soft, ethereal luminescence.
I was lying on a smooth, obsidian platform suspended in what looked like an endless, star-draped void. The air smelled crisp, devoid of the smoke, sulfur, and copper reek of the falling Academy.
Memory flooded back in sharp, jagged fragments. Administrator Mode. The hammer demon. Saving Sira's pulse. The timer hitting zero.
I pushed myself up into a sitting position, my muscles stiff and exhausted. "Where...?"
"So you're finally awake, huh?"
I instantly tensed, my head snapping toward the sound of the voice.
