The control room doors slid fully open.
Blue light flooded the chamber.
Cold.
Too bright.
Too clean.
Nothing about it felt alive.
Rows upon rows of towering servers stretched across the room like metallic walls.
Cables ran through every corner.
Like roots buried deep beneath the earth.
And at the center stood the core.
The main Dominion server.
It hummed softly.
Not loud.
Yet powerful enough to be felt in their chests.
As if something inside it was breathing.
Farhan immediately sprinted forward.
"This is it!"
Lila was right behind him.
"The Dominion main server."
Outside—
BOOM!
The corridor shook violently.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
They didn't have much time.
Bimo barely dodged another shockwave.
"He's getting crazier!"
Dika grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
Rani shoved a metal cabinet into place.
CLANG!
It absorbed part of the impact.
Sinta landed beside them.
"Just hold them off!"
"We buy them time!"
At the center of the corridor, Kai stood facing the two prototypes.
Their golden eyes stared back at him.
Empty.
Emotionless.
"I won't go back."
The response came instantly.
"You do not have a choice."
Golden energy gathered around them.
Dense.
Heavy.
CRACK!
Another collision.
Harder.
Closer.
Kai refused to retreat.
Not anymore.
Arga watched everything unfold.
With every passing second, his team grew more exhausted.
Every impact hit harder than the last.
They wouldn't be able to keep this up forever.
Inside the control room, Lila's fingers flew across the keyboard.
Lines of code streamed down the screens.
Farhan scanned the data.
"This controls every prototype."
"If we shut it down—"
He stopped.
"...but..."
Arga looked at him.
"But what?"
Farhan hesitated.
Lila answered instead.
"The energy core is unstable."
Silence.
"If we force a shutdown..."
"...this entire facility will explode."
Outside—
"HEY!"
"WE CAN'T HOLD THEM MUCH LONGER!" Bimo shouted.
Another tremor shook the building.
New cracks spread across the walls.
"ARGA!" Sinta yelled.
Arga stepped closer to the core.
Blue light pulsed from within it.
Harsh.
Artificial.
Dead.
"This isn't energy," he said quietly.
"It's coercion."
Everyone turned toward him.
"Then what do we do?" Sinta asked.
Arga slowly raised the MBG box.
"We don't stop it."
A pause.
"We fix it."
The ten rice grains inside the box lit up.
Warm.
Alive.
Completely different from the energy surrounding them.
Light flowed from the grains and into the core.
BZZZZZZZZ!
The servers trembled.
Lights flickered.
Farhan froze.
"The frequency is changing..."
Lila's voice dropped to a whisper.
"It's synchronizing..."
"It's actually working."
BOOOOM!
Outside, Kai was blasted backward half a step.
Yet he remained standing.
"ARGA!"
"NOW!"
Arga raised his hand.
The energy surged.
Stronger.
Brighter.
Warm light pressed against the blue glow.
For the first time—
the core didn't resist.
It adapted.
Then—
another voice echoed through the room.
Calm.
Far too calm.
"...Interesting."
Everyone froze.
Slow footsteps approached.
The rear door opened.
A man entered.
Black suit.
Cold eyes.
The leader of Dominion.
He wasn't angry.
He wasn't alarmed.
A faint smile rested on his face.
"So..."
"...this is the source."
Arga didn't back down.
Energy continued flowing through him.
Their eyes met.
Two sides of the same system.
Yet driven by completely different purposes.
The Dominion leader stepped forward.
Slowly.
"Children..."
"...challenging a system this large."
He paused.
"Fascinating."
Not anger.
Not a threat.
Something worse.
Interest.
Genuine interest.
The man raised a hand.
And pressed a button.
CLICK.
Instantly—
every light turned red.
WARNING messages flashed across every screen.
Farhan's face went pale.
"...No."
Too late.
Outside—
SSSSHHHHHHH—
Capsules began opening.
Liquid drained away.
One.
Two.
Ten.
Dozens.
Golden eyes opened.
All at once.
Inside the control room, Arga was still stabilizing the core.
Kai was still fighting.
The team was reaching its limits.
And now—
their numbers were no longer enough.
The Dominion leader watched the monitors.
Then looked back at Arga.
His smile widened slightly.
"Now..."
"...we begin."
They had come to stop a system.
But without realizing it—
they had triggered an army.
And this time—
there would be no way to stop it...
without losing something in return.