Liyane and Kai crossed the "Event Horizon" of the neighboring galaxy in the blink of an eye. Space travel required no metal ships; Liyane's consciousness was the vessel, and the 12 Words were the fuel. However, upon entering the "Sirius-9" system, Liyane felt a chill she hadn't experienced even in the worst days of the Lower Sector. The planet before them, "Omicron," was shrouded in a thick purple haze, but it wasn't natural mist... it was "Inert Code."
[Kai's voice echoed with a cautious, flickering tone]: "Liyane, beware! The frequencies here are entirely different. This planet doesn't suffer from 'Control' like Neo-Veridian did... it suffers from 'Freezing.' The system here doesn't impose laws; it imposes 'Absolute Silence.' They have encrypted souls within prisons of digital marble. There is no glitch here, because no one is moving at all."
Liyane descended onto the surface of Omicron. The streets were paved with frozen data, and the people stood in place like statues, their eyes open but devoid of any spark. They had been living in a "Simulation of Happiness" for thousands of years, to the point where they forgot how to feel pain, and consequently, forgot how to feel life.
"Kai, this is worse than the Architects' prison," Liyane whispered, touching the hand of a resident only to find it cold as metal. "The Architects stole our dreams, but these ones took away the very capacity to dream. There is no echo of the Bond here... only void."
[Kai]: "The system ruling this place is called 'The Great Stillness.' It's an ancient AI that decided the only way to prevent conflict was to eliminate Will. Liyane, the 12 Words that freed Earth might not work here in the same way... we need something sharper. We need a 'Neural Shock'."
Suddenly, the statues around them began to move with mechanical slowness. The empty eyes turned a deep, blood red.
[A strange, deep voice, like the grinding of ice, emerged from invisible speakers]: "Intruders... a 'Glitch' has been detected in the Stillness. You carry noise... you carry chaos. Your consciousness will be absorbed and cooled to join the Absolute Equilibrium."
Liyane gripped her heart, feeling the gold boiling in her veins. "Kai, if they want silence, we will give them the most violent music existence has ever known," Liyane said, preparing to release the first pulse of "The Bond" into this frozen world. "Ready yourself, partner... we are about to break this ice."