Deep in the core of the world, the squad found the Tier-10 Fabricator.
It was a sphere of liquid metal, floating in a vacuum-chamber the size of a cathedral. It was beautiful, pulsing with a rhythmic golden light that felt... familiar.
"This is it," Sully whispered, her hands hovering over the control terminal. "The Mother-Core. It can build anything. Ships, armor, God-slaying spears... if you have the blueprints."
"It's already building something," Doc noted, pointing to the base of the sphere.
A figure was sitting there, plugged into the machine by a thousand glowing cables. It was a girl, no older than twelve, with hair made of fiber-optic wire and skin that shifted between copper and glass.
[TARGET: THE ARCHITECT (0.1 PERCENT ORGANIC)] [RANK: 9 - THE DIGITAL VOID]
"You... shouldn't be here," the girl said, her voice sounding like a thousand fans spinning at once. "The Gardener told me the 14th Iteration would be taller."
"The Gardener told me this world was a graveyard," Kane replied, stepping toward her. "Why are you still running the machines?"
"Because the machines are all that's left of my mother," the girl whispered, her copper eyes leaking oil-tears. "The Hegemony deleted our souls, but they couldn't delete the Code. I've been rebuilding them for an eon. Waiting for someone to give them a purpose."
Kane looked at the Fabricator. He looked at the "Echo" of Earth in his mind—the people, the Void-Witches, the soldiers.
"I have a purpose," Kane said, reaching out his hand. "I need an army that can't be deleted. I need a fleet made of Void-Steel."
The girl looked at Kane's hand. She saw the "Hunger," but she also saw the Timeline-Echoes—the memories of a world that refused to die.
"If I give you the Fabricator," the girl said, "The Hegemony will notice. They will send the Gardener's Fire. They will turn this whole sector into a sun."
"Let them," Kane said, his violet fire igniting. "I've been wanting to see how a 'Fire' tastes anyway."