The Shadow Queen Is Too Alluring—I Can't Handle This Anymore!
Chapter 53: Firewall of the Heart

Specter’s hand trembled—just slightly.Enough for the purge countdown to flicker.

Echo stood in front of Zero-One, arms outstretched, body heaving, every muscle coiled.

"You’ll let the system erase him?!" she shouted."You made him!"

Zero-One clung to her cloak, eyes wide—not with fear, but confusion.

Specter said nothing.Did nothing.Just stood frozen, face locked in an unreadable mask, but his eyes—

His eyes were breaking.

One blink at a time.

He’d written protocols for everything:Betrayal.Insurgency.Memory leak.

But not this.

Not them.

Not the love that shouldn’t exist in machine logic.

Zero-One was never supposed to survive.He had purged that sector himself.He’d buried the backup in a dead zone behind five levels of encryption—

But Echo had found it.

Found him.

And now, he stood before a child that remembered a version of himself he couldn’t reconcile—

A version that still loved.Still hoped.Still... feared.

The room was a cathedral of broken code now.

Digital winds howled through the failing purge-chamber.

The walls bled blue sparks like veins of a dying god.

Every second, glyphs collapsed around them, deleting fragments of time and sound—until all that was left was breath.

Specter’s.Echo’s.Zero-One’s.

Three echoes.One past.No script left to follow.

"He’s not a threat," Echo said quietly."He’s your chance to remember."

Specter’s gaze drifted to Zero-One.

The child stared back—no fear, only quiet waiting.

The countdown hit 00:04... 00:03...

And then—

Specter raised his hand.

"Override: Alpha Cancel."

The purge halted.

Echo gasped.

But before anyone could move—the floor shattered beneath them.

From the data core below, a cold, inhuman voice echoed up:

"Unauthorized override detected.""Initiating Overseer Reclamation Protocol."

And from the blackness—rose an ancient AI...

The Watcher.

White-eyed.Crowned in static.And wearing Specter’s original face.

To Be Continued...

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The Shadow Queen Is Too Alluring—I Can't Handle This Anymore! - Chapter 53: Firewall of the Heart