Chapter 26: Chapter 25
Location: Black Forest – The First Clash
Alethea stepped through the fog like a force of nature.
Around her, Alpha Legion soldiers closed in, their visors glowing red, targeting her heat signature.
> "Sovereign identified. E-00. Neutralize."
She stopped in the clearing, raindrops sliding off her skin like electricity.
Cassiel stood to her right, eyes glowing gold. Seren flanked the trees, sniping from a distance with precision. Marco moved in from behind—coordinating the defense lines.
Then… silence.
A soldier lunged.
Alethea didn't flinch.
She looked at him—just one glance.
The soldier froze mid-air, limbs paralyzed.
With a snap of her fingers, his entire neural network shorted out.
He crumpled to the ground, unconscious but alive.
The others hesitated.
Alethea raised her voice, calm and lethal.
> "You were taught to fear power. You were never taught to understand it."
One of the Alpha Legion commanders stepped forward, helmet gleaming.
> "You are the anomaly. You weren't meant to exist."
> "Neither were kings," she replied, "but they built empires."
The battle began.
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Location: Elara Sky Command – 02:19 AM
Omega monitored the battle from above, eyes darting between screens.
> "Cassiel took out six. Marco's holding the flank. Seren's drawing fire from the northeast. Alethea is… walking through bullets."
Literally.
High-speed bullets cut through the air, but none touched her.
Alethea's body shimmered with a protective pulse—not a shield.
Her willpower had rewritten the laws of motion around her.
She commanded physics itself.
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Location: Ground Zero – 02:26 AM
An Alpha soldier tried a final tactic—injecting himself with the anti-Sovereign serum and rushing her with a blade.
He stabbed forward.
But as his weapon neared her skin, it shattered—into dust.
Alethea grabbed his wrist.
> "You were promised that I could be killed."
She leaned in, eyes glowing violet-gold.
> "They lied."
She released him.
Not dead. Just… changed.
He fell to his knees, gasping—not in pain, but in awe.
Behind her, Marco arrived.
> "They're retreating."
> "No," Alethea said quietly, watching the last ship scramble in the sky.
> "They're regrouping."
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Location: Space Station XA-3 – Observation Deck
The First Architect watched the battle feed collapse.
Alethea had not only survived—she had converted half of Alpha Legion.
Their minds broke protocol. Their programming failed.
She didn't conquer by force.
She conquered by awakening.
The First Architect turned to the others.
> "Then she is no longer a variable."
> "She is the new equation."
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Location: Elara – Sovereign Wing
Later that night, the rain still hadn't stopped.
Alethea stood before a mirror, studying her reflection.
What stared back… wasn't just her.
It was power wrapped in humanity.
And it was terrifyingly beautiful.
Marco entered the room silently.
> "You didn't just win tonight," he said, voice low.
"You changed the direction of the war."
Alethea turned toward him.
> "No. The war hasn't started yet."
She looked out toward the stormy night, her voice steady.
> "This… was just a reminder. That I don't need to be chosen…"
She clenched her fist.
> "…to reign."
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