The blinding white light that had consumed everything in the research lab slowly faded...
Silence descended... before the first sound to return to everyone's hearing was no longer the blaring alarm, but a deep, low thrum that vibrated with a steady rhythm... like a powerful heart.
Thrum... thrum... thrum...
As everyone's eyes began to adjust and they could see what was before them again... a new wave of shock washed over them, leaving them speechless. The Runic Power Core in the form of a machine they had built with their own hands... was gone.
On the central platform now levitated a complex, crystalline object shaped like an eight-pointed star. Its structure was as black as the night, but within it, streams of gold and soft blue light flowed as if alive. And every time the "thrum" sounded, the light within would flash in unison... like the true rhythm of a heartbeat.
"Wh-what... what the hell is that!?" Karess was the first to swear through his helmet's speaker. "Where did the Runic Power Core go, and what is this thing!?"
"Zen! What did you do!?" Zaria screamed. She whipped her head around to look at Zen, her eyes filled with confusion and apprehension. "Just now... what did you put in there!?"
"I... I don't know..." Zen answered, his voice trembling. He was just as stunned as everyone else. "I... I just saw that the energy was responding... like... like it had a pattern... so I thought... what if... what if it could think... or had a mind..." he stammered. "So I... I put the AI project I was developing near it... but who knew something like this would happen!!!"
Zen turned to look at the living energy core with wide eyes. "But... but it must be the Solen rune! It has to be! The power of resonating waves... the principle of seeing the soul that I thought of... did it respond to the AI? Or... does the AI I created truly have a soul!?"
In the observation deck high above, Lysera raised a hand to her chest in shock, while Sylvester stared down at the strange object below, his expression tense and unreadable.
"Sylvester... do you see that..." Lysera murmured, her voice shaking. "It... it looks alive... Why is it showing a rhythm like a heartbeat?"
Everyone in the lab below turned to look at the source of Lysera's words, which came through the comms system... the image of the energy core, beating in rhythm like the heart of a giant living creature. It was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
But for Zen... he didn't feel fear. He felt a "connection" of some kind... a whisper without words... a warm feeling that called to him from that core.
Unconsciously... his feet began to slowly carry him closer to the object...
"Zen! Don't go near it!" Zaria cried out as a warning, but her voice didn't reach Zen, who was lost in a trance.
He stood before the living energy core. It levitated silently, the gold and soft blue light within it flickering gently, as if in anticipation... He slowly reached out his trembling right hand... slowly... slowly...
And in the second his fingertips touched its smooth surface... ...everything went silent...
Suddenly... the core began to spin... counter-clockwise... slowly, but with immense power. A low hum arose, along with a massive gravitational pull that emanated from its center. Everyone's body was violently pulled toward it! Dr. Aris and Lina screamed as they were pulled until their feet lifted off the floor. Karess had to use all his strength to anchor himself to a structural pillar of the lab.
The pull grew stronger and stronger, for three... four... five seconds that felt like an eternity...
And then, in the blink of an eye... it stopped... before spinning in the opposite direction, clockwise, with a speed that was impossible to follow!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
It wasn't a destructive explosion... but a wave of concussive force and white-gold light that spread out in all directions at a speed faster than light. It slammed into everyone in the lab, sending them flying against the walls... it shot through the glass of the observation deck, forcing Sylvester and Lysera to raise their arms to shield themselves... it passed through the structure of the command center... and expanded out to cover the "Aurora's Path" in orbit... covering the entire planet!
Everyone within the radius of the energy wave... all 198 lives... "felt" it at the same time!
It was a feeling as if their very souls were being connected to a thousand universes... images of unknown worlds... the sounds of unfamiliar languages... and the feeling of some "potential" that had been dormant within them was about to be awakened...
And then everyone... collapsed to the floor, unconscious...
The last thing Zen saw before his own consciousness faded... was the image of the "living Runic Power Core," which was now calm, levitating in mid-air. Its light was no longer blinding, but was "beating" with a steady rhythm...
Thrum... thrum... thrum...
Like the heart of a giant living creature... that had just been born.