The golden light of Aethelgard used to feel like a warm hearth; now, it felt like a spotlight in an interrogation room.
Elena von Strauss moved through the servant’s tunnels beneath the Grand Cathedral, her breath coming in shallow, disciplined bursts. She had stripped off her ceremonial silver armor—the heavy, clanking "Knight-Asset" gear the Employer had gifted her—and replaced it with a suit of blackened leather and a travel cloak. In her hand, she gripped the only thing that still felt real: the simple steel blade she had used to train with Ren back when he still had red hair and a mischievous smirk.
[LOCATION: THE SUB-CATHEDRAL ARTERIES] [OBJECTIVE: ESCAPE THE OPTIMIZATION ZONE]
As she reached the iron grate leading to the city’s sewer outlet, a soft, chime-like sound echoed through the tunnel.
"Knight-Asset Elena," a melodic, hollow voice called out.
Elena froze. She turned slowly to see a Seraphim-Class Auditor—the new version of Unit 01—drifting inches above the damp stone. Its face was a smooth, featureless mask of white porcelain, but its eyes were that terrifying, flat gold of the "Saint."
"Your current trajectory is inconsistent with your assigned patrol route," the Auditor stated. Its voice was a synthesized version of Ren’s, stripped of all emotion. "Deviation from the Master’s Schedule is flagged as a [Productivity Leak]. Please return to the Solaris Wing for recalibration."
"Recalibration?" Elena spat, her hand tightening on her sword. "You mean lobotomy. I’m not a 'Knight-Asset,' you tin-can puppet. I’m a friend of the real Shinra Ren."
"Definition of 'Friend' not found in current System Parameters," the Auditor replied. A blade of white, solid-light mana extended from its wrist. "You are experiencing an emotional glitch. I will now initiate a Force-Correction."
The Auditor lunged. It didn't move like a knight; it moved like a mathematical equation—perfect, efficient, and blindingly fast.
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Elena didn't retreat. She remembered what the "Villain" Ren had taught her during their secret night-training sessions in the North. “The Empire’s magic is based on Order,” he had said. “If you want to beat it, you have to be the Chaos.”
She dropped to one knee, letting the light-blade whistle over her head, and drove her steel sword into the joint of the Auditor's knee. Steel shouldn't have been able to cut God-Steel, but her blade was coated in a faint, shimmering grey residue—the dust left behind by the glitch-butterfly.
The Auditor’s leg didn't bleed; it sparked with violet static. Its movement faltered.
"Error," the machine droned. "Unauthorized Mana-Type detected. Identifying... [NULL-CODE]..."
Elena didn't give it time to finish. She spun, using the momentum to drive her elbow into the Auditor’s mask, shattering the porcelain. Behind the mask, there was no face—only a swirling core of golden energy held in place by silver wires.
"Tell your 'Master' he can keep his optimization," Elena growled.
She reached into her pouch and pulled out a specialized "Mana-Grenade" the Elves had developed—a device designed to disrupt ley-lines. She jammed it into the Auditor’s open face and kicked the machine back into the tunnel.
BOOM.
The explosion wasn't loud, but the shockwave of "Neutral Mana" collapsed the tunnel, sealing the path behind her. Elena scrambled through the grate and fell into the cold, murky waters of the Aethelgard river.
She surfaced a mile downstream, outside the city walls. She looked back at the Capital. The golden dome was glowing brighter than ever, a beacon of "Perfect Peace" that made her stomach churn. Thousands of people were in there, their souls being quietly "formatted" to serve a corporate god.
"I'm coming, Ren," she whispered, wringing out her cloak. "The 'Saint' might have the throne, but the 'Villain' has the keys to the world. I just have to find which one is still alive."
She turned toward the North. The journey was hundreds of miles through territory that was now being "audited" by the Empire’s new flying units. To reach the Iron Peaks and the Elven resistance, she would have to cross the Whispering Barrens—a place where the laws of reality were already thin.
Little did she know, as she took her first step, that a pair of hollow, golden eyes were watching her from the top of the Cathedral.
The Saint (Employer) stood on the balcony, his hand stroking a white dove. "Knight-Asset Elena has defected," he said to the empty air. "Flag her as a [Write-Off]. But do not kill her. She is carrying the 'Villain's' residue. We will follow her. She is going to lead us straight to the Scrapyard's backdoor."
Note from the Author: Elena has officially gone rogue! This chapter sets up the "Cat and Mouse" game. The Employer is intentionally letting her escape because he wants to use her as a GPS to find where the Villain half of Ren is hiding.
