The vast top floor remained wrapped in a heavy silence, the faint hum of the suspended blue cube pulsing steadily in the background as the shattered remains of constructs lay scattered across the ground, their lifeless forms reflecting the cold light, while Damon stood firm, his grip steady, his gaze locked onto the half-human, half-mechanical figure before him, the tension between them no longer hidden, but laid bare.

"How did you become like this?" Damon asked, his voice calm yet direct, cutting straight through the silence, "why did you want this cube... and most of all... who is ’he’?"

For a moment, Ethan did not respond.

Then—

A low, melancholic laugh escaped him.

"How did I become like this... huh?" he repeated, his dual voice carrying both bitterness and something deeper, something unresolved, as the mechanical hum within his body seemed to grow faintly louder.

"What would you do," he continued slowly, his gaze locking onto Damon, "if the people you loved... were killed... and destroyed... by something you created?"

Damon did not hesitate.

"I would make their life a living hell."

The answer came instantly.

Without doubt.

Without hesitation.

Ethan laughed again.

This time louder. More unrestrained.

"Exactly," he said, his voice sharp with agreement, "that’s exactly what I decided to do."

His expression twisted, the human half of his face tightening with emotion while the mechanical side remained cold and unmoving.

"All those humans responsible for it... all those who used constructs and technology for their twisted desires... who turned everything into tools for greed, control, and destruction..."

His voice rose.

"They should all be dead."

A pause.

"And I..."

His gaze darkened.

"...I made sure of that."

The red glow in his mechanical eye intensified.

"’He’ appeared at that time," Ethan continued, his tone shifting again, becoming quieter, almost reverent, "and he helped me... helped me modify my body... so that I could interfere with the constructs’ operations..."

Damon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"By becoming a construct yourself?"

Ethan laughed.

A sharp, almost mocking sound.

"So what?" he snapped, his voice echoing harshly across the space, "everyone deserved to die!"

His body trembled slightly as he spoke, the conflict within him visible even as he tried to justify it.

"And I did just that... I interfered with the command system of L1-001..." he continued, his voice rising again, "and ordered the end of all humanity!"

A tear slipped from the human half of his face, trailing down his cheek, stark against the mechanical coldness that consumed the other half.

Mira stepped forward slightly, her expression shaken, her voice trembling with disbelief.

"Y-you... how can you do that?" she said, her words uneven, "t-there must have been so many innocent lives... so many people who had nothing to do with it... t-they didn’t deserve to die..."

Ethan snapped.

His head jerked toward her, his expression twisting with anger and pain.

"Then was my family not innocent?" he shouted, his voice breaking through the calm of the floor, "did they deserve to die?"

The question hung in the air.

Raw.

Unanswered.

Then—

He laughed again.

But this time—

It was hollow.

"And it’s not like everyone is fully dead..." he added, his tone dropping once more, carrying something far more unsettling beneath it.

Damon’s gaze did not waver for even a moment as he watched Ethan, his expression steady despite the growing weight of everything being revealed, before he spoke again, his voice calm but edged with quiet scrutiny.

"What do you mean?"

Ethan laughed.

Not loudly.

But with a strange, hollow excitement that echoed unnaturally across the vast floor, his mechanical side humming faintly as he spread one arm slightly, almost as if presenting himself.

"Look at me..." he said, his voice carrying both pride and madness intertwined, "look at the potential I have... a consciousness of a human... and the limitless capabilities of a construct."

His red eye flared slightly brighter.

"I knew it the moment I became like this... this is it... this is what humanity should have become," he continued, his tone rising with conviction, "so that what I experienced... what I lost... no one else would ever have to experience again."

His lips curled into a grin.

"So I saved some... volunteers."

The word lingered.

Uncomfortable.

"The potential of humanity will soar after this... hahahaha..."

The laughter rang out again, distorted and uneven.

To the side, Serena’s expression hardened slightly as she muttered under her breath, just loud enough to be heard—

"He’s lost his mind..."

But Ethan did not stop.

"B-but..." he continued, his voice suddenly faltering as his expression twisted, "I wasn’t capable of completing it..."

For a brief moment, frustration overtook him.

"And then... ’he’ approached me again," Ethan said, his tone lowering, becoming more focused, "he said... as long as I could hand over this cube to him... he would help me fulfill my dream."

Serena stepped forward slightly, her gaze shifting toward the floating structure.

"What exactly is this cube?" she asked, her tone sharp, analytical.

Ethan turned his head toward it, the blue light reflecting across both halves of his face.

"Exactly what I said," he replied, "it contains all the data... everything that has been recorded in this world over the years... systems, structures, behavioral patterns, command hierarchies... everything."

Serena’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Then why couldn’t you take it yourself?" she asked, her tone cutting straight to the point.

At that—

Ethan’s expression changed.

Disgust.

Raw.

Unfiltered.

"Because of him..." he said, his voice tightening, "among those volunteers... there was one of my fellow researchers..."

His mechanical fingers twitched.

"That traitor..."

The word came out heavy.

"He pretended to agree with me... pretended to follow my vision..." Ethan continued, his voice laced with bitterness, "but in the end... he modified L1-001 itself..."

A faint distortion passed through his body as if recalling it triggered something within.

"He couldn’t override it completely... he couldn’t make it kill me..." he added, "but he created an electronic interference... a wave that disrupts my mechanical functions... rendering me unable to operate properly near this system..."

His jaw tightened.

"So I couldn’t reach the cube."

A brief pause.

"And that’s when ’he’ said..." Ethan continued, his voice lowering again, "that he would send people into this place... people who would help me retrieve it."

Silence followed. Heavy.

Damon’s eyes narrowed slightly further as he asked, his voice quieter now, yet sharper than before—

"Who is ’he’?"

Ethan looked at him.

For a moment—

There was no answer.

Then—

He laughed again.

Almost dismissivly.

"’He’?" he repeated, shrugging slightly, "I don’t know."

A flicker of coldness passed through Damon’s eyes.

Ethan continued, unfazed.

"Hahaha... I really don’t," he said, his tone almost casual now, "but he was... similar to me."

A faint grin spread across his face.

"And honestly... who cares... as long as he helps me fulfill my desire."

Ethan’s gaze burned with a strange, feverish intensity as he leaned slightly forward, his voice rising with a persuasive urgency that felt less like a request and more like a pull, as though he was trying to drag Damon into the same twisted conviction that had consumed him.

"’He’ told me... he would show me the true potential of humanity," Ethan said, his tone almost reverent now, "and look at you... you are that potential... the very peak of what humans can become."

His mechanical eye glowed brighter.

"Now just hand over that cube to me," he continued, his voice coaxing, tempting, "I will elevate you beyond anything you could ever reach on your own... come... look at my vision... follow it... and give me that cube."

Damon did not respond immediately.

His eyes remained on the cube.

Then—

He stepped forward slowly reaching out.

His hand closed around the glowing structure, the blue light reflecting faintly across his face as he held it firmly in his palm, the hum of stored data vibrating subtly through his grip.

Ethan’s expression lit up instantly.

"Hahaha... that’s right..." he said, his voice filled with satisfaction, "you understand... you agree with me... now give it here..."

Damon lifted his arm slightly.

And then—

He threw it.

The cube arced through the air toward Ethan.

For a brief moment—

Mira and Serena froze, both of them caught off guard by the sudden action, their expressions shifting instantly into shock as they watched the cube leave Damon’s hand.

Ethan reached out.

Ready to catch it.

But—

In that same instant—

Damon moved.

His grip tightened around the sledgehammer as his body shifted forward with explosive precision, his arm rising in a swift, controlled motion as he closed the distance in a single step.

Then—

He brought it down.

"SHATTER!"

The hammer struck the cube mid-air just before it could reach Ethan’s hand, the impact carrying overwhelming force as the glowing structure was driven straight into the ground beneath it, the surface cracking violently under the blow as the cube fractured, its light distorting, splitting, and collapsing inward upon itself.

A sharp burst of energy rippled outward.

Then—

Silence.

Serena snapped toward him instantly.

"Hey! What are you doing?" she demanded, her voice edged with both confusion and urgency.

Mira stood frozen beside her, her eyes wide, unable to process what had just happened.

Damon, however, did not react to them immediately.

Instead, he looked around.

Slowly.

Carefully.

His eyes scanning the surroundings as though searching for something, for any change, any shift in the environment that would confirm his expectation.

A moment passed.

Then—

He blinked and straightened.

And let out a quiet sigh.

"I thought that would clear the breach..." he said calmly, almost as if stating a simple observation.

A faint pause followed.

"But I guess not."

"Y—YOU... WHAT DID YOU JUST DO? DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND—"

Ethan’s voice tore through the silence, no longer controlled, no longer layered with calculated intent, but fractured and unstable as his entire demeanor shifted in an instant, the composure he had maintained until now collapsing completely as he staggered backward, his expression sinking into something hollow, something broken, as though the very foundation of his existence had just been ripped away.

The glow in his mechanical eye flickered violently.

His body trembled.

"YOU... YOU... YOU—!"

The words came out jagged, incomplete, his voice glitching mid-sentence as the dual tones desynchronized, the human half lagging behind while the mechanical half surged forward, creating a disturbing overlap that felt less like speech and more like something tearing itself apart.

He dropped to his knees.

His hand shot up to his head, clutching it tightly as if trying to hold something together that was already slipping beyond control, while beneath the surface, the mechanical structures embedded along the side of his skull began to distort, thin wires pushing outward and retracting erratically, twitching and sparking as though the signals running through them had turned chaotic.

A faint, high-pitched whine filled the air.

His body jerked.

Once.

Then again.

The clean integration between flesh and machine began to break down, the boundary between the two sides no longer stable as small arcs of energy flickered across exposed circuits, his movements becoming increasingly erratic, his posture collapsing inward as if the very system sustaining him was failing piece by piece.

"AA—GH—!"

A distorted cry escaped him, half human anguish, half mechanical feedback, as his head snapped slightly to the side, the red glow in his eye pulsing uncontrollably, dimming and flaring in rapid succession.

The wires near his brain writhed.

Thin strands of metallic filaments shifting beneath torn skin, some retracting, others pushing outward as though trying to reconnect to something that no longer existed, creating a grotesque, unnatural motion that made it clear his body was no longer functioning as a unified system.

"I... WILL... KILL YOU...!!"

The words came out broken, dragged between two failing voices as his body convulsed again, his hand tightening against his head as if trying to suppress the collapse from within.

Damon, Serena, and Mira stood watching.

Their stances ready, but none of them moved immediately, their eyes fixed on the grotesque, malfunctioning figure before them as the reality of the situation became clearer with each passing second.

Damon’s gaze narrowed slightly.

Then, almost to himself, he muttered—

"Now I guess... I know what would clear a breach."