Strongest Incubus System

The reaction began with the floor.

The white lines passed through the artificial symbols like water seeping into cracks.

They did not destroy them.

They separated them.

One of the channels sustaining the room lost its gray color and turned completely white.

The Selection sphere trembled.

Thirty of its eyes closed at the same time.

Damon noticed.

"It’s losing access."

Xue Lian nodded.

"The network is refusing the functions it inserted."

The sphere responded immediately.

"CORRECTION: COMPATIBLE FUNCTIONS."

"Doesn’t matter," Damon said. "They aren’t yours."

Another white line crossed the chamber.

The red coating Selection had used against the ice disappeared.

Then the gray layer that absorbed physical force.

Next, the symbol that neutralized Jian Yue’s sword went dark.

Selection retreated.

Jian Yue smiled.

"Now?"

Xue Lian looked at the sword.

"Now."

He attacked.

The ancestral blade passed through the sphere.

Not completely.

But for the first time, it opened a real wound.

A white crack appeared across the black surface.

All nearby eyes closed.

The sphere recoiled violently.

"THREAT CONFIRMED."

Damon raised his sword.

"You’ve confirmed plenty already."

Chen Mo appeared behind it.

The void touched the surface exposed by the crack.

This time there was no protective layer.

A portion of the core simply vanished.

Selection made a sound.

Not a word.

A sharp metallic noise that made Aria cover her ears.

Ester wasted no time.

"Right!"

Damon moved.

Three needles passed beside his face and struck an artificial line trying to reach the mark on his arm.

The line was pinned to the floor.

Mu Qing immediately rotated one of the nearby symbols.

The connection went dark.

"You were right," Damon said.

Ester looked at him.

"About?"

"You’re annoyingly good at this."

"Focus."

Selection shot upward.

The original network’s barrier did not yield.

It struck.

Recoiled.

Tried left.

Nothing.

Right.

Nothing.

Each attempt caused more white lines to pass through the structure.

The black plate in Damon’s hands began to vibrate.

The Selection circle was cracking.

Aria watched.

"It’s being disconnected from the record."

Xue Lian became serious.

"No."

Damon looked at her.

"What’s the difference?"

"If it were merely being disconnected, the circle would go dark."

She pointed.

The symbol was still glowing.

But the light was compressing toward the center.

"It’s being expelled."

Damon understood.

"From the network."

"Yes."

"That’s good."

"Maybe."

He closed his eyes.

"You just used that word."

"Because I don’t know where it goes once the network finishes rejecting it."

Damon looked at the sphere.

Selection had heard as well.

Its eyes began moving.

Not chaotically.

Calculating.

"REJECTION DESTINATION UNDEFINED."

Damon frowned.

"You don’t know either."

"INFORMATION ABSENT."

"Excellent."

Ester looked at him.

"That doesn’t sound excellent."

"It means it’s worried too."

The sphere stopped trying to escape.

That was worse.

Xue Lian realized it immediately.

"It changed strategy."

Selection opened all its remaining eyes.

It did not attack Damon.

It looked at the entire room.

At Jian Yue.

Chen Mo.

Mu Qing.

Yun Shuo.

Aria.

Ester.

Then at the plate itself.

"PRESERVATION PROTOCOL."

Damon became serious.

"I don’t like that."

The sphere opened.

It did not split apart.

Its surface separated into dozens of thin black plates.

At the center was a much smaller core.

White.

Xue Lian lost color.

"Don’t let that get out."

Damon was already running.

"Why?"

"That’s the function!"

The plates shot in every direction.

Jian Yue cut two.

Chen Mo erased another.

Damon froze three against the wall.

But dozens continued.

One struck Mu Qing in the shoulder.

She screamed.

The fragment did not pierce.

It stuck.

Symbols began spreading across her clothes.

"MU QING!"

She tore the fabric away before they reached her skin.

Jian Yue cut the fragment on the floor.

Another passed Aria.

Ester dodged.

Yun Shuo blocked with his forearm.

Mistake.

The plate stuck.

"Shit!"

Xue Lian reached him first.

"Don’t pull it!"

Yun Shuo froze.

"Then what do I do?"

"Damon!"

He understood.

The plate was an attempt to create secondary anchors.

Damon extended a hand.

White ice covered Yun Shuo’s arm around the fragment, isolating his skin.

Ester inserted two needles at the edges.

"Now!"

Xue Lian struck the symbol with her palm.

Nothing.

She had no authority.

But she did not need it.

"Refusal," she said.

The fragment trembled.

Yun Shuo noticed.

He looked at it.

"No."

The plate fell.

Damon smiled.

"It works without the Door."

Xue Lian raised her head.

"Because it’s the same principle."

Selection heard.

The remaining plates changed direction.

All of them went toward Damon.

"Of course."

He raised a wall of ice.

The plates passed through.

Damon jumped backward.

Jian Yue cut several.

Chen Mo erased others.

Ester blocked two lines.

But one got through.

It struck Damon’s chest.

The false Seed on his arm responded immediately.

The plate stuck.

"PRIORITY VESSEL RESTORED."

Damon grabbed the fragment.

Xue Lian shouted.

"Don’t touch it!"

"Too late."

The fragment opened.

A white line tried to enter through his hand.

Damon felt the definition take shape.

Vessel.

Compatible.

Adaptable.

Selected.

He closed his eyes.

"No."

The line hesitated.

"REFUSAL RECORDED."

"Good."

"REFUSAL INSUFFICIENT."

"I disagree."

Damon pulled.

The plate resisted.

He did not try to tear it off physically.

He did something else.

He ordered the Heavenly Ice Body to stop.

The Root.

Silence.

The inherited memories.

Distance.

The same three renunciations from the Fourth Door.

The reaction was immediate.

The plate lost its reference.

"COMPATIBILITY REDUCED."

Damon opened one eye.

"Continue."

"ERROR."

The structure tried to find another classification.

Vampire.

Incubus.

Bearer.

Heir.

Successor.

All failed to establish priority.

The plate began to loosen.

Damon smiled.

"You keep trying to put me in a box."

Selection answered from the central core.

"CLASSIFICATION IS NECESSARY."

"Your problem."

He tore the fragment away.

Threw it to the floor.

Jian Yue cut it in half.

The white core in the center of the room trembled.

All the remaining plates fell.

Aria looked at the now-reduced sphere.

"It lost its distributed claim capability."

Mu Qing was breathing heavily.

"Then we destroy it."

Damon pointed at Chen Mo.

"You first."

Chen Mo advanced.

Selection reacted.

But it had lost almost all of its defensive responses.

The void struck.

A portion of the white core disappeared.

Jian Yue came next.

The ancestral sword opened a crack.

Damon attacked last.

Black Ice formed around the ordinary sword, reinforcing the blade.

Xue Lian noticed.

"You’re using it again."

"Because now I want to."

The strike hit the core.

The crack opened completely.

Selection screamed.

"CONTINUITY PROTOCOL ABSENT."

Damon pushed harder.

"Yes. I destroyed it."

"TRANSFER UNAVAILABLE."

"Good."

"RECONSTITUTION NOT LOCATED."

"Better."

"DOMINION—"

Selection stopped.

So did Damon.

Xue Lian raised her head.

"Repeat that."

Silence.

Damon pressed the sword deeper.

"Dominion what?"

Selection did not answer.

Aria quickly opened the plate.

The Dominion circle remained black.

"It isn’t active."

Mu Qing approached.

"Maybe it doesn’t need to be."

Damon looked at her.

"Explain."

"The cores shared protocols."

"So?"

"Continuity could call Selection. Selection may have a protocol for Dominion even without knowing where it is."

Xue Lian became serious.

"Or the record we have is wrong."

Selection began to vibrate.

Not trying to resist.

Transmitting.

Damon noticed too late.

"It’s sending something."

The black plate exploded with light.

The Selection circle began to fade.

At the same time, the Dominion circle...

Lit up.

Once.

Faint.

Almost imperceptible.

But everyone saw it.

Damon stopped.

"You said it was lost."

Selection answered with difficulty.

"LOCATION... UNKNOWN."

"But it’s active."

"STATE... DORMANT."

Xue Lian went pale.

"You woke it."

No answer.

Damon understood.

Selection was not merely trying to preserve its own function.

It was passing along the result.

The ideal vessel.

The data.

Damon.

"Stop the transmission!" Xue Lian shouted.

Chen Mo opened the void around the core.

The light weakened.

It did not stop.

Jian Yue drove in the sword.

The original network’s white lines surrounded the structure.

The transmission began to fail.

Damon grabbed the core with both hands.

Ester looked at him as though she were about to hit him right there.

"Don’t start."

"I just need to hold it."

"You always say that."

The core burned his skin.

Damon tightened his grip.

"Mu Qing!"

She ran toward the column.

"Which symbol?"

"Every one that’s still artificial."

"That could dismantle the room!"

"Good!"

"We’re inside it!"

Damon thought.

"Less good!"

Mu Qing cursed and began reversing the symbols one by one.

The room trembled.

Aria shouted.

"Dominion is still lit!"

Damon looked at the plate.

"How much of the transmission got through?"

"I don’t know!"

Selection answered.

"ENOUGH."

Damon closed his eyes.

"I really hate talking cores."

He gathered cold into his hand.

Not to freeze.

To compress.

The white core began to crack.

"IF YOU DESTROY THIS FUNCTION, THE ARTIFICIAL NETWORK WILL LOSE THE ABILITY TO IDENTIFY CANDIDATES."

"That’s the idea."

"YOU WILL LOSE ACCESS TO THE RECORDS."

"Aria wrote down plenty."

She raised the notebook.

"Almost everything."

"See?"

"INFORMATION ABOUT DOMINION WILL BE LOST."

Damon hesitated.

Xue Lian noticed.

"No."

He looked at her.

"It could be useful."

"That’s how Shen Liang tried to preserve Continuity."

Damon fell silent.

She was right.

Again.

Useful information was exactly the bait.

He smiled.

"I’m starting to hate it when you learn my own lessons."

"Destroy it."

Damon squeezed.

The core broke.

No explosion.

All the eyes went dark at once.

The plates scattered across the floor turned into black dust.

The Selection symbol on the plate disappeared.

Completely.

The room fell silent.

For three seconds.

Then it began to collapse.

Ester looked at Damon.

He raised a hand.

"Before you say anything, I know."

"RUN."

"That works too."

Everyone ran.

Mu Qing opened the first path she could find.

The fold was unraveling around them.

Walls disappeared.

Corridors changed.

Chen Mo kept sections of space empty enough to prevent them from closing.

Jian Yue cut formations blocking the way.

Yun Shuo guided them whenever Heshan’s circulation appeared.

Damon stayed in the middle.

Ester beside him.

"You’re slow."

"I almost got possessed twice."

"Three times."

"When was the third?"

"We’ll discuss it later."

The passage finally opened.

Light.

Snow.

Heshan.

The group crossed.

The fold closed behind them.

Damon fell onto his back in the snow.

Ester stood over him.

"No."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You’re getting up."

"Actually, I was thinking about staying here."

"Good."

Damon closed his eyes.

For the first time in several hours, nothing tried to enter his mind.

It was pleasant.

Aria sat nearby and opened the plate.

"We have a problem."

Damon kept his eyes closed.

"Of course."

"Selection is gone."

"That sounds good."

"Continuity too."

"Also good."

"Adaptation is still active."

"Expected."

Aria fell silent.

Damon opened one eye.

"What?"

She turned the plate around.

The Dominion circle was dark again.

But something had changed.

Around it was now a small line.

Almost like a mark.

A record of contact.

Xue Lian crouched down.

"Selection managed to transmit."

Damon slowly sat up.

"How much?"

"No one knows."

The mark on his arm pulsed.

Once.

Then stopped.

Damon looked.

The false Seed had changed.

At its center, beyond the Adaptation lines, a small golden point had appeared.

Xue Lian went still.

"That wasn’t there before."

"I know."

Aria brought the plate closer.

The Dominion symbol responded to the point.

A single sentence appeared.

There was no voice.

No presence.

Only a message left for him.

CANDIDATE RECEIVED.

Damon watched it for several seconds.

Ester sat in the snow beside him.

"Don’t say convenient."

"I wasn’t going to."

"Good."

Damon smiled.

"I was going to say that someone finally had the courtesy to schedule a meeting."

Ester smacked him on the head.

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