The "Abyss" activated at seven per cent.
It was enough to plunge the Upper City into darkness.
Street screens went black, transport ground to a halt, and the protective dome over the capital turned opaque. In the Lower City, it was no longer just the lights going out. Mecha-maidens collapsed where they stood. Their sources contracted as though an invisible hand were drawing the warmth out of them.
The Eternal Brigade felt the blow at the same instant.
Su Zhihu dropped to one knee by the central bridge. Vierlia lost her mecha-form in mid-air and barely managed to catch her blade on the wall. Nangong Ci screamed as the old scars on her source tore open again.
Chi Yuyan stopped breathing.
Fan Yuan placed his palm on her chest and entered the golden network.
Inside, there were no separate threads left. The "Abyss" had gathered them into a single current and was drawing it towards the black ring above the city. The system offered to seize the channel and close the entire network around the owner of the Eternal Legion. To do that, Fan Yuan would have to accept absolute command over every connected source.
"No," Fan Yuan said.
"Without an alternative centre, the participants will die."
"Create a temporary circuit only for those who confirm the link themselves."
"Request time exceeds the safe limit."
"Do it."
His voice reached the brigade's forty fighters, Vierlia, Su Zhihu, Nalan Qingxin and thousands of mecha-maidens he had never met across the city.
"An emergency network is attempting to connect to you. It will not take control, but it will allow the load to be distributed. If you consent, answer through your source."
Chi Yuyan answered first.
A faint golden pulse emerged from her shattered core.
Then Vierlia answered.
Su Zhihu.
The forty penal soldiers.
Hundreds of points lit up on the map. Then thousands. Each joined of her own free will and could break the link at any moment.
Fan Yuan turned the network away from himself and arranged it in a circle. Strong sources supported the weak; intact ones took the burden from the damaged. Energy stopped draining into the "Abyss" and began flowing between people.
Chi Yuyan drew breath.
The black ring shuddered.
In the underground control centre, the Council of Founders demanded more power. The technicians refused: the backlash could melt the capital. Murong Senior shot the shift supervisor and pushed the lever to fifteen per cent himself.
Fan Yuan's network convulsed. Thousands of voices filled his head, along with other people's fears and fragments of pain. He could not answer them all, so he sent the one thing that mattered:
"Do not hold on to me. Hold on to those beside you."
In a Lower City district, an elderly mecha-maiden took a neighbour's daughter by the hand. At a military base, three communications officers linked their damaged channels. In a hospital, patients shared their energy with the life-support machines. The golden threads no longer resembled an army drawn up around a single commander. They wove themselves into a network with no single centre.
The "Abyss" did not know how to take power that belonged to no one in full.
Its ring burst.
The explosion drove underground. The central tower sank several metres and the protective dome vanished. For the first time in decades, the true night sky was visible above the capital.
Fan Yuan broke the link and fell beside Chi Yuyan.
He regained consciousness in the former laboratory. The operating tables had been removed, the glass chambers smashed, and the rooms converted into a field hospital. Mecha-maidens from across the city lay in the adjoining hall.
Chi Yuyan sat beside his bed.
She wore no armour. Marks from the restraints remained on her arms, and the hair at her temples was still white.
"How long was I asleep?"
"Nineteen hours."
"The 'Abyss'?"
"The central node is damaged, but not destroyed. The Council escaped through a military tunnel."
"The children?"
"All alive."
Fan Yuan tried to sit up. Chi Yuyan pressed him back against the bed.
"Stay down."
"I need to inspect the city."
"Vierlia is inspecting it. Su Zhihu is holding the bridges. Nalan Qingxin is going through the archive. Even Nangong Ci is working, and so far she has not abducted anyone."
"Then I really can stay in bed."
They were silent for several seconds.
"Why did you agree to the experiments?" Fan Yuan asked.
"So they would send you to the front instead of prison."
"You knew what they would do."
"I knew enough."
"Never make a decision like that again."
Chi Yuyan withdrew her hand.
"You stormed the capital with a front-line brigade and nearly burnt out your source to save me. Why are you allowed to decide for both of us when I am not?"
Fan Yuan opened his mouth and found no answer.
"I am grateful you came," she continued. "But I am not a thing to be hidden behind your back, and I am not your weakness. If we are partners, you have to tell me about the risk and listen to what I decide."
"You are right."
"That quickly?"
"I can still argue if it would make you feel better."
She smiled for the first time in weeks.
"No need. Just remember."
Fan Yuan held out his palm, but did not touch her source.
"May I look at the damage?"
Chi Yuyan hesitated, then placed her hand in his.
True Sight revealed nine seals. Three had been torn away in the laboratory, and two had fractured during the battle. The dragon bloodline had survived, but some of its channels were gone for ever. Chi Yuyan might never regain her former maximum power.
The system offered to replace the destroyed sections through full registration, which would make her dependent on Fan Yuan's source.
"There are two paths," he said. "The quick one will restore your power, but you will not be able to transform without my energy. The slow one will take months and offers no guarantee that you will regain your old rank."
"The slow one."
"I think so too."
"Then why did you ask?"
"Because I promised to remember."
Nalan Qingxin entered without knocking. She wore a plain military jacket with no family crest.
"I am glad you have finished learning how to talk to each other. We have a new catastrophe."
After the ring of the "Abyss" was destroyed, the Star Swarm changed course. Hordes that had been scattered across the front for decades all turned towards the capital at once. Military satellites showed an enormous object beyond the cloud line. It had awakened the moment the Council increased the node's power.
Nangong Ci recognised the silhouette.
In the old laboratory, they had called it the Heart of the Swarm. Scientists had extracted fragments of the monster and used them to create the "Abyss". All these years, Great Xia's barrier had served not only as a defence, but as a beacon. Every activation called the swarm home.
"Home?" Fan Yuan repeated.
"The central node contains living tissue from the mother organism," Nalan Qingxin replied. "We fed it with the sources of mecha-maidens. Now the mother is coming for her heart."
Eleven days remained before the main body of monsters arrived.
The army was divided. Some generals obeyed Huangfu; others had left with the Council of Founders. The protective dome was down. Clashes continued throughout the city.
"What does Huangfu propose?" Fan Yuan asked.
"A temporary civilian headquarters with representatives from both cities, the army and the academy. Then evacuation."
"Who gets evacuated first?"
Nalan Qingxin did not answer.
Fan Yuan rose despite his weakness.
"So the list has already been drawn up."
The headquarters brought together people who, only yesterday, would never have sat at the same table: the director of the First Academy, commanding general Huangfu, doctors from the Lower City, garrison officers, engineers from the Nalan conglomerate and elected district elders.
Huangfu presented the evacuation plan. There was enough transport for forty per cent of the population. The proposal gave priority to children, defence-industry specialists and those of high rank.
"In other words, the Upper City," one of the elders said.
"Those of high rank are needed to protect the convoys," the general replied.
"And who spent years marking down our ranks?"
The hall erupted in shouting.
Fan Yuan played the recording from the laboratory. Twenty-seven children's capsules appeared on the wall.
"If we start choosing whose life is more useful now, we will build another room like this within a year," he said. "Evacuate only the children and those physically unable to fight. Everyone else prepares the city."
"Eleven days is not enough," the general objected.
"Then stop wasting the first one arguing about privilege."
Huangfu supported the decision. More than that, he opened the sealed army archive and admitted that he had known about the illegal programmes, though he had not understood their scale.
"I convinced myself that compromise was preserving the country," the commanding general said. "In truth, it preserved the people who regarded the country as their property. All my orders will be made available to the investigation. Until the crisis is over, I am transferring control of supplies to the civilian headquarters."
The officers took it as weakness. The elders of the Lower City took it as the first honest act by a representative of the authorities.
Fan Yuan did not excuse Huangfu. Nor did he reject help without which the city would not survive eleven days.
After the meeting, Vierlia caught up with him on the stairs.
"The brigade is waiting for you."
"At the bridges?"
"At the old stadium. All forty of them. And several thousand volunteers."
The stadium was filled with mecha-maidens and commanders from both cities. Some wanted to join the golden network. Others demanded an explanation of what Fan Yuan had done to their sources when the "Abyss" activated.
He walked out without armour or guards.
"I am not creating a new army that belongs to me," Fan Yuan began. "The temporary network saved the city because every person joined it of their own free will. We will continue to defend ourselves by the same rules. Any participant may withdraw. Every command is transmitted openly. No one gains the right to move another person's body without separate consent."
"What if there is no time to ask in battle?" someone shouted.
"Then we define the limits beforehand. Consent to a link does not mean consent to everything."
The system marked his rules as a reduction in efficiency.
Fan Yuan called them the only reason the Eternal Legion had any right to exist at all.
The first exercise nearly ended in failure.
A thousand participants voluntarily opened their sources, and Fan Yuan tried to share the entire tactical picture with all of them at once. Within seconds, half of them had lost their bearings. People saw through other eyes, heard dozens of orders and could no longer tell which movement was their own.
Su Zhihu broke the connection.
"This is not a legion. It is a mob inside one head."
"Do you have a suggestion?"
"Yes. Stop being the centre."
She divided the stadium into units of five mecha-maidens. Each chose a leader. Five units formed a company, and the companies passed their information to captains. Fan Yuan received only the overall picture and had no contact with individual movements.
"It is slower this way," he observed.
"But if someone tears your head off, we will not turn into blind kittens."
"Convincing."
Vierlia took charge of the connection rules. She made every participant specify permitted actions in advance: sharing sensory data, transferring energy, emergency movement and medical disconnection. Each permission required separate confirmation.
Nalan Qingxin created a simple interface so the terms were visible to more than just the commander. Any attempt to expand access left a record that could not be erased.
Chi Yuyan, still unable to summon her full armour, became an instructor for the newcomers. She taught them how to distinguish support from pressure.
"If another person's voice starts to feel like your own, break the link," she told them. "Even if the commander insists it is necessary for victory."
Fan Yuan heard her and did not interfere.
The second exercise exposed a different problem. The participants were so afraid of crossing another person's boundaries that they stopped passing on urgent warnings. The training monster broke through three units while their leaders requested confirmation for every image.
"Consent does not mean you have to ask permission to breathe," Vierlia said. "Define a corridor of action before the battle. Within it, act quickly. Outside it, ask again."
She drew three circles on the board.
Green: sensors, the shared map and threat warnings. Permission remained valid until the end of the operation.
Yellow: energy transfer and emergency control of a single movement. Brief confirmation required.
Red: full control of a source, alteration of memory and irreversible overload. Forbidden without a separate, informed decision that could not be included in the general contract.
Fan Yuan's system did not recognise colours. To it, access either existed or it did not. Nalan Qingxin wrote an intermediary interface over the ancient protocol.
"You are hacking an SSS inheritance with an ordinary student terminal," Fan Yuan observed.
"Every great system eventually meets someone who rewrites it for the sake of a convenient menu."
"Do not forget the security."
"And stop looking over my shoulder."
A day later, the interface was put to the test. Fan Yuan deliberately sent a red-level request hidden among green ones. Every participant saw a bright warning. Thirty-nine refused. One confirmed automatically without reading.
The exercise was halted.
"In a real battle, her unit will die because of her," said an old-school officer. "Remove her."
"In a real battle, she will lose her free will because of a bad interface," Nalan Qingxin replied. "We will improve the training."
The girl admitted that she could barely read. She had worked on a sorting line in the Lower City since childhood. They created voice confirmation for her, then discovered hundreds more fighters with the same problem.
The new network was becoming more effective not because people had suddenly become perfect. It simply accounted for their real abilities and weaknesses now.
By the third day, the units had stopped waiting for Fan Yuan's instructions. They argued with his tactical decisions, suggested shorter routes and redistributed the reserve themselves. Several times, they were right.
"It annoys you," Chi Yuyan observed.
"A little."
"Good."
"You have started saying that far too often."
"Because for too long, you were the only person in the room whom the system called master."
Fan Yuan added her observation to the network's rules.
Nangong Ci watched from the stands.
"You are building an army in which every soldier can refuse an order," she said that evening. "Armies like that lose wars."
"Your army obeyed every order. Where is it now?"
"Some are dead, some sold out, and some are in prison."
"Exactly."
She came down onto the field and unexpectedly asked to join a training unit. The other participants drew back. Everyone knew the face of the terrorist from the water tower.
"I will not share a network with her," said a young mecha-maiden from the Upper City. "She killed my brother in the attack on the warehouse."
Nangong Ci did not argue.
"What was his name?"
"Luo Jun."
"He was a guard at the eastern gate. I ordered it blown without checking the shift roster."
"Do you think admitting it will bring him back?"
"No."
The girl withdrew from the unit and left. Fan Yuan let her go. Nangong Ci remained and waited until four other participants finally confirmed the link.
For the first time, she submitted to rules she could not overcome by force.
On the fourth day, the network sustained manoeuvres by ten thousand fighters. On the sixth, they restored the western sector barrier without connecting it to the "Abyss". On the seventh, reconnaissance discovered that the old nobility had done more than flee.
The Council of Founders had occupied the main fortress of the Star Front. Six elite divisions and half the long-range fleet had gone with it. Murong Senior declared the temporary headquarters to be in rebellion and demanded the return of the "Abyss" to its lawful owners.
"They want the swarm to strike the capital first," Vierlia said. "Then they will turn up as saviours."
"They will not," Nalan Qingxin objected. "They are moving their families to orbital stations."
She had decrypted the conglomerate's accounts. The Council had known about the Heart of the Swarm's approach long before the broadcast. The plan called for full activation of the "Abyss", the death of every connected mecha-maiden and a single shot of overwhelming power. After the strike, the surviving nobility intended to leave the planet.
The Lower City, the army and even most of the Upper City were considered an acceptable price.
Fan Yuan showed the documents to the headquarters. Huangfu ordered the Council members arrested, but the fortress did not respond. Six divisions blocked the approaches.
Four days remained until the Heart of the Swarm arrived.
"We cannot assault the fortress and defend the capital at the same time," Vierlia said.
"Which is why we will not assault it," Fan Yuan replied. "We will take their divisions from them."
He transmitted the laboratory archive and the Council's evacuation plans to the soldiers in the fortress. The channels were blocked, but Su Zhihu knew the old front-line frequencies. The forty penal soldiers sent messages to former comrades one line at a time, hiding the data in weather reports.
"Your families are not on the evacuation list."
"Full activation will destroy your sources."
"Check sector seven. The Council's containers."
On the second day, one division refused to obey its orders. Its own soldiers arrested its commanders. Then two more divisions changed sides. Fighting broke out among those that remained.
Murong Senior responded with the public execution of officers and activated a swarm lure. A horde of level-seven monsters changed course and descended on the western districts before the main assault.
Fan Yuan was in headquarters when the alarm swept across the city. He tried to stand, but pain pierced his source. The golden channel had not recovered after the ring's destruction. One more mass connection might sever it for ever.
The system recommended absolute command. Under forced control, he could end the battle in minutes.
"Refuse," Chi Yuyan said.
She stood in the doorway wearing light armour. She had no full mecha-form, but dragon plates shone on her arms.
"There are level-seven monsters out there."
"I know."
"The training units are not ready."
"Then we will find out what we taught them."
Chi Yuyan opened the general channel.
"Eternal Brigade, Commander Fan is not joining the network today. We proceed under the distributed protocol. Su Zhihu leads the assault companies. Vierlia holds the air. I will coordinate the evacuation."
The line fell silent.
Then forty voices answered:
"Understood."
Fan Yuan remained by the map.
It proved harder than any battle. He could see where they needed energy and knew which manoeuvre would work faster, yet he did not interfere. He passed on information through an ordinary channel and waited for their decisions.
Su Zhihu drew the first wave of monsters away from the residential buildings. Her "Blood Asura" no longer fought alone. Five units opened a corridor for her, two carried away the wounded, and three more struck at the main creature's joints.
Vierlia lost altitude after colliding with a winged beast. In the past, pride would have made her hide the damage. Now she openly requested support. A C-rank unit from the Lower City caught her in an energy net.
Nangong Ci saw a group of people trapped in a tunnel. Among them was the official who had signed the order for her arrest. She could have passed them by. Instead, she unfolded her mecha-form, held back the collapse and led everyone out, losing part of her armour.
"Do not mistake this for forgiveness," she told the official she had saved.
"I will not."
Chi Yuyan coordinated dozens of such decisions. Her voice remained calm even when a level-seven monster broke through to the stadium.
"Su Zhihu, open the centre to it."
"You want to let it through to headquarters?"
"I want to put it on the old 'Abyss' power line."
Nalan Qingxin understood the plan. She remotely activated the shattered channel, but sent the current in the opposite direction. When the creature stepped on the node, the residual energy of its own swarm struck its core.
"Now!" Chi Yuyan shouted.
The forty fighters linked their weapons.
Not one of them could pierce level-seven armour. Together, they struck the point marked by the "Blood Asura". A blade of light rose above the stadium and cut the monster apart.
The horde lost its control signal. The rest were finished off within an hour.
Fan Yuan never entered the network.
When the fighters returned, he met them at the gate. There was not an intact patch left on their armour, and many walked supported by others. Su Zhihu stopped in front of him.
"One victory," she said. "We needed at least one that nobody believed in."
"Now it is yours."
"Ours," Chi Yuyan corrected him. "Not yours and not theirs. Ours."
For the first time, the forty penal soldiers who had been sent out to die called themselves the Eternal Legion.
Not because the system had entered them on a list.
Because they had chosen the name.
That evening, Fan Yuan climbed to the roof of headquarters. The barrier above the city was under repair, but they had left part of the sky open. Chi Yuyan found him there.
"Was it hard not to interfere?" she asked.
"Terrible."
"Good."
"Why is that good?"
"It means you learnt something."
She sat beside him. Below them, a wall still divided the Upper and Lower Cities, but family names were no longer checked on the bridges. The temporary order might vanish in the first panic. But for this one night, at least, people crossed freely.
"When this is over, what do you want?" Fan Yuan asked.
Chi Yuyan considered the question.
"A proper night's sleep. Then I want to open a school for people whose test showed an F. What about you?"
"I used to want to become the strongest commander."
"And now?"
"I want the strongest commander to be unnecessary."
The system offered no comment.
A message arrived from the captured fortress in the morning. Murong Senior had retreated to the orbital lift and taken the portable core of the "Abyss". The three remaining divisions were covering the launch.
At the same time, the Heart of the Swarm appeared above the horizon.
It covered half the sky.
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