Chapter 224: A Flaw in the Code

Draven’s golden armor suddenly appeared, full of power. He stood between Seraph and Silas. He was ready to fight to his limits, even if it would cost him his life.

But Silas didn’t try to move at all. She just watched him, with her head turned to one side. Her face was calm and focused, studying him closely. Draven felt the pressure of that gaze, and it unsettled him more than any direct attack ever could.

“My purpose here is not to eliminate you,” Silas said. Her voice was flat and fake, like a robot talking. “Not yet, at least.”

“Then why are you here?” Seraph asked. She kept her hand firmly on Draven’s arm, holding him back. Her mind was working fast, trying to understand the logic of this strange situation. A situation that seemed like a trap but didn’t actually attack, with no immediate threat, made no sense at all. Every instinct screamed danger, but nothing matched the pattern she had learned to recognize.

“I am the Alpha,” Silas stated simply. “I am the first stable creation. My second job is to monitor the replication process, and to… correct any mistakes. To eliminate any flawed copies.”

A strange and vibrating sound entered her fake, robot-like voice.

“Something went wrong with the mass production process,” she continued. “The Weavers that are in the pods under us… they are not like me. Their soul code is corrupted. It is unstable. They are stuck in a state of constant, psychic pain.”

She took another slow step forward, giving them time to process what she was saying rather than react to her presence.

“My creator has decided that they are failures,” Silas said, and the word ’creator’ sounded like a curse in her fake voice. “He is making plans to burn the whole batch. He is preparing to wipe out his mistake with fire.”

Draven stared at her, looking stunned. His burning rage was starting to go away. Now, he was so confused. The clarity of battle had abandoned him, leaving only questions with no comfortable answers.

He was a soldier who understood battle, honor, and enemies. He did not understand this at all. This creature, this monster who had tried to kill them, was now talking about her ’siblings’. The word didn’t fit in his mouth when he thought it. It didn’t even align with anything in his experience of war.

“They are connected to me,” Silas stated, and the strange vibrating sound in her voice became stronger now.

“Their constant pain reflects in my soul. It is a flaw in my own code, a link I am unable to break. I will not allow my creator to get rid of them like they are just trash.”

She stopped just a few feet away from them. She was close enough that they could see the faint lines of runic symbols that glowed under her pale skin.

“I will grant them peace,” she said. “A clean and quiet end. Without setting them on fire.”

She looked straight at Seraph, an insane and unexpected proposal was forming in her eyes. Something passed between them in that moment, something Seraph didn’t want to acknowledge.

“That is why you are here,” Silas said. “Not as my enemy. But as my tool.”

She made her unbelievable offer. “I will disable the defense systems inside the building. I will lead you to the conduit’s main control panel and allow you to overload the system to complete your mission. But my price for this help is your assistance.”

Draven let out a short and bitter laugh of pure disbelief. “You want our help?” he yelled, his voice full of anger. “After everything you have done? After you tried to kill us?”

“I cannot face the factory’s cyborg guard unit alone,” Silas said. “They are all programmed to protect this facility at all costs, even from me. But together… we can break through their defenses. We can reach the chamber where the weavers are, before the incineration protocol begins.”

She was offering them an alliance. A deal with their worst enemy.

Seraph’s mind was spinning. She was trying to make sense of the impossible situation happening before her.

This creature, their sworn and most deadly enemy, was going against her own master. And she was doing it out of a strange but undeniably real sense of… empathy. It shouldn’t exist in something like Silas, and yet here it was, defying everything they thought they knew.

Julian Sterling’s heartless approach to creating life had failed. It had created only pain and suffering. And now, his own “perfect” and “flawless” creation was turning against him. Not for power, or for ambition, but out of mercy. The irony would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so horrifying.

They were now faced with an impossible and terrible choice.

If they trusted the monster, they might just be able to save the world. But she could be lying. This could all just be a deeper, more complicated and deadly trap. Sterling was brilliant enough to plan exactly this kind of psychological manipulation.

If they refused her, then their mission was over, right here, right now. They would die in this place. Jonah’s mighty creature would fall on an unbreakable shield. And Julian Sterling’s army would wake up.

Draven looked at Seraph, and his face was showing a look of intense inner conflict. He wanted to smash Silas into pieces. But he also saw the undeniable logic in the her eyes.

And he saw the same terrible calculation that was happening behind Seraph’s eyes.

She was the commander. It was her call to make.

Seraph looked at Silas. And in that moment, she saw not an enemy, but a strange and disturbing reflection of their own hopeless situation.

She saw a creature that was willing to do anything, to break any rule, to betray any master, just to save the ones she cared about.

She made her decision. It was the choice of a rebel who now understood that sometimes, the only option for fighting one monster is to team up with another one.

“We have a deal,” Seraph said, and her voice was flat and emotionless as Silas’s own.

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