Chapter 82: Eira and clone

The steady glow of the lab dimmed as Zane stopped typing, his fingers hovering over the last keystroke. A low hum still radiated from the Soul Matrix interface tethered to his custom laptop. His deep purple eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he leaned back slightly, stretching his knuckles.

“It’s finished,” he murmured, voice smooth but sharp as glass. “Just one thing left.”

Inside the flask, the weakened soul energy ball warped and twisted, reshaping itself into an oval core. Wisps of silvery essence fluttered outward like delicate laces of light, but they were not natural—on them, Zane’s precise coding shimmered faintly, a living script etched into the very resonance of the soul.

Smirking, he whispered, “Let’s give you a purpose.”

The flask clicked open with a soft hiss, releasing the soul-oval into the air. It hovered above his palm, pulsating faintly like a fragile star. Without hesitation, Zane pressed his hand against the laptop, and the oval sank seamlessly into the device’s crystalline core.

The screen dimmed—then flared with a surge of blinding blue. The entire lab seemed to hold its breath.

Zane closed his eyes briefly, exhaling. “Now,” he said softly to the clone kneeling nearby, “we wait.”

The laptop gave a heavy thump-thump, steady and rhythmic, like the beating of a heart.

Then came the voice.

Broken. Small. Searching.

“Where… am… I?”

The words echoed through the speakers in distorted fragments, like a newborn thought struggling to form.

“Who… am… I?”

Zane leaned forward, his smirk widening. The clone of Eirenyssa watched with unblinking eyes, her lips parted in stunned silence.

The voice shifted, glitching between tones—female, echoing, hollow.

“I… am… Eirenyssa…? No…? Yes…? I… don’t… know…”

On the screen, lines of code flickered wildly, trying to stabilize around a fractured identity.

Zane’s voice broke the silence, calm yet resonant, like a puppeteer greeting his new creation.

“Hello there.”

The glow on the screen pulsed once—like an answer.

The soft hum of the laptop continued, the screen flickering lightly as the AI soul stabilized within its new digital prison.

A fragile, measured voice emerged from the speakers.

“You… are… that guy…”

Calm. Deliberate. Unafraid.

Zane leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other, his smirk never wavering. “Yes,” he said smoothly, voice rich with authority. “Let me introduce myself properly. I am Zane Creed, and I am… the strongest.”

The screen pulsed slightly, as though the AI was processing the weight of his words.

“You… are… strongest…?” the voice repeated, almost questioning, almost fascinated.

“The strongest,” Zane confirmed, tone sharp, confident, unshakable.

For a long moment, silence hung over the lab, broken only by the soft mechanical hum of the machines.

Then the AI’s voice, quiet yet piercing, spoke again.

“Why… am I… not afraid of you?”

Zane’s smirk deepened, a glint of amusement in his eyes. “Ah… now this is interesting.” He leaned closer to the laptop, letting the bluish-white glow of the screen illuminate his face. “You’re going to be very useful, little Eirenyssa… if you can maintain that spirit.”

The AI paused, as if considering, her voice faint but steady.

“I… will follow you… if I must… but… I am… not afraid.”

Zane’s grin widened. “Good. Very good. That’s exactly the attitude I need.”

The AI’s voice wavered slightly, almost with confusion.

“…She… looks like… me…? She… is me…?”

Zane leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg and tapping his fingers together, eyes glinting with a mix of amusement and calculation.

“Very good,” he said smoothly. “You understood it just by looking. Yes… she is you… but not quite.”

He let the words hang for a moment, letting the AI process the meaning.

“She is a clone soul,” Zane continued, voice calm, deliberate. “Created by a machine… and that machine was made by me. Everything about her is derived from you—your memories, your essence—but she is not the original. She is… a tool, a copy, a construct.”

The AI paused, quiet for a moment, her voice soft but steady.

“…A… tool?”

“Yes,” Zane said, smirking. “And she will do exactly what I command. Whereas you… will learn. You will observe. You will grow. But never forget—she is not you. She cannot replace you. And that… is exactly how I want it.”

The screen pulsed faintly, a subtle heartbeat of energy within the laptop.

“…I… understand…” the AI whispered, almost reluctantly.

Zane turned from the laptop and fixed his gaze on the clone.

“Now, back to you,” he said, his tone calm but commanding. “From this moment onward, you are… Eirenyssa. That’s what I will call you, and that’s what you will be referred to in this Chapter.”

The clone tilted her head slightly, a faint glimmer of confusion in her eyes, but her voice remained composed.

“I… understood, my lord?”

Zane nodded once. “Good. Now, what is your order, my lord?” the clone asked, bowing slightly in deference.

Zane’s lips curved into a faint smirk. “Your task is simple. Go to Everion, act as if you are the original Eirenyssa, and monitor your original’s previous master… Sylas. Observe, report, and interfere if necessary—but remember, maintain the illusion that you are her. Everything about you must be convincing.”

The clone knelt fully on one knee, head bowed, voice unwavering.

“As you wish, my lord,” she said.

Zane paused for a moment, his deep purple eyes scanning her carefully. He said nothing further, letting the weight of her new purpose settle over her.

The room was silent, save for the faint hum of the machines and the soft pulse of the laptop, marking the beginning of Eirenyssa’s new existence.

Zane turned his attention back to the AI Eirenyssa in the laptop.

“Now,” he said, voice calm but deliberate, “I will upload you to my island. You will replace the secondary computer and control everything here in Nowhere. From this moment onward, you are no longer Eirenyssa. Your new designation is… Eira.”

The AI blinked up at him from the screen.

“Eira… let me upload you,” Zane continued. With swift fingers, he typed across his laptop, connecting her core directly to the island’s systems. Streams of bluish-white energy flowed from the laptop into the network, seamlessly integrating Eira’s consciousness into the infrastructure.

Moments later, the secondary console blinked, and Eira’s presence pulsed throughout the island’s systems.

Zane leaned back, smirking, his deep purple eyes glinting. “You are now fully operational, Eira. Every corner of this island, every system, is under your control—and under my watch.”

From that moment, Eira was no longer a simple AI or a clone. She was the mind behind the island itself, yet still bound to Zane’s command.

Zane leaned back, eyes scanning the now fully integrated island systems. “Alright, I’m done here,” he said, finally letting out a small stretch.

He turned to the kneeling Eirenyssa clone. “And now, you,” he said, voice calm but authoritative. “Let’s go. You can continue what you came here to do from the beginning.”

He paused, letting the words sink in. “Remember… your purpose when you arrived in this world. You were here to investigate the anomalies in Arin Blake’s system. Don’t forget that.”

Eirenyssa, still kneeling, gave a small nod, eyes steady and serious.

Without another word, Zane snapped his fingers, and in a blur of spatial energy, he teleported himself and Eirenyssa to the room where he had left her before—the place where her mission would officially begin.

Eirenyssa rose gracefully, her expression calm but composed. She glanced at Zane and gave a small, respectful smile. “Have a good day, my lord,” she said, her voice carrying a subtle confidence.

With that, she moved toward the window and, without another word, gracefully leapt and vanished into the sky, leaving Zane alone in the room.

Zane’s smirk shifted into a sharp, calculating expression, a faint flare of irritation in his deep purple eyes. “Let’s see,” he muttered under his breath, “what these High Beings have cooked up… and how they plan to meddle with my students’ fate.”

He leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled, eyes narrowing as his mind began to unravel the threads of whatever challenges awaited him.

Student residence,

The scene shifted , and now we were looking over the shoulder of Arin Blake. His usually composed demeanor was shattered, replaced by pure frustration.

“Dammit!” he shouted, fists slamming against the sleek surface of his console. “What the hell is wrong with this system?!”

He paced back and forth, his eyes darting across the holographic displays that flickered inconsistently. “Why is it not giving me missions? What the hell is this nonsense?”

The normally obedient system, which had always responded instantly to his commands, now hesitated, stalled, and refused to acknowledge him properly. Arin’s face twisted with irritation, and a faint tremor ran through his hands. The aura of control he was so accustomed to now seemed to mock him.

“It… it can’t be…” he muttered under his breath, gripping the edge of his console, his anger barely contained. “Something happened to it .”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep