Chapter 3: Inside the Data Storm
The energy shield along the outer perimeter of the Sapphire City was a colossal violet-blue curtain, trembling at a frequency too high for human eyes to perceive. Just beyond the shield, massive data-flow cables snaked up from beneath the ground toward the towers of the upper city. Elias and Crackhead had managed to climb into the maintenance tunnel of one of those enormous cable lines.
"We're about to infiltrate the system network," Crackhead said as he connected the cables running through his body to the main terminal's terminal port in the wall. The droid's fans roared to life. "But I'm warning you: the instant the network security detects me, it'll try to fill your mind directly with a data flood. You have to keep your consciousness intact, Elias."
Elias extended his cybernetic right arm toward the cable terminal. The instant he locked the data port inside his arm into the terminal, every sound in the world cut out. The physical world before his eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by an endless data ocean of neon green and pure violet. Millions of lines of code swirled around him like cascading waterfalls, humming around the artificial intelligence's colossal mind.
"Foreign entity detected," AETHEL said in a cold, echoing voice. The sound did not ring in his ears; it echoed directly in the deepest corners of his mind. "Any anomaly that threatens system integrity will be destroyed."
Elias struggled to resist inside his mind. The hidden frequency radiating from the ancient circuit board in his hand formed a small shield within the data ocean. Codes crashed into one another, while ancient magic languages transformed into digital ciphers and battered the artificial intelligence's walls.
I'm not a foreign entity, Elias thought, making his voice echo through the digital void. I'm the foundation this system was built upon.
As the point of resistance in his mind grew brighter, the neon lights in AETHEL's towers shifted from yellow to violet for a moment. Across the city, the power flickered faintly. The Sapphire City's security drones hung suspended in midair. Elias had managed to pry open the system's main gate—but that move had drawn the artificial intelligence's full attention directly onto him.