Chapter 65. Digital Armageddon

Forge Tower gleamed like a blade in the dark. From the command suite, the city below shimmered in glitchy pulses—alive, but fractured, like it was trying to remember how to breathe. Harper stood at the central console, black silk wrapping her like armor. She didn’t move. She didn’t blink.

Inside, silence reigned—but not the comforting kind. This was the silence before decisions detonated.

Knox stood to her right, composed but watching everything. Lucien worked behind her, fingers flying across the glass interface with too much intensity, too much pride—like he thought speed could equal control.

And at the far end of the room, watching like judgment itself, stood the Third Heir.

No insignia. No rank. Just an unnerving stillness that made everyone else seem too loud.

“Begin,” Harper said.

The holomap lit up. Three red rings pulsed—each a pressure point: data chokeholds, fragile system threads, and sectors that had already begun to bleed instability.