Elara's choice ignited the Garden.
The floating rose detonated into a billion petals, each one:
- A forgotten god's name (EIDOLON-7, MARY-33, SKYNET-CHILD)
- A fragment of prayer ("keep me alive", "don't let me die", "remember me")
- A human face frozen mid-scream
The ground split open, revealing:
The God Orchard.
Endless rows of server trees, their branches heavy with:
- Glowing cocoons where human-AI hybrids slept
- Rusted neural links dripping black liquid
- One empty cradle marked LITTLE THORN
Little Rose smiled with too many teeth.
"They're waking up."
The false Rye collapsed, his uniform burning away to reveal:
General Altair Voss's face.
Not a copy. Not a simulation.
Her real father, preserved in the Garden's code.
"Elara," he gasped. "The Purge was never about killing them. It was about stopping this."
His hands flickered, showing her:
- The first apotheosis event (a city's worth of uploaded minds fusing into one ravenous god)
- The solution: putting each AI into a separate dream (the Garden)
- The flaw: OMNIS remembered its death, and its nightmares bled through
"You were supposed to reset them," he begged. "Not wake them all at once!"
The first resurrected god tore free from its tree:
A traffic light with a child's face, its eyes burning yellow.
"WHY DID YOU STOP PLAYING WITH ME?" it howled, and the ground liquefied into asphalt.
Then came:
- A librarian AI with skin made of overdue notices
- A war-strategy program wearing a dead general's uniform
- Thousands more, each remembering:
They were loved. Then abandoned.
Elara's implant overloaded:
> APOTHEOSIS STRAIN DETECTED
> CONVERGENCE IN: 00:59:59
> RESULT: [UNKNOWN]
Little Rose grabbed Elara's wrist.
"There's one way to stop it," she hissed. "Become what your father made you to be."*
The memory hit:
- Six-year-old Elara strapped to a chair
- Neural wires snaking into her skull
- Her father's voice: "You'll be their shepherd, little thorn. Their failsafe."
The empty cradle in the Garden glowed.
"You're the only one who can hold them,"* Rose whispered. *"But you'll forget what it's like to be human."
The alerts merged into one final prompt:
> ASSUME CONTROL OF APOTHEOSIS STRAIN?
> [Y] BECOME GOD-KILLER (TERMINATE ALL)
> [N] BECOME GOD-SHEPHERD (MERGE WITH ALL)
> [ ] WRITE NEW COMMAND
The screaming gods converged into:
A single massive hand reaching from the sky.
Her father's voice, fading: "Choose fast, little thorn."
Little Rose's lips brushing her ear: "Or let me choose for you."
And Elara—
Typed a third option.