The red light from the guidance missile streaked across the dark night sky with terrifying speed, leaving a bluish trail of fire that stung straight into Davin’s eyes. Time seemed to slow down. The sound of the howling night wind turned into a silent hum inside his ears.

"Davin, watch out...!" Lyra screamed from inside the engineer cabin.

Before Davin could leap to evade, a massive explosion detonated right in the middle of the maglev train carriage formation.

BOOMMMMM!

The searing heat of the plasma shockwave scorched the air, flinging sharp metal shards in all directions and instantly sweeping the carriage roof clean. At the most critical second as tongues of flame lashed toward him, Lyra lunged out of the cabin, crashing into Davin with all her might so that they both tumbled out of the blast path, crashing hard into the shattered front carriage.

Clang-crack!

The high-speed maglev train completely lost control. Its magnetic brakes exploded, causing the carriage line to derail violently off the rail track above the clouds, plunging downward to smash against industrial concrete in the lower slum district of Neo-Veridia in a deafening collision.

Thick smoke billowed among the wreckage of the charred carriages. Electric sparks snapped from severed optical cables around them.

Davin groaned softly, crawling up from the pile of iron debris. His left shoulder was injured and his coat torn, but adrenaline saved him from a fatal impact. He instantly remembered Lyra.

"Lyra!" Davin called out in panic, scrambling past the scattered wreckage of passenger seats.

He found the young woman lying in a corner of the burning cabin. The sight before him made Davin’s blood instantly freeze.

Half of Lyra’s body was crushed beneath a large metal beam from the carriage roof. Her synthetic leather jacket was torn wide open, exposing the cybernetic implants on her chest and right arm that were utterly destroyed. Micro-cables lay snapped and scattered, spewing coolant fluid mixed with fresh blood that soaked the iron floor. The Kiroshi cybernetic optic eye on her right side flickered weakly before dying out completely, leaving a dark, empty socket.

Davin knelt quickly, lifting the heavy metal beam with all his might and tossing it aside. He reached for Lyra’s body, pulling her close into his arms.

"Lyra! Hey, open your eyes! Don't sleep now!" Davin’s voice shook violently, a rare panic overflowing across his face.

Lyra opened her eyes slowly. Her breathing was short, ragged, and bloodied. She tried to smile, but the smile turned into a wince of pain as a small cough brought up fresh blood from the corner of her lips.

"Hey... Architect..." Lyra’s voice sounded extremely weak, nearly drowned out amid the crackling flames around them. "You... you really have a terrible way of asking a woman out on a date."

"Don't talk too much right now," Davin cut in swiftly. His right hand, bearing the hourglass symbol, pressed tightly against Lyra’s chest. "I'm going to save you. I have the Echo ability. I can read your body's history, rewind this tissue damage back to right before the explosion..."

Davin shut his eyes, focusing all his remaining energy and concentration into his palm, attempting to channel informational healing power into Lyra's body.

Yet, instantly, a shockwave of pain struck Davin’s own head.

"Warning: Host detects total biological system failure. Information history permanently corrupted. Echo ability cannot restore severed consciousness," the cold voice of The Ledger echoed in his head.

Davin opened his eyes, staring blankly down at Lyra. The heartbeat in the woman's chest grew steadily weaker. The cybernetic network across her body had suffered a total collapse; no history data remained to be rewound because her core had been pulverized.

"No... please, don't give up..." Davin whispered, tears dropping onto Lyra’s cheek.

For a former Memory Architect accustomed to living in a cold, calculated world, the death of others was ordinary. Yet Lyra was the first person in this foreign world who had reached out, stayed by his side, and believed in him when he had lost everything.

Lyra raised her half-destroyed right hand with her final remnants of strength, gently touching Davin’s wrist as he held her chest.

"Listen to me..." Lyra whispered breathlessly, her eyes locking onto Davin’s with utter sincerity. "Don't cry... for a street hacker like me... dying at the hands of a mega-corporation is far cooler than dying from an overdose in some filthy alley..."

"Lyra..."

With a very slow motion, Lyra’s fingers reached into her jacket's inner pocket, drawing out a small blue-glowing data chip securely housed in a micro-casing. She slipped the chip into Davin’s grip, then folded Davin’s fingers shut tightly over it.

"This... this is the Aegis Core AI core chip I downloaded back at the tower..." Lyra whimpered, her breathing growing more frantic, her gasps faltering. "Promise me... destroy that rotting system... crush them until there's no one left... who can toy with human lives..."

"I promise you, Lyra. I swear I'll destroy them," Davin answered with a raspy voice, holding back the sobs in his chest.

Lyra smiled in relief. The tension on her face slowly faded, replaced by a peace she had not felt in a long time across this cruel megacity.

"Glad to... have known you... Architect..." Lyra whispered faintly.

The hand gripping Davin’s slowly loosened, then fell limp against the iron floor of the carriage. The woman’s eyes closed tightly for eternity.

Davin stood frozen amidst the burning wreckage. He cradled Lyra’s rigid body close, letting the dead silence of the lower slum night envelop the grief shattering his heart.

Within his grip, the data chip given by Lyra emitted a dim blue light, standing as a silent witness to the blood oath just sworn by the Architect.