Ethan stood in the center of the pulsing, violet vault, his eyes narrowed as he stared into the crystalline walls. "Alright, cut the act," Ethan said the leader. "I get it. You fused with the seed, you got an upgrade, and now you want to sound all high and mighty. Very funny. Now stop the formal talk and tell me how many points I have left."
Silence followed, but it wasn't the dead silence of the void from before. It was the silence of a machine waiting for a command.
"Master, I believe there is a fundamental misunderstanding," said Crul. The voice was like polished glass—smooth, cold, and void of the familiar sarcasm that used to grate on Ethan's nerves. "The 'System' you knew was a tutorial construct. It was a personality layer designed to bridge the gap between your human psyche and the Amethyst core. Once the Seed of Crul was planted, that layer was no longer necessary. It has been stripped of its ego and merged into my central processing."
