Click.
A sound echoed through the chamber.
Then another.
Clunk—clunk—grrrrk—
The platform beneath the cube shifted. Runed lines across the floor lit up in pale silver, synchronizing with the cube's heartbeat-like glow.
Everyone spun toward the altar.
The cube was moving.
It unlatched—split—folded. Shifting like liquid metal and dust. Its pieces unfolded like drifting petals, then split further, forming intricate, moving runic segments.
"Nano-structure…?" Oliver muttered in disbelief. It was tech far beyond this era.
The cube expanded — runes shifting, sliding, locking into new configurations. Metal extended like flowing silk, then hardened.
A torso formed. Then limbs. Hips. Shoulders.
A head.
Curved armor seamlessly flowed over the structure like a second skin — not bulky like a knight's armor, but elegant, shaped with inhuman precision.
Slender waist. Delicate shoulders. Long limbs.
Soft curves.
A distinctly feminine silhouette.
In seconds, what was once a cube—
