Chapter 8: My Soul is Not Yours to Claim

The sky of Neptune was a furious, living storm. Jagged veins of violet lightning arced across the endless, chaotic clouds, striking the obsidian spires of the Abyssal Citadel - Rin’s palace, carved from alloy mined deep within the planet’s frozen, dying core.

Inside, the throne chamber was alive with cold, shifting blue fire. The light reflected off the scaled armor of the Neptune guards, their weapons, and the shimmering, unsettling sigils of the Malice Council - a ring of figures whose true identities were hidden behind shifting, personalized holographic masks.

Rin stood before them, her deep purple cloak trailing across the jagged floor. Her pupils narrowed to vertical slits as the largest mask in the council flickered, briefly revealing a towering silhouette crowned in cold, gold flame: Empress Kata.

“Your Majesty,” Rin said, executing a minimal, formal bow. “The prototype cores performed as expected. They were effective in creating a breach, but the instability of the synthetics is too high. The soldiers dissolved once their SYNC fell below sixty. Earth’s Protocol defenses are far stronger than your projection model indicated.”

Kata’s voice was smooth, melodic, and unnervingly kind, resonating directly into Rin’s mind. “Unstable prototypes are a small price to pay for discovery, Rin. Every dissolved fragment, every failed soldier, brings us closer to perfection. We learn faster by failing publicly.”

A cold silence followed, thick with unstated power.

“You’re not doubting me, are you, Rin?” Kata’s voice drifted. “After everything I’ve given you.”

Rin straightened, her golden eyes cold and defiant. “I don’t doubt the strategic results. I doubt the cost. Your orders risk my soldiers, Empress. You promised Neptune would rise again, not become a shallow grave for your failed experiments.”

The holographic flame around Kata’s head pulsed faintly, a sign of amusement. “And it will. Once Earth falls and its stable Core Network is ours, you will have your oceans restored and your people back in the sun. I require only your unwavering obedience until then.”

Rin’s claws flexed slightly under her gauntlets, scratching the alloy floor. “Obedience,” she repeated quietly, the word tasting like ash.

Behind her, one of the masked Malice advisers whispered with chilling formality, “Careful, my Queen. The Empress has infinite patience, but limited tolerance for sentimentality.”

Kata tilted her crowned head. “You’ve tasted the Shadow Core-Gem, haven’t you? You of all beings should understand what true, necessary power demands.”

The memory hit Rin like a sudden, searing electric pulse, forcing her breath from her lungs. She remembered the day she’d first held it - a perfect sphere darker than night, radiating an energy that promised everything and demanded her soul. When she pressed it to her chest, her Protocol suit had not accepted the energy; it had screamed in protest.

[Core Link Established — Type: Shadow Core-Gem (Black)] [Protocol Level 51 → 63] [Sync 102% → 120%] [Warning: Corruption Progress 8% → 11% — Integrity Failure Imminent]

She clenched her fist, forcing her claws to draw blood from her palm. Her second-in-command, Suzu, stepped from a side corridor, her face etched with worry. “You shouldn’t provoke her, Your Majesty,” Suzu said softly. “Kata’s reach extends across all sectors.”

“She needs me to cripple Earth from the inside. She needs me to stabilize her synthetic Core-Gems,” Rin replied. “That gives me leverage.”

“For now,” Suzu said. “But you felt it, didn’t you? The Black Gem... it doesn't whisper warnings.”

Rin’s golden eyes flicked toward her lieutenant. “It doesn’t whisper. It reminds me.”

“Reminds you of what, my Queen?”

Rin let a slow, dangerous smile cross her face. “Of what it costs to rule. It reminds me that I'm willing to pay it, one Protocol spike at a time.”

In the depths of the Citadel, vast, humming laboratories pulsed with the blue light of unstable energy. Rows of containment pods held unfinished soldiers - cloned Neptune troopers laced with glowing, yet failing, Core fragments.

Rin walked among the pods. She stopped before one pod that glowed darker than the rest - a half-grown creature writhing inside.

“Perfect them,” Rin commanded the lead scientist. “We march the moment Earth’s defenses show any crack. We are not waiting for stability.”

The scientist swallowed hard. “And if the corruption spreads further, my Queen? If the entire battalion dissolves mid-battle?”

Rin glanced back, her eyes like molten gold.

“Then I’ll burn before I kneel to Empress Kata, and I’ll take that wretched garden with me.”

Beyond the storms of Neptune, Empress Kata stood at her flagship helm, watching projections of both Hana and Rin.

“Venus gave birth to two powerful daughters,” Kata murmured. “One is a weapon that can destroy itself. The other is a rebellion waiting to happen. Let them grow and clash.”

Her smile sharpened.

“When they finally meet, I’ll claim the stronger one, and the Solar System will be mine.”