She had been deceived.
High in the sky, Silver Fantasy raced back the way she had come at an unimaginable speed, her gaze utterly cold.
Only when she reached the city's border at full speed did she truly confirm what was happening.
The entire Hive had already been locked down under the Purification Council's orders.
Yet she had been kept in the dark.
Or rather.
That had been deliberate all along.
Judging by the timing, a lockdown of this scale had begun almost the instant her information exchange was blocked. Without a doubt, they had done it to bypass her, their commander. And their purpose was actually just to...
Boom-
Her body landed at the city's boundary in an instant.
She raised her head and looked at the city, which the data network had divided into countless densely packed, mutually independent modules. They looked like countless bizarre, colorful cubes stacked together.
[Miss Machine Intelligence-I still cannot bring myself to deceive you-perhaps I am a first-generation AI-perhaps I have existed for too long-]
[But I always feel that-once a living being has developed self-awareness-they should be the one to choose their own future path-whether it is right or wrong-no one else has the right to interfere-even though I know this thinking is dangerous-I cannot keep destroying you again and again-]
Those words kept surfacing in her mind.
And for the first time, a bone-deep killing intent and chill filled her eyes.
Whoosh-
Two sharp, digitized Monomolecular Swords appeared in her hands.
Countless digits crawled and surged over her body, gradually forging Silver Fantasy's armor around her. The moment the azure tracery lit up, she leaped into the air and cleaved a massive breach through the enormous isolation barrier along the city's boundary with a single stroke.
The tremendous shock reverberated through