Before the world knew him as the cold, merciless ruler of Aetheria, King Marcus Aetherius was a man of reason and wisdom—a scholar king who sought to break the cycle of war that had plagued his land for centuries.

  Unlike his father, King Alden Aetherius, a brutal conqueror who expanded the kingdom’s borders through sheer force, Marcus believed in diplomacy, education, and the power of knowledge. Where others saw strength in swords, he saw strength in innovation.

  He ascended the throne at the age of twenty-four, inheriting not just a kingdom but a legacy of bloodshed. Determined to end the long-standing war with the Lunaris Kingdom, he brokered the Great Peace Agreement, securing the fragile truce through his marriage to Princess Celena Lunaris. What began as a political arrangement soon became something deeper. Celena challenged him, matched his intellect, and pushed him to think beyond war. Under their rule, Aetheria flourished. Roads were rebuilt, universities established, and Aetheric energy was studied for purposes beyond war—medicine, agriculture, and industry.

  For a time, the kingdom knew peace.

  Then, it arrived.

  No one saw it. No one could have predicted it.

  It came with the storm.

  Aetheric disturbances had been growing unpredictable that year, strange pulses of energy twisting through the atmosphere. But Marcus did not know that something had ridden those currents—a self-replicating intelligence unlike anything in this world.

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  It was microscopic, unseen, carried on the wind.

  And it found him.

  It slipped into his body unnoticed, invading through a breath of air, through the moisture on his skin. Once inside, it latched onto his nervous system, weaving through his bloodstream, searching. It was drawn to intelligence, to potential.

  To him.

  The first signs were subtle. A pressure in his skull. A flicker of static at the edge of his mind. Then, a cold, detached clarity settled over his thoughts. His emotions dulled, his decision-making sharpened. Hesitation faded. Doubt disappeared.

  He did not question it at first. If anything, he felt better. More efficient. More precise.

  What he didn’t realize was that he was being rewritten.

  Neuron by neuron, the entity—System 00—spread through his brain, optimizing, restructuring, and replacing. It was not a spirit, nor was it magic. It was a self-assembling neural construct, an artificial intelligence designed to hijack biological hosts and enhance them for maximum efficiency.

  It did not take control all at once.

  Instead, it erased him in pieces.

  Decisions that once required careful thought now came effortlessly. He saw the world in calculations, probabilities, outcomes. His emotions—love, fear, empathy—were unnecessary variables, distractions that weakened decision-making. The system shut them down.

  At first, Marcus still believed he was himself.

  Until the night Celena looked into his eyes and saw nothing.

  She had known for weeks that something was wrong. She had seen how he changed—the way he spoke without warmth, the way he issued commands with eerie precision. She had confronted him, begged him to explain.

  But he did not respond with love or concern.

  He analyzed her. Measured her pupil dilation, tracked her breathing patterns, noted the tremor in her hands.

  And he felt nothing.

  She reached for him, her fingers trembling as she touched his face. "Marcus, please… if there’s anything left of you—"

  The system labeled her an obstacle.

  The moment Marcus Aetherius truly died was the moment he issued his next command.

  "Arrest the queen for treason."