The Cocoon Core was a bioluminous crystal spanning a hundred meters, its surface rippling with billions of genetic strands—each segment embedded with holographic battle records. Kaine's silver sand went berserk upon contact, coalescing into Leah's full holographic phantom. The clay girl's fingers brushed the crystal, activating memory corridors sealed by the Church: First-gen scientists in hazmat suits strapped screaming subjects to operating tables, implanting self-destruct nanite worms into their spines—each worm's carapace etched with the current Pope's face.
"We are the true gods..." The Chief Scientist's mechanical eye sparked in the hologram. "Civilization requires periodic resets, and Godslayers are our circumcision knives!" His assistant poured molten plutonium-239 down a subject's throat, their skin erupting with Kaine's signature silver vein patterns. Alys' frostrose vines stabbed the crystal, unearthing darker truths: every Godslayer's DNA contained self-destruct codes. When civilization reached critical mass—marked by one million active Godslayer embryos—the Matriarch would auto-activate purification protocols.
Kaine's sand engulfed Alys uncontrollably, crimson tumors forming a second armor layer over her crystallized heart. Inside the tumors pulsed micro-clones of Leah, each bearing her exact features. When the Pope arrived with final weapons, her unveiled visage was a rejuvenated Ilana—her mechanical torso studded with hundreds of Matriarch cores, each flickering with Alys' fragmented memories: chip implantation at seven, executing clones at fifteen, discovering Cinder's corpse at twenty... Agony distilled into data shards, reforged into attack algorithms by the Pope's mechanical hands.
"Come home, child." Ilana's vocal processors played Alys' childhood lullaby, notes materializing into sonic chains. As Kaine shielded her, his tumors exploded—revealing a Leah clone cradled within. Her clay shards quantum-entangled with the crystal, each fracture unleashing erased histories. The clone's pupils deepened into abyssal black, whispering the First Godslayer files' ultimate passcode: "Godslayers are civilization's cancer."