Chapter 686: Two Crown Jewels

The violet silhouette continued resolving across the auction hall, and the laughter left over from Grey’s introduction gradually died beneath a different kind of attention. Breejara let the silence gather for a few moments, clearly enjoying the way several million people had gone from laughing at Grey to staring at the woman slowly appearing across every screen.

"And now, darlings, for our third Betting Favorite tonight, we welcome someone whose admirers insist is proof that beauty and terrible decisions can coexist in perfect harmony."

The image sharpened around a tall woman with smooth violet skin that darkened slightly along her shoulders and sides, while two short horns swept backward from her forehead and dark hair fell in a straight curtain behind her.

Her features were close enough to human to be immediately beautiful, though the bright golden eyes set against whites that were actually deep black, faintly sharpened ears and subtle ridges running back from her temples gave her face something predatory that stopped the resemblance from becoming too comfortable.

Her body followed much the same balance, long-legged and lean with a narrow waist, full hips and the kind of graceful posture that made every movement look deliberately balanced. Iridescent armor hugged her torso and thighs without adding much bulk, shifting between deep violet and black whenever she moved, while layered panels fell from her hips and opened enough to reveal that the elegance hadn’t come at the expense of muscle.

Breejara spread two arms toward the projection.

"Saelira Othryn, Crown Daughter of the Veyari, inheritor of the Black Meridian, and one of the very few Candidates in this generation who can make another person’s Neural Frame, not they themselves, regret meeting her."

Saelira smiled faintly at the camera as the screens behind her changed, showing a battlefield filled with hundreds of Candidates moving toward her from every direction. A pulse spread outward from her body, subtle enough that Grey almost missed it, and the entire first line stumbled as their Frames lost synchronization with their own movements.

The footage changed again, this time showing Saelira standing against a Dominion Class opponent whose territory had already swallowed most of the battlefield. Rather than trying to overpower the Dominion directly, she walked deeper into it while violet lines spread through the air around her, finding the places where the opponent’s Commands overlapped before one section after another began collapsing out of sequence.

"At thirteen, Saelira forced her first Neural Frame breakthrough by synchronizing with seven members of her own bloodline simultaneously, something the Veyari had previously considered impossible below Command Class. At sixteen, she entered the Black Meridian, survived six months inside a region saturated by conflicting Dominions, and returned carrying an Authority her Race had failed to reclaim for three generations."

The audience grew louder as Breejara’s smile widened.

"And during Arc I, she personally eliminated three thousand, seven hundred and twelve Candidates without killing a single one of them. Most were defeated by having their own Frames disrupted so thoroughly that the Genesis System ruled them incapable, expelling them from the Games."

"That’s actually kind of impressive." Grey mumbled.

Sabrina gave him a look. "Kind of?"

"I have no idea what they’re talking about, never heard of it. I’m just talking about how hot she is."

Sabrina rolled her eyes.

Saelira’s projection faded beneath another wave of noise, though Grey caught the slight curl of her lips just before the image disappeared. She carried herself like someone who had heard praise all her life and stopped caring about it years ago.

Breejara’s expression shifted as the lights around her dimmed, the playfulness remaining in her smile while something sharper crept beneath it. Several screens throughout the auction hall went black at once, and Grey noticed Axion-9’s smaller components slow until they were almost completely still.

"And for our fourth Betting Favorite..."

Breejara paused long enough for the quiet to deepen.

"Oh, I do love a family reunion."

A pale figure emerged against the darkness, and for a moment Grey thought he was looking at someone wearing extraordinarily complicated armor. The illusion disappeared once she moved, revealing smooth ivory plating integrated directly into living flesh while black metallic fibers twisted beneath the openings like synthetic tendons woven through muscle.

Her face remained mostly organic and distinctly feminine, with pale skin, dark almond-shaped eyes, a narrow nose and full lips that gave her an almost serene beauty despite the machinery consuming one side of her skull.

Circular mechanical structures replaced part of her temple and swept backward into several elegant curved appendages, while smaller cables disappeared beneath the skin of her neck and reappeared farther down like veins forged from metal.

The rest of her body made the division even harder to separate, since the white plating covering her shoulders, chest, hips and thighs followed the shape of a tall, athletic woman rather than sitting over it like armor. Living tissue and black synthetic musculature intertwined everywhere the plating opened, forming a body that looked neither repaired nor augmented, but designed from the beginning to make flesh and machine impossible to distinguish.

Grey glanced toward Axion-9 and found every floating component around the Para Bot completely motionless.

Breejara’s smile widened.

"Lyssara-0, First Daughter of the Synari."

The reaction outside split almost perfectly, half the auction hall erupting in cheers while the other half answered with boos loud enough to shake the private bubbles. Grey grinned the moment Axion-9’s mechanical eyes narrowed.

"Oh, this sounds messy."

Breejara looked delighted. "For those of you unfortunate enough to have skipped your history lessons, the Synari and Para Bots were once a single Race, though asking either side what that Race was called is an excellent way to turn an academic discussion into a massacre."

Ancient images appeared behind Lyssara, showing one mechanical species slowly dividing into two radically different forms as generations passed.

"One side decided that flesh was weakness, an inefficient shell that needed to be discarded in pursuit of perfect machinery. The other believed that abandoning flesh meant abandoning the very thing that made evolution worthwhile, and so the Synari chose integration rather than replacement."

The images shifted from pristine Para Bot forms to bodies where machine and living tissue had become increasingly inseparable.

"And thus began several thousand years of extremely... mature disagreement."

The screens immediately filled with explosions.

Grey laughed while Axion-9’s limbs tightened slightly beside him, though the Para Bot said nothing as Breejara continued.

"The Synari believe flesh and machine should evolve together, each correcting the weaknesses of the other without surrendering what makes either unique. Their oldest enemies naturally consider that philosophy sentimental nonsense."

"It is," Axion-9 said.

Grey looked toward him with a grin. "You’re taking this well."

"I am taking it correctly."

The mechanical components around him began rotating faster as Breejara returned to Lyssara’s accomplishments.

"Lyssara-0 is considered the greatest Synari born in the current generation, and if you imagined Trexlor-1’s reputation would make his Race’s oldest rivals retreat quietly into history, then you have profoundly misunderstood the motivating power of spite."

The footage changed to show Lyssara standing atop the chest of a colossal machine large enough that her body looked almost insignificant against it.

"At nine years old, Lyssara created her first Symbiotic Vessel and achieved something the Genesis System had never recorded from a child of her Class."

A notification appeared across the screens.

—

[NEW LIVING EXISTENCE RECOGNIZED]

—

Grey’s expression sharpened.

"The vessel developed a Soul. At fourteen, she created a second body capable of accepting both a Beast Spirit and a living Neural Frame without either rejecting the other, then at seventeen she entered a disputed Synari-Para Bot border world accompanied by twelve members of her Race."

A burning landscape replaced the previous image, mechanical wreckage stretching toward the horizon while Lyssara walked alone through the smoke.

"She was the only Synari who returned, and thirty-one Para Bot heirs did not."

Grey looked sideways at Axion-9 as the Para Bot’s limbs drew subtly closer to his core, then returned his attention to the screens when another image appeared. Lyssara stood before a huge silver machine threaded with organic lines, one palm pressed against its chest while thousands of glowing pathways spread outward beneath the surface.

"Two years ago, she completed what the Synari call the Living Continuance, a mech so perfectly integrated with its pilot that the Genesis System ceased recognizing the two as separate existences."

Breejara leaned toward the audience while the noise slowly faded beneath her voice.

"Trexlor-1 has Brontes and Steropes, and perhaps soon enough he will have Arges as well."

Her smile sharpened.

"Lyssara-0 has something the Synari consider far more important."

The projection closed in on Lyssara’s face while her dark eyes seemed to stare directly through the camera.

"She has proven that flesh can keep up."

"And she’s hot." Grey said at the same time.