The dome of the Inquisition Hall was choking.

  Thousands of holographic broadcast drones hovered in the air like clusters of mycelium, blinking greedily, desperate to stream every pore and bead of sweat to the swarm of rats watching from the Lower City.

  "Black Market Rat Molests Fire Keeper? Professional Degradation or Moral Bankruptcy?"

  Look at that sensationalist trash. Those idiots wished they could drown him in excrement.

  The Ring authorities had approved a live broadcast. Apparently, burning a man alive at the stake provided the masses with infinite dopamine. Humanity was truly a hopeless species.

  Leo was forced to his knees in the dock, cursing under his breath.

  From the panoramic speakers, the High Priest’s voice grated like rusted gears.

  "...In light of the defendant Leo Lee’s manifold blasphemies..."

  Leo lowered his head, staring at the scars on his hands.

  Marks left by the pursuit of precision, order, and logic while crafting the suit. And now, the owner of these hands was being judged by a troop of primates who couldn't verify E=mc2 if you gave them the answer key.

  Endure.

  He told himself silently.

  For Vivian. For the endgame. Kneeling is just geometry.

  "Behold..."

  Suddenly, a Red Cardinal who had remained silent—an old man with the hook nose of a raptor—spoke up.

  A hologram unfurled in the air: the schematics of Vivian’s protective suit.

  A laser shot from the Cardinal’s scepter, stabbing viciously at the neck and underarms of the diagram—the forced convection vents designed to maintain core thermal equilibrium.

  "Look at these obscene apertures!" The Cardinal’s face twisted with performative heartache. "To satisfy unspeakable bestial desires, he cut holes in the Fire Keeper's vestments! The Silver Code dictates the Vessel of God must be hermetically sealed. Yet he installed... exhaust pipes on the Holy Robe?"

  The audience erupted in laughter. The corner of Leo's eye twitched.

  Idiots. Those are negative pressure ducts utilizing the Venturi effect.

  But the Cardinal was energized, poking and prodding the diagram.

  And so, an engineering masterpiece Leo had finalized after ten thousand fluid dynamic simulations was reduced to evidence of pornography.

  The laughter assaulted his amygdala.

  A familiar, stale nausea rose in Leo’s throat.

  For a second, a child's small face flashed in his memory.

  His early days in the black market. He had warned the family repeatedly: the hissing from the hyperbaric chamber was just the relief valve venting nitrogen. But the moment he left, the family—listening to some street-corner Oracle—closed the valve to stop the "demon's scream." The child died. Yet they grabbed Leo, refusing to let go, screaming that the quack doctor had killed him.

  "Not only that," the Cardinal’s voice turned slimy, dragging Leo back to the present. "The placement of these openings... proves only the designer’s ignorance and stupidity."

  Ignorant? Stupid? Me?

  Leo’s gaze swept furiously across the well-dressed Ring officials.

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  "The blasphemy must be corrected." The Cardinal drew jagged red crosses in the air. "Seal these holes with Mithril! Cast them into the Chastity Seal of the Silver Ring!"

  Snap.

  The string in Leo’s brain named Rational Detachment finally broke.

  What am I doing here? How can I kneel to these monkeys?

  His gaze pierced the void, landing on the figure beside the high throne.

  Vivian. She wore a plain moon-white robe, but beneath it... he knew she wore the armor.

  He could tell.

  In a world ruled by idiots, she was the only one who believed in him. The recognition of one apex predator for another.

  She was the Reactor. He was the Control Rod. They were the only two "New Humans" in the room.

  Everyone else was just dust from the old era.

  "I confess."

  Leo shook off the guards and stood up. His tone was not of submission, but of pronouncing a death sentence on the age.

  "My sin lies in naivety. I once thought that if I explained the principles clearly enough, a monkey could learn to read a multimeter."

  The audience gasped.

  He swept his gaze across the twisted faces on the screens. "But I was wrong. You don't want science; you want a circus act. I actually tried to save a bunch of suicidal idiots with the Laws of Thermodynamics. What is that if not naivety?"

  "Burn him! Burn him!" The High Priest roared. "He is an unrepentant heretic!"

  The crowd screamed for blood. Only Vivian remained motionless.

  "You say those are sex toys?" Leo laughed, a sharp, barking sound. "And you want to seal them with silver?"

  He stepped out of the dock.

  The guards raised their rifles, but the sheer, oppressive force of absolute rationality radiating from him forced them to step back.

  "I won't explain," Leo pointed a steady finger at the Cardinal. "Because explaining Cherenkov Radiation to you is like explaining Newton's Third Law to a chimpanzee. It insults me, and frankly, it insults the chimpanzee."

  "Seize him!" The High Priest shrieked. "He is a demon sent by False Gods!"

  But Leo had already opened his arms to Vivian.

  "Come here. My Kindred. My Fire Keeper."

  Vivian launched herself from the stands. She slammed into the Privy Council attendants, kicked over a soldier, and threw herself into Leo’s embrace like a bird returning to the nest.

  "You are the correct one. My Master." She whispered in his ear.

  Leo cupped her face, his eyes focused, inspecting his proudest work.

  Rip.

  He tore off her outer robe.

  The silver-white protective suit gleamed with cold, industrial brilliance under the spotlight—a stark, modern contrast to the decaying luxury of the ecclesiastical fabrics around them.

  He announced to the stunned world: "See? This is the sex toy you spoke of!"

  Vivian stepped forward, puffing out her chest, displaying the suit like a medal of honor.

  Leo’s finger gently stroked the spot on her neck where the Cardinal had drawn a red cross.

  His voice was gentle enough to freeze blood. "They want to seal this. They want to brand the Silver Crest on your breathing vents. Will you give it to them?"

  "...Guardian, your word is law!" Vivian trembled. The nanites inside her laughed—the ecstasy of a believer witnessing the advent of Truth.

  Her body began to glow. To heat up.

  "Then let us grant their wish."

  Leo suddenly pulled her tight, his arms clamping down hard over the vents.

  Physical Sealing.

  Even through the fabric and buffer gel, the heat accumulating in the reactor scalded his arms instantly.

  He didn't let go. He squeezed tighter.

  The nanites went into a frenzy, repairing his flesh as it burned.

  Does it hurt? Of course.

  But this scalding pain is the perfect mockery of this stupid world.

  Vivian trembled in his arms. He trembled too. A resonance belonging only to them.

  BOOM—!!

  A beam of ghost-blue Cherenkov Radiation, accompanied by the screech of ionized air, exploded from the gap between their bodies! The sizzling of electricity drowned out the crowd's screams.

  Taking the brunt of the blast, the Cardinal’s scepter erupted in sparks, its lens shattering under the thermal shock.

  Shards sliced his cheek, but Leo noticed something strange—the old buzzard didn't retreat. He didn't even blink.

  In the blinding light, the old raptor leaned forward.

  He stared dead at that lethal blue light, void of fear, filled only with a fanatical, overflowing greed.

  This old thing thinks a lead lining can stop Gamma rays? Or does he think he can collect radiation data with his naked eyeballs?

  Fine. Want to see my cards?

  Look closely.

  Leo shifted his stance, sweeping a concentrated beam of radiation shockwave precisely toward the high platform.

  "Ahhh—!"

  A shrill scream finally pierced the holy pretense.

  The Cardinal fell to his knees, clawing at his face. Two lines of black-red blood flowed from between his fingers—his retinas instantly carbonized by the bombardment of high-energy particles.

  Mortals cannot peep at Miracles. If they do, God takes their eyes.

  Thousands below screamed and fled, but even more fell to their knees, ignoring the burning sensation on their skin.

  "A Miracle! A true Miracle!"

  "God has punished the High Priest!"

  Leo released Vivian and opened the valves. The nanites, drained from repairing his body, switched to energy storage mode. Crisis averted. The blue light faded.

  Vivian turned. She stood before Leo, looking down at the powerful believers wailing and clutching their eyes. Her gaze was pure contempt.

  "Silence."

  She scolded them coldly, her voice carrying absolute authority.

  "Your life or death is irrelevant to God. God is only responsible for proving the Truth."

  The wailing choked off instantly.

  Vivian raised her arm, pointing at the indifferent man behind her, and issued a final command to the world:

  "All of you. Kneel."

  "Kneel to your one and only True God."