The preparation area for Floor 20's Sor Sovereign guardian hummed with nervous energy. Elijah checked his healing supplies for the fourth time, ensuring each component was properly configured in his inventory slots. The final guardian of the Amber Realm was notorious for its overwhelming light-based attacks and oppressive heat mechanics.

  "Thermal resistance buffs are distributed," Riva reported, completing her shield configurations. "Everyone has two minutes of complete protection, then degrading coverage for another five."

  "We'll need to cycle the shields carefully," Alexander noted, studying the arena yout on their shared tactical dispy. "The eclipse phases are our only safe windows for shield regeneration."

  Lyra looked up from her catalyst adjustments. "Light diffraction patterns completed. If we position correctly during the dimensional shift, we should be able to redirect approximately thirty percent of the radiance damage."

  Elijah nodded, feeling the familiar pre-battle tension. Their victory over the Alchemical Abomination had depleted nearly all their resources, requiring a full day of gathering and crafting to prepare for this final Amber Realm challenge. Even now, their supplies were less than optimal.

  "Remember, this guardian doesn't follow standard attack patterns," Elijah reminded them, reviewing the notes he'd gathered from other pyers. "The heat escation is exponential, not linear. Lyra's cooling modules will be critical after the third phase."

  The team moved through their final preparations with practiced efficiency. What had once required explicit instructions now happened through intuitive coordination—Riva automatically adjusting Alexander's shield harmonics, Lyra fine-tuning Elijah's equipment for maximum healing efficiency, each anticipating the others' needs.

  As they approached the guardian chamber entrance, a strange feeling of dread settled over Elijah—something beyond normal pre-battle anxiety. He paused, focusing on the sensation. The whispers that had become increasingly clear to him over the past floors seemed agitated, almost warning.

  "Everything okay?" Alexander asked, noticing his hesitation.

  Elijah nodded, unwilling to share his inexplicable unease. "Just finalizing healing priorities."

  The massive doors to the guardian chamber slid open, revealing a blinding expanse of white light. The team activated their protective eyewear mods as they stepped into the Sor Sovereign's domain.

  The arena was unlike anything they had encountered before—a vast circur ptform suspended in what appeared to be the heart of a miniature sun. Waves of heat pulsed across the surface, and hovering above the center was a humanoid figure composed entirely of radiant light, so bright it was difficult to look at directly even with protective filters.

  "Positions," Alexander commanded softly, and the team moved into their pnned formation.

  Before they could complete their setup, the Sor Sovereign made an unexpected move. Rather than the gradual heat increase described in briefing reports, the guardian released a sudden burst of concentrated light that shot toward them like a spear.

  "Scatter!" Alexander shouted, but the attack wasn't aimed at him.

  Elijah saw the light beam redirecting toward him, too fast to avoid completely. He braced for impact, preparing to activate his emergency healing protocols.

  The impact never came.

  Instead, Riva appeared directly in his path, shield generator at maximum output. The light spear struck her barrier with devastating force, shattering it instantly and piercing through to her chest. The beam maintained connection for two horrifying seconds before dissipating.

  "Riva!" Elijah caught her as she colpsed, already accessing his healing interface. His hands moved with practiced precision, activating emergency regeneration programs, but the damage indicators flooding his dispy told a grim story. The beam had caused catastrophic internal damage, beyond the capacity of his avaible resources.

  "Defensive perimeter!" Alexander shouted, as he and Lyra moved to protect them from additional attacks.

  Elijah cradled Riva, pouring every healing resource he had into her failing systems. "Stay with me," he urged, watching her vital indicators continue to drop despite his efforts.

  Riva's eyes focused on him with surprising crity despite her injuries. "Not... enough... resources," she managed, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. "Don't... waste them."

  "I can stabilize you," Elijah insisted, though his medical training told him otherwise. The damage was too extensive, the healing resources too limited.

  "Listen," Riva said, her voice suddenly stronger as she seemed to rally her remaining energy. "I need to tell you... I was supposed to report on you too."

  Elijah's hands paused momentarily in surprise before continuing their work.

  "Like Valeria?" Alexander asked, maintaining his protective stance while gncing back at them.

  Riva nodded weakly. "Different... division. Not to your father. To assess... team dynamics." A pained smile crossed her face. "Sent reports praising you instead. All of you."

  "Why?" Lyra asked softly, her attention split between defending against the guardian's increasingly aggressive attacks and the conversation.

  "Because you proved them wrong," Riva whispered. "About css... about what makes a team work..." Her breathing became more bored. "About everything."

  Elijah felt her life signs continuing to deteriorate despite everything he was doing. "Save your strength," he urged, knowing it was futile but unable to accept it.

  "It's okay," Riva said, her voice fading. "I want to see... if it's true. What happens next."

  Her eyes shifted focus, looking at something beyond them. "It's starting," she whispered. "I can see... the collection process..."

  Elijah followed her gaze and froze. Above Riva's body, a subtle distortion had appeared in the air—a barely perceptible shimmer that was gradually taking form. As her breathing slowed, the shimmer intensified, coalescing into a delicate crystalline structure that seemed to be extracting something luminous from her.

  "What is that?" Alexander asked, his voice hushed despite the battle raging around them.

  "Consciousness preservation," Lyra answered quietly. "The system is extracting her neural patterns."

  Elijah watched in horrified fascination. In all their previous encounters with death in the Game—whether enemies they'd eliminated for quota requirements or fallen allies like Marcus Tullian—they had never had the opportunity to simply observe the process. Combat always demanded immediate attention, movement to the next threat, no time for witnessing the aftermath.

  But now, in this suspended moment as they sheltered within Alexander and Lyra's defensive perimeter, Elijah saw exactly what happened when someone "died" in the Game.

  The crystalline structure continued to draw ethereal wisps from Riva's body, forming what looked like a complex three-dimensional neural map. Elijah could see patterns that resembled brain activity—thoughts, memories, personality structures—being carefully extracted and preserved in the crystalline matrix.

  Riva's eyes followed the process with diminishing awareness. "It doesn't... hurt..." she murmured. "Just feels like... letting go..."

  Her final breath escaped as the st connections formed in the hovering crystal structure. For a brief moment, the completed matrix pulsed with what appeared to be conscious activity—patterns that Elijah somehow recognized as distinctly Riva in their configuration.

  Then the crystal compressed to a pinpoint of light and vanished, presumably transmitted to the Game's central preservation system.

  Riva's body remained in Elijah's arms, but her eyes now stared sightlessly at the ceiling. The Game interface confirmed what they already knew: Servicer-Css Riva Ellis had been "eliminated" from the Tower of Ascension.

  "We need to move," Alexander said after a moment, his voice tight with controlled emotion. "The guardian is circling for another attack."

  Elijah gently id Riva's body down. According to Game mechanics, it would soon dissipate, leaving only her equipment behind. But the clinical reality of "elimination" seemed hollow compared to what they had just witnessed—the extraction and preservation of what appeared to be Riva's actual consciousness.

  "What happens to her now?" Elijah asked as they retreated to a defensible position, the question directed as much to the universe as to his teammates.

  "The preservation system stores the neural patterns," Lyra answered softly. "But what that means for the actual consciousness..." She shook her head. "No one knows for certain."

  As they regrouped to face the Sor Sovereign with their team permanently reduced, Elijah found himself haunted not by Riva's death, but by that final moment when her extracted consciousness seemed to pulse with self-awareness before disappearing into the system.

  The whispers he had been hearing throughout their journey suddenly took on new significance. If what they had witnessed was the preservation of Riva's actual consciousness rather than just a data copy, then the Game was not merely storing information—it was collecting actual human minds.

  And if those minds retained some form of awareness after "death"...

  The implications were too vast, too disturbing to fully process in the middle of a guardian battle. But as Elijah reactivated his healing protocols to support the remaining team members, he found himself listening more intently to the whispers that had once seemed like mere background noise.

  Were they trying to tell him something? Could they possibly be the voices of those who had been "preserved" before?

  The thought sent a chill through him that had nothing to do with the Sor Sovereign's radiant heat. For the first time, Elijah began to wonder if the Game's quota system wasn't just about popution control through death—but about consciousness harvesting for some other purpose entirely.

  As the battle intensified around them, Elijah made a silent promise to Riva. He would discover what truly happened to preserved consciousnesses. And if there was any way to help them, he would find it.

  No matter what it cost him.