Chapter 107: Dannika's Origins, The Main Plot of Season 2 (Part 1)

【Steam Capital, Rust Iron Hell, Zone 5, Abandoned Factory】

“T-Tian Dao… sir… are we really just… walking out like this?”

Dannika whispered timidly, trailing behind Tian Dao like a startled kitten, her body curled in on itself. One hand clutched a lollipop; the other gripped the hem of Tian Dao’s pants. Her amber eyes flickered with visible unease, darting nervously toward the Gray Rat Gang guards patrolling outside the cellblock. She still carried the raw fear of those who had dragged her from the Gear Church · Prayer Room.

Seeing her trembling like that, Tian Dao chuckled softly and ruffled her hair.

“Don’t worry. They can’t see us.”

“Huh? Why not?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“Oh… okay.”

Dannika nodded obediently, then instinctively rubbed her head against Tian Dao’s palm—so sweetly compliant it almost made him smile wider.

And in that moment, something stirred in Tian Dao’s memory.

Seven or eight years ago, when he’d first arrived at Yujin Base…

He’d often done the same thing—reaching out to ruffle the head of someone close.

But that someone had been nothing like Dannika.

Because every time he’d dared to do it, that person would instantly freeze, glare at him with a cold, sharp expression, and let out a sharp, warning huff—like a cat bristling at a hand that dared to touch it.

Tian Dao, however, was stubborn.

The more they forbade him, the more he wanted to do it.

Rebellion was his nature.

Eventually, that person developed a reflex.

Just the sight of Tian Dao raising his hand was enough to trigger the same icy stare and huff—eyes narrowed, body tense, warning: Don’t even think about it.

But Tian Dao never listened.

He’d keep going—ruffling the head, getting huffed at, ruffling again, getting huffed at—in a loop that never bored him.

Thinking of it now, Tian Dao couldn’t help but laugh, then shake his head with a soft sigh.

He turned back to look at the small figure clinging to his back, so careful, so quiet.

And in his mind, the story of The Stars · Faint Light surfaced once more—the tragic origin of this girl, this living scripture.

Dannika was one of the three foundational pillars of the Miracle Stone · Law: The Book, The Word, and The Seal.

She was the Word.

Her very existence was a miracle—an anomaly that shattered the core tenets of the Gear Church, and by extension, the entire Machine God faith.

The doctrine of the Machine God taught: Human suffering, mechanical ascension.

It demanded the rejection of flawed humanity, the embrace of cold, perfect machine divinity.

This was the iron rule for every believer who sought the path of the Machine.

But Dannika?

She broke that rule utterly.

Unlike the other Words—those inscribed in sacred texts like the Mechanical Bible · Gear—she hadn’t just been written into scripture.

She had escaped it.

And worse—she had chosen to become human.

That act alone was heresy.

A direct defiance of the Machine God’s teachings: abandoning machine divinity, embracing humanity.

She was not just a deviation.

She was an anti-heresy.

Right now, she was still unknown to the Gear Church and the Ironcrown Family.

But if they ever found out…

They would do everything in their power to erase her.

Not just because she was a threat—but because her existence would spark a chain reaction.

Like a single gear shifting, it would turn all the others.

And that would unravel the entire Machine God system.

That was the root of her suffering—her tragic past.

Born from the Miracle Stone · Law, Dannika possessed a rare and sacred ability:

She could create rules—through speech or text—by weaving them into the fabric of reality via Kong.

These rules could grant blessings from the Machine God to the faithful.

But this power?

It was supposed to be reserved for the sacred words written in the Mechanical Bible.

Yet here she was—living, breathing, human—wielding that same divine authority.

For example, when she performed a prayer for a Gear Church clergyman, she could unconsciously impose the Church’s commandments onto them.

As long as the recipient followed the rules, they would receive miraculous mechanical blessings.

The strength of these blessings depended not only on Dannika’s own power, but also on:

- The recipient’s personal strength,

- Their strictness in following the commandments,

- And the processing power of their mind—the Book, as the Church called it.

Tian Dao knew better than to believe in “faith.”

The Book wasn’t faith.

It was permission level.

The higher a person’s status in the Quantum Space · Ironcrown Quantum Citadel, the greater their access—and the more commandments they could carry.

The stronger the rule, the more powerful the blessing.

And faith?

Just a tool.

A narrative used by the Machine God’s hierarchy to control the masses.

So the real truth behind why the Ironcrown Family was seen as a godlike race?

Because they had mastered the Miracle Stone · Law—and built a rigid, machine-obsessed belief system on top of it.

- The Book became the Ironcrown Quantum Citadel, the core of the quantum network.

- The Word was forged into the Mechanical Bibles, distributed across every branch church.

- The Seal?

That was never explained in Season 2 of The Stars · Faint Light.

Tian Dao didn’t know what it was.

But he suspected it was far from simple.

And that was why Tian Dao called the Gray Rat Gang members—who guarded the Mechanical Bible · Gear so zealously—fools.

Because the real power wasn’t in the book.

It was in the words inside it.

And yet, they didn’t see it.

They treated copies—fakes—as divine.

They guarded them like relics, worshipped them like gods.

But Dannika…

She was no mere Word.

She was the living Word.

And though there were other Words in the Machine God’s doctrine—many of them—none had ever become human.

All the others were cold, lifeless text—written, preserved, unchanging.

Only Dannika had chosen to step out of the book.

And that made her not just unique.

She was dangerous.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end