All Chapters of BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES: Chapter 511
- Chapter 520
621 chapters
511
By the time dawn bled across the sky, Samuel and his team were already descending the final stretch toward the sunken basin that once held the city of Elarion. The landscape was unrecognizable—jagged stones pierced from the ground like broken teeth, and shallow mists drifted where rivers used to run. At the center, a vast lake shimmered, impossibly still.Samuel halted at the edge of the basin. The silence was thick. Not peaceful, but oppressive.“This place feels wrong,” Aria whispered.“It should,” Ilara replied. “We’re standing on top of a wound in the world.”Dareth knelt by the water’s edge, his hand skimming the surface. “It’s warm. Not natural. The resonance from the Bell is already distorting reality here.”Sarah pointed toward a line of ancient arches, half-submerged in the lake. “That must be the entryway.”They began preparing for descent. Ilara summoned a breathing ward—a shimmering aura that would keep their lungs safe once submerged. Kael distributed small crystal lenses
512
The campfire flickered in the dying wind, casting dancing shadows across the canyon walls. The team had set up a temporary base on the cliffs above Elarion. Though the mission had succeeded, the silence that followed their escape felt heavier than any fight.Samuel sat apart from the others, his eyes locked on the horizon. The energy in his chest still hadn’t settled since his clash with the Bell. Every breath he took felt like it echoed in another place—another time.Ilara approached quietly, handing him a canteen. “You haven’t said anything since we surfaced.”“I’m still hearing the song,” he admitted. “Not with my ears—but in here.” He tapped his chest. “Like it’s lingering.”“That’s not unusual. You didn’t just resist the Bell—you harmonized with it, then shattered it from the inside. Its residue is bound to you now.”Samuel sipped the water, then glanced over at the rest of the group. Aria and Joey were dozing against a boulder. Dareth stood like a sentinel, arms crossed, staring
514
The march toward the Lighthouse Bastion began before dawn. Mist hung low in the valleys, curling around their boots as the group pressed forward across uneven terrain. Every sound—twigs snapping, birds taking flight—felt sharpened, charged with expectation. They were no longer a scattered force reacting to threats. They were moving with purpose now.The Bastion wasn’t just a fortress. It was a monument—one built from the bones of the Old World, rumored to house the Gatekeeper’s West Line Bell and one of the largest caches of Nexus crystal data in existence. It loomed ahead, dark against the orange-tinted sky, its highest spire shaped like a blade driven into the earth.Dareth walked beside Samuel, eyes never still. “You realize what this is,” he said quietly.“A provocation,” Samuel answered. “And an opportunity.”“If we fail, he’ll unleash everything,” Dareth warned. “Every Sentinel. Every Bell fragment. He’ll burn entire cities to erase this act.”Samuel nodded. “Then we don’t fail.
515
The corridors of the Lighthouse Bastion pulsed with a sickening violet light. The air inside was heavy with something synthetic—part oil, part ozone, part memory. Samuel moved swiftly, flames licking at his arms, illuminating the dark metallic walls etched with shifting runes.Behind him, Dareth and Ilara cleared the passage, cutting through the last line of sentry drones. Sparks flew from the shattered machines, limbs twitching in their death throes. Joey caught up from a side hall, blood streaking down his cheek, grinning like a wild dog.“They're learning,” he said between breaths. “Adapting faster. This isn’t just tech—it’s psychic.”“Figures,” Samuel muttered. “He’s using the Bastion as a mind anchor. Every corridor is laced with memory traps. They’re trying to fracture us.”Ilara placed a hand on the nearest wall. Her eyes rolled white for a second before she blinked sharply. “This entire tower is conscious. Not alive, but... aware. It’s feeding on fear. If we’re not careful, we
516
The sunrise over Mirror Valley was unlike anything Samuel had seen before. The fractured light danced on the surface of the crystalline river, scattering hues of gold and amethyst across the mossy cliffs. The wind carried whispers—fragments of voices long forgotten—echoes of what the Bastion had tried to erase.But they were still here.And they had won.At least for now.Samuel stood at the edge of the cliff, Dareth at his side, both silent as the morning spread its wings. Behind them, the rest of the team emerged one by one. Joey limped slightly, his shirt torn, but his grin intact. Kael and Aria supported Nyra, whose pulse strike during the collapse of the west spire had drained her almost completely. Sarah walked in last, head high, knuckles still bloodied.“We made it,” Joey said, arms outstretched. “We actually made it.”Ilara smiled faintly. “Phase one.”Samuel turned to face them. “How bad?”Kael answered, his voice grim. “There were losses across three sectors. Local resistan
517
The air was tense when Samuel returned. He held the crystal in his palm like a wound—something that pulsed and ached with every heartbeat. The others gathered around him, questions burning in their eyes, but no one spoke. Not at first.Ilara stepped forward. “You saw him.”Samuel nodded.Joey clenched his fists. “And?”“He’s not gone. But he’s not who he was.”Kael narrowed his eyes. “Is he an enemy?”Samuel looked down at the crystal, watching its light flicker like a dying star. “No. Not yet. But he’s not on our side either. He’s... somewhere in between.”“Then he’s a danger,” Sarah said coldly. “To himself and to us.”“He gave me this.” Samuel held up the crystal. “Coordinates to a Vault the Gatekeeper feared. Sereth said it holds more than memories. It holds power. Knowledge. Enough to tilt the balance.”Dareth’s brow furrowed. “If it’s real, we need to get to it before the remnants do.”Ilara stepped closer, brushing her fingers over the crystal. Her eyes widened. “This... it’s e
518
The ship rocked violently as Dareth veered hard left, narrowly dodging the stone-winged creature descending from the clouds. Its wingspan blotted out the sun, and each beat of those massive wings sent shockwaves through the storm-churned sky. Fire rained down in spirals, catching the edges of the forest canopy below, igniting the ancient woods that had stood untouched for centuries.“What the hell is that?!” Joey shouted, his voice strained over the alarms.Ilara’s eyes were wide with recognition. “It’s not alive. Not in the way we understand. That’s a Sentinel construct—Gatekeeper-era technology. A hunter.”Dareth gritted his teeth. “It’s targeting the Vault. Which means it’s also targeting us.”Samuel stood behind him, watching the creature through the cockpit glass. “Then we lead it away.”Ilara turned, clutching the silver book tightly. “We can’t afford to lose this. Whatever’s inside it—it’s part of the old war’s last contingency. The Vault wasn’t meant to be opened. It was meant
519
The jagged cliffs of Kirell loomed on the horizon like the broken teeth of a long-dead beast. Ash swirled in the air, thick as fog. The ruins were silent—but not still. Beneath the rubble, something pulsed. A heartbeat of ancient power, slow and menacing.Samuel and his team approached under cover of night. Ilara whispered runes under her breath, wrapping them in an invisibility shroud. Joey clutched his twin daggers tightly, scanning every angle. Dareth, walking in silence, radiated an oppressive energy that even the winds avoided.“This place wasn’t just destroyed,” Ilara muttered. “It was erased.”The crumbled stone towers ahead looked as if they'd been cut from the world—not collapsed, but unraveled.“Is the Gatekeeper here?” Joey asked.“No,” Dareth said. “But his presence lingers. His Sentinels have already been.”They reached the edge of the inner courtyard, where once stood the heart of Kirell’s Order. Now it was a pit—a yawning crater of black stone and glowing veins. The pul
520
The Mirror Valley shimmered with a soft, deceptive beauty—its crystal-clear lakes reflecting not the sky, but other memories, other lives. It was a land fractured by time, where one could see echoes of things that had never happened, or things yet to come. For most, it drove them mad. For Samuel, it was a test.They had returned, just as planned. Five days after the Guardians had awoken. Five days since they had split. But only four of the teams returned.Nyra, Sarah, and their scout had not made it back.Ilara’s jaw tightened. “They were supposed to check in yesterday.”“Which means something happened,” Kael said grimly, arms crossed. “We know the Gatekeeper is accelerating his reach. He’s probably found out where the remaining relics are.”Samuel turned toward the mirrored lake, watching as his own reflection morphed into something older—tired eyes, heavier shoulders. A version of himself worn by battles not yet fought.“We’ll search for them,” he said. “But not aimlessly. Dareth—wh
521
The sky above Mirror Valley had turned violet, a swirl of dusk and dawn that made it impossible to tell what hour ruled the heavens. Ilara stood at the center of the valley, her hands gripping the Echo Stone tightly. The artifact pulsed with chaotic memory, flickering images dancing across its surface—lives that weren’t hers, voices she didn’t recognize, feelings that weren’t her own.Aria paced beside her, glancing nervously at the treetops. “We should move. The Gatekeeper’s Warden might not have followed the others.”Ilara didn’t answer right away. Her eyes were closed, her mind immersed in the psychic pressure of the artifact. She could hear fragments of time like broken glass clinking together—Samuel's voice from a life that never happened, her own death played on loop in another world, Joey's laughter echoing in reverse.“I need ten more minutes,” Ilara finally said. “If I don't bind it properly, it could burn through us all.”Aria nodded, moving toward the edge of the valley to