The sky above the ruins was clean for the first time in years. No drifting clouds of radiation, no flickering distortions of data ghosts—just pure blue fading into gold. The sun cut across the broken skyline, throwing long shadows over what had once been a city and was now nothing but a graveyard.Jake stood at the edge of the collapse site, staring into the hollow pit where the Ascendant’s core had been. The wind tugged at his coat, scattering dust and shards of shattered crystal. His eyes were hard, unreadable.Kael was working beside one of the half-buried consoles, welding together power conduits salvaged from the wreck. “The pulse network’s dead,” he said. “Completely. Not even a whisper left in the comms grid.”Lyra kicked a broken panel aside and crouched near the crater. “Feels… wrong. Too quiet. Like killing a god and finding out it bleeds the same as you.”Jake said nothing. He was still listening—to the silence, to the faint echo in his pulse that told him part of the netwo

The morning broke gray and hollow over the canyon, the wind moving through the ruins with a sound like mourning. The blast from Jake’s weapon had torn a crater into the earth—an ugly wound where the cocoon once pulsed with life. Dust still drifted in the air, but the faint hum that had haunted them for so long was gone.Lyra hadn’t moved for hours. She sat beside Jake’s body, her fingers resting against his still hand, the skin cold but not yet lifeless. The air around him shimmered faintly with residual static, fading more each minute.Kael stood several meters away, checking his scanners for any sign of activity. “Signal’s clear. No readings. No fragments. Whatever he did—it finished the job.”Lyra didn’t look up. “Don’t talk about it like it was just a job.”Kael exhaled. “You think I wanted this?”“You always think about what comes next,” she said quietly. “He didn’t.”Kael ran a hand through his hair. “He planned this, Lyra. Every part of it. He knew what it would take.”She pres

The wind had changed.By the time Jake, Lyra, and Kael reached the base of the valley, the air was heavy with static—like the world itself was holding its breath. The remains of the old highway stretched before them, buried in cracked asphalt and pale dust.They’d been walking for hours. No sound except boots on stone, the hum in Jake’s blood, and the faint whine of Kael’s scanner.Lyra finally broke the silence. “We’ve crossed the ridge. You said the others would feel the signal. Where are they?”Jake didn’t answer at first. His eyes were on the horizon, on the ruins shimmering in the heat. “They’re close,” he said. “The frequency’s getting stronger.”Kael frowned, checking his readouts. “I’ve got traces of a human transmission. Faint but consistent—coded pings on the old military channel.”Lyra adjusted her rifle strap. “Could be survivors.”Kael shook his head. “Or bait.”Jake didn’t stop walking. “Either way, we need to know.”---The signal led them into the ruins of a once-massi

The morning sun was a pale, washed-out disk over the jagged horizon. The desert stretched endlessly, each dune a wave of shifting gold, and the mountains of Helion Spire Belt loomed behind them like silent guardians of the ruins.Jake moved ahead of Lyra and Kael, his strides long and purposeful. The events inside Node 07 weighed heavily on him. The sheer scale of what they had discovered—the clones, the Echo, the pulsing network—had shaken him to the core. Yet, beneath the exhaustion, a strange clarity simmered. He now understood a fundamental truth: the Ascendant’s plans were far bigger than he’d ever imagined. And the seed of it existed in him.Lyra walked close beside him, her eyes never leaving his back. “Jake… you’ve been quiet since we left the facility. Are you—”“I’m processing,” he said, cutting her off before she could finish. His voice was low, almost flat. “That link… it showed me everything. Past, present, possible futures. And none of them are good if we don’t act fast.

The wind carried the scent of ozone as Jake, Lyra, and Kael approached the edge of the crater at first light. The node sprawled beneath them like a jagged cathedral, its spires of black crystal twisting toward the sky. Energy arcs crackled intermittently between the formations, casting harsh shadows that seemed to writhe with movement, as though the landscape itself were alive.Jake crouched at the edge, eyes scanning the terrain with meticulous care. Every pulse, every flicker of light from the node was a signal—an invitation, a challenge, or a trap. He traced the energy currents with his mind, mapping them, noting the patterns and inconsistencies. The Ascendant’s presence was strong here, far stronger than anything they had encountered before.“We need to split up,” Jake said finally, voice steady but tense. “Kael, you cover the perimeter. Lyra, you and I will scout the interior, map its structure, and identify potential weak points. No improvisation unless absolutely necessary. Thi