All Chapters of The Beggar’s Throne: Chapter 251
- Chapter 260
630 chapters
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-One
The wind had shifted again by morning, carrying with it the metallic tang of ozone and something else — something faintly electric, like static before a storm. The desert stretched out endlessly, pale gold under the half-light of dawn. Jake, Lyra, and Kael moved in silence, every step a reminder of how far they’d gone and how little they’d gained.They reached the edge of an old transport yard by midday — rusted freights, toppled cranes, and shattered solar grids half-buried in sand. Jake raised a hand, signaling for them to stop.“Scanners,” he said quietly.Kael dropped his pack, pulling out the pulse detector. It hummed weakly, the display blinking with interference. “Something’s active nearby. Energy levels are… fluctuating.”Lyra moved closer. “From the Ascendant network?”Kael frowned. “Hard to tell. The readings are unstable, like multiple signals crossing.”Jake stared toward the horizon. His instincts twisted uneasily. “We’ll find the source. But keep weapons ready.”They adv
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Two
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
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Three
The sunrise lingered like an unfinished promise over the horizon, the light cutting through the broken steel skeletons of the fallen city. Smoke still coiled from the ruins of the Ascendant’s core, though its once-blinding pulse had gone dark. For the first time in years, the world breathed without a voice whispering in its circuits.Jake moved slowly through the wreckage. Every step sent pain flaring through his muscles; his nerves still sang from the neural feedback. His body felt heavier, his breath uneven, as though something inside him had shifted beyond repair.Lyra watched him carefully. “You shouldn’t be walking yet.”“I don’t have a choice,” Jake said, his tone clipped. “The energy wave from the shutdown reached the outer districts. If there are survivors, they’ll need to know it’s safe.”Kael followed a few paces behind, his eyes scanning a broken data slate. “We’re still getting static. The planet’s comms net is fried beyond recovery. If any of the relay stations are still
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Four
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
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Five
The night deepened, pressing down on the camp like a living weight. Flames flickered low in the wind, and the survivors huddled close to their dwindling warmth. No one slept. Not with Jake sitting upright by the fire—alive, breathing, and yet… different.Lyra stayed beside him, her rifle across her lap, eyes never leaving his face. He hadn’t spoken again since the warning about the “seed.” His gaze remained fixed on the fire, as though something inside it spoke to him alone.Kael moved around the perimeter, adjusting the motion sensors they’d rigged from old gear. “If that signal inside you starts broadcasting,” he muttered, “I want to know before it finds us.”Jake finally looked up. “You think I’m a threat.”Kael didn’t deny it. “I think you’re unpredictable. That’s close enough.”Lyra glared at him. “He saved us. Again.”Kael turned. “He died, Lyra. And whatever came back in that pod might wear his face, but you felt that pulse. You saw what it did.”Jake’s jaw clenched. “You think
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Six
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
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Seven
The desert night burned cold.The stars were sharp and distant above the shattered ridges, and every gust of wind carried with it the sound of shifting metal and whispering sand. Jake led the group north, his pace steady, eyes set on the distant lights blinking faintly across the horizon.They’d been walking for hours. None of them spoke much. The relay’s echoes still lingered in Jake’s mind—static whispers that faded and returned like a heartbeat trying to sync with his own.Lyra finally broke the silence. “You said the coordinates pointed north. How far?”Jake adjusted the map on his wrist interface. The holographic display shimmered weakly, flickering in and out. “Roughly two hundred miles. There’s a mountain range up ahead—records call it the Helion Spire Belt.”Kael grunted. “That’s not a range, that’s a graveyard. Used to be mining territory before the collapse. Nobody’s been there in decades.”Jake glanced at him. “That’s exactly why the signal’s hiding there.”Lyra kicked a ro
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Eight
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.
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Nine
The desert night was merciless, its chill a stark contrast to the searing heat of the day. Jake, Lyra, and Kael had made camp at the edge of a narrow plateau, overlooking a valley that stretched like a jagged wound into the earth. The remnants of the Ascendant’s influence still pulsed faintly in the distance, a dull luminescence that flickered like a heartbeat through the cracked ground.Jake sat cross-legged near the fire, though it was little more than a controlled spark. He had removed his gloves, inspecting the abrasions and burns on his hands from the battle in the canyon. Every nerve was still singing from the effort, every muscle taut with exhaustion. Yet beneath the physical strain, an unshakable tension lingered in his mind—a deep, gnawing awareness that their victory had been only temporary.Lyra knelt beside him, unpacking supplies and setting out a sparse meal. “You’re not sleeping,” she observed softly.Jake shook his head. “I can’t. Not yet. There’s too much… lingering e
Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty
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