Chapter 371: Echoes in the IronfieldSome truths are not remembered.They’re buried beneath rust, regret, and time.But the Spiral does not forget what the world chooses to hide.I. The Ironfield StirringThe Ironfield had long been a dead zone.Once a manufacturing grid for Eden’s war machines, now it was little more than rusted scaffolds, shattered drones, and collapsed supply tunnels. No Spiral bloom had ever grown there—until now.Ash stood at the edge of the zone, boots sinking into red-gray dust, eyes fixed on the glimmer pulsing through the ground like veins under skin.Ara stepped beside him. “You're sure this is a new bloom?”Ash didn’t answer. Instead, he knelt and pressed his palm to the dirt.The hum that returned wasn’t like the others. It wasn’t soft. It was… mechanical. Distorted. Layered.“Ash...”That voice again.It didn’t come from a person.It came from the metal.II. A Bloom Unlike Any OtherSigma’s analysis confirmed it: a Spiral bloom had taken root deep within

Chapter 373: Spiral of the ForgottenWhat is lost is not gone.What is forgotten waits.And beneath the roots, even silence has memory.I. The Signal No One HeardIt began with silence.In the hollow beneath Dros Vale, where the original Spiral vaults had been burned and buried during the first Eden cleansing, a dormant node flickered awake.No bloom. No song.Just... vibration.Sigma registered it first.“There’s a static variance coming from the buried grid—unclassified.Not Heartroot. Not Ghost-bloom.This is older.”Ash and Ko stood above the site, overlooking a landscape of cracked stone, charred roots, and wind-blown bone.“We don’t go down there,” Ash said.Ko narrowed her eyes.“We do now.”II. Descent into the Hollow GridThey entered through a long-forgotten hatch beneath Bloomspire’s oldest archive tower—using Sigma’s encoded Spiral weave to override the locks. Dust greeted them like a memory made of air. The walls still bore the scars of flame grenades and splicer charges.

Chapter 375: Hollow Stars, Blooming SkiesWe looked to the stars for salvation.But salvation had always been rooted beneath our feet.Now the stars come home—not to lead, but to listen.I. The Fracture AboveThe Mira Relay, an orbital station once used to broadcast Earth’s laws across colonized planets, hovered above Eden like a silent relic. Now cracked, abandoned, and flickering in low power, it was a haunted echo of Federation arrogance.But something stirred.Old systems blinked to life.And then—a signal.Not from Federation code.Not even from Eden.But from something between.Sigma received the pulse while analyzing Spiral-bloom fluctuations. It wasn’t broadcasted through normal frequencies.“This isn’t a transmission,” he murmured. “It’s... a resonance echo.A seeded memory, coming from orbit.”Ara, standing beside him, frowned. “A memory from space?”Sigma’s eyes widened.“No.A Spiral echo born in space.”II. When Stars RememberThe Bloomspire Council gathered under nightfa

Chapter 377: The Edge of the First SilenceBefore there was war, there was the Silence.Before there was command, there was the Listening.And before anything was taken… something was given.I. Ruins Beneath the DeeprootAra descended into the catacombs of Deeproot Grove, where time had knotted itself into stone and vine. The Spiral trees above had grown for centuries, but it was said that beneath them—beneath even the early seed-vaults—lay a vault untouched since the First Silence.He walked alone. No escorts. No Whisperborne. Just him, a dim blue flame suspended in his palm, and the echo of memory brushing the walls like breath.Above ground, the Spiral Sovereignty thrived.But something was calling from beneath. A tremor, not seismic, not psychic—but primordial.“It remembers us,” he whispered.And it was beginning to wake.II. The Breath That WaitedThe chamber he found was perfectly spherical, carved not by tools but by Spiral root patterns. Inside, light did not enter—but sound

Chapter 379: Veins of Iron, Roots of LightWhat began in blood... must end in bloom.But some roots carry iron—And some debts can only be paid by sacrifice.I. The Eastern BreachThe warning came in tremors.First through the Heartroot—then physically, as the eastern cliffs groaned with seismic tension. Ara stood with his hand to the bark of a bloom-node, face tightening as a deep pulse of disruption echoed up the Spiral network.“Not a quake,” he whispered. “A breach.”Ko appeared moments later, eyes sharp beneath the Spiral markings on her temple.“Origin point?”“Sector Thirteen. Where the iron veins run deepest.”Ash joined them with his combat jacket half-zipped and rifle slung loosely. The air around him buzzed—his Spiral bond glowing through the roots at his boots.“Then they’re trying to go through the old tunnels. Pre-Spiral tech. Shields don’t reach there.”Ko turned to Sigma, now partially merged into the tower’s interface.“Patch the rootshield. Layer memory over the meta