CHAPTER 161 :Tyla didn’t sleep.Everyone else managed to doze off in pieces—Billy collapsed against the wall after the energy outburst, Owen knocked out at his workstation with one earbud dangling, Alice and Lucas whisper-arguing in the corner—but Tyla’s mind refused to calm.Billy’s power spike at the rift had been too much. Too sudden. Too familiar.And it wasn’t just fear eating at her.It was recognition.A pattern she had seen only once before… on the Curator.She paced silently through the bunker’s dim corridor, replaying the moment Billy’s eyes glowed white, the way the air bowed around him, the crackle the relics made like they were responding to something older than him. Something not him at all.Every instinct in her body told her:You’ve seen this before.You know exactly whose signature that was.But she needed proof—not just intuition. Not just panic.Her brain finally clicked into scientific mode.If the Curator had left behind any kind of energetic residue—any imprint—

CHAPTER 163 :Billy sat on the cracked stone floor of the hidden rift chamber, his chest heaving. Every breath felt like he’d been dragging it through molten rock. The relic’s veins pulsed across his arms, brighter than ever, and a low hum thrummed in his skull, echoing the whisper of the Curator’s shadow lingering in the echo he had just fought. Even defeated, it hadn’t vanished. It was waiting. Watching. Learning.Tyla crouched beside him, her hand hovering just above his shoulder, not touching, but tethered by instinct. She didn’t speak; she didn’t need to. Both of them knew that the bond wasn’t something you could reason with—only feel, only wrestle with, and only control if you understood it better than it understood you.Owen’s voice broke the heavy silence. “Billy, listen—governments are converging on this area. We’ve got maybe… hours, if we’re lucky. Once word of this rift spreads, it’s going to be a bloodbath. You have to move. And the only way to find your father… is the rel

CHAPTER 165 :The final relic node pulsed violently ahead, the energy from the previous two nodes converging into a chaotic crescendo that made the very ground tremble beneath them. Billy could feel it, the bond thrumming through every fiber of his body. Each pulse carried history, danger, and a subtle intelligence that was almost sentient. It whispered, hummed, and sometimes roared in ways only he could understand. He wasn’t just touching the energy—he was communicating with it, negotiating with it.Tyla followed closely behind, her eyes scanning every shadow, every subtle flicker in the unstable light. “Billy,” she said, her voice sharper than usual. “We’re not alone here. The rift… it’s watching. And not just the rift. Alice and Lucas are close. They’ll want this energy too. They’ll try to manipulate it, to bend it to their advantage.”Billy didn’t respond immediately. He focused on the node ahead, feeling the raw pulse of energy like a heartbeat. The relic bond whispered insistent

CHAPTER 167 :Tyla’s hands shook as she watched the ripple of the rift settle after Billy vanished. Even now, a faint hum of energy lingered in the air, vibrating against her skin, whispering of the chaos that had just passed. She felt hollow, unnerved—not because she feared what Billy might do to the rift itself, but because she knew him. She knew the recklessness hidden behind that calm determination. He had chosen his path, and it terrified her.Owen’s face was taut with tension, jaw clenched, eyes scanning the surrounding shadows. “He went in,” he muttered, as though stating the obvious could make it less terrifying. “He actually went in. After the warning. After—” He stopped, shaking his head. “After everything. This isn’t just defiance. This is… insanity, or brilliance. I’m not sure which.”Tyla turned to him, voice sharper than she intended. “Don’t even start with that. He isn’t doing this for glory, Owen. He’s trying to save something… or someone. Or maybe… himself. But he’s c

CHAPTER 169 :The air shifted the moment Billy stepped into the rift. It wasn’t just a portal—it was a living, breathing fracture in reality. The colors around him were wrong, liquid and electric at once, folding space in ways his mind struggled to comprehend. Gravity felt unreliable, time elastic, and even the air carried the faint hum of a thousand unseen relics resonating in unison. He stumbled forward, his boots barely touching a surface that didn’t fully exist.Tyla and Owen followed behind, their forms flickering at the edges, caught between the real world and the rift’s chaotic resonance. Tyla’s fingers clenched around the relic shard, its pulse syncing with Billy’s energy. Every step he took sent tremors down the tether she felt, like he was both near and impossibly far. Owen adjusted his scanner repeatedly, each beep and flash a stark reminder of the dangerous instability they were walking into.Billy’s chest heaved as the energy surged through him. The relic bonded tighter,