2025-03-18 22:36:12Lucas and Sophia strutted through the grand halls of Imperium Corp, their smug smiles practically carved onto their faces. Being escorted back into the building had been satisfying enough, but the cherry on top was seeing Nathan humiliated in front of everyone.
Sophia folded her arms and sneered. “You must really have no shame, Nathan. To think you could just sneak in with some card you probably scammed off someone.” Her voice dripped with disdain. “Trash like you should know their place. Just because you managed to set foot in here doesn’t mean you can be compared to Lucas.” Lucas laughed, adjusting his cuffs with exaggerated arrogance. “Compared to me?” He scoffed. “Let’s not be ridiculous, Sophia. A worm like him isn’t even worthy of standing in my shadow.” His eyes flicked to Nathan, who remained maddeningly calm. “But don’t worry, since I’m feeling generous today, I’ll give you a lesson in what true success looks like.” He turned to the gathered executives and staff, speaking with the confidence of a man who believed himself invincible. “Once I get the chairman’s signature, this deal will be finalized. I’ll be walking away with a partnership that will make history.” He smirked, eyes glinting with triumph. “Meanwhile, he will still be standing here like an idiot, watching from the sidelines.” Nathan exhaled slowly, finally speaking. His voice was calm, almost bored. “I won’t sign it for you.” Silence. Then— Laughter erupted across the hall. It started as a few chuckles before growing into full-blown mockery. Executives, assistants, and onlookers alike were practically doubled over, some wiping tears from their eyes. “Did you hear that?” someone gasped between laughs. “He said he won’t sign it for Lucas! As if he’s the chairman himself!” “Oh, this is priceless,” another chortled. “I don’t know what’s funnier—his audacity or his delusions.” Sophia wiped an imaginary tear from the corner of her eye, shaking her head in fake pity. “Nathan, you’ve always been good at making a fool of yourself, but this… this is truly your masterpiece.” Lucas clapped mockingly. “Bravo, Nathan. If you were aiming to be the biggest joke in Imperium Corp’s history, congratulations—you’ve succeeded.” He grinned. “Now do us all a favor and disappear before you embarrass yourself even further.” At that moment, the heavy doors at the far end of the hall swung open, and a tall man in an expensive suit strode in. Mac Hilton. The high-ranking executive moved with authority, his gaze sharp as he scanned the room. The moment people noticed him, the mockery ceased, and all eyes turned to him with respect. Mac Hilton stepped forward, his voice crisp. “I just got news from the higher ups that the chairman has arrived and will be here shortly.” A murmur of excitement rippled through the room. Lucas straightened his jacket, standing taller. This is it. This was his moment. Then, as if remembering something crucial, he turned to Mac Hilton, gesturing toward Nathan with a dramatic sigh. “Mr. Hilton, I apologize for the disturbance, but I need to report a serious issue.” Mac’s eyes flickered with curiosity. “What issue?” Sophia stepped forward, her voice dripping with righteous indignation. “This man, Nathan has been pretending to be the chairman of Imperium Corp.” Gasps rang out through the crowd. Lucas nodded solemnly. “It’s true. He has been parading around, telling people that he won’t sign my deal—as if he has the authority to do so.” He turned to Mac Hilton with a concerned expression. “Sir, allowing frauds like him to roam around freely will only damage Imperium Corp’s reputation. I urge you to take action.” Mac Hilton’s face darkened. Pretending to be the chairman? A nobody like this daring to claim such an outrageous lie? The mere thought sent a flash of anger through him. His expression turned ice-cold. “You dare impersonate the chairman?” His voice was sharp and unwavering. Nathan remained calm, but he said nothing. To Mac, that silence was an admission of guilt. “Someone like you should be punished for such arrogance.” Mac’s tone was final, absolute. He turned to the security guards stationed nearby and commanded, “Break his leg.” The order sent shockwaves through the crowd. Some people sucked in their breaths, while others looked away, not wanting to get involved. Sophia and Lucas, however, were thrilled. Sophia clapped her hands together, her eyes dancing with malicious delight. “Oh, finally! This is exactly what he deserves!” Lucas chuckled darkly. “Enjoy crawling out of here, Nathan.” Two burly security guards stepped forward, their grips tightening around their batons. Nathan still didn’t move. Just as one of the guards raised his baton— “Stop.” A sharp, authoritative voice rang through the hall, cutting through the tension like a blade. Everyone turned in shock. A man walked in, exuding an aura of power that sent a ripple of fear through those present. Harper. The general manager of Imperium Corp. Mac Hilton, who had been so sure of himself just moments ago, instantly paled. His body stiffened, and without hesitation, he took a step back and bowed. “General Manager Harper!” Mac’s tone shifted completely, his voice now laced with respect. “I-I wasn’t aware you would be arriving so soon.” Lucas and Sophia froze in place. Mac Hilton bowed to almost no one. For him to act so deferentially toward Harper… Just who the hell was she? Harper didn’t even glance at Mac, and her cold eyes landed on Nathan, who just had a smirk on his face. A flicker of realization sparked in Mac Hilton’s mind, his face draining of color. Something was very wrong…
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Ch-170
The memory of Senna faded with the morning light, like mist burning off the cliffs of Ardent Cradle. Nathan stood for a long time at the edge of the vault, hands open, letting the silence settle into his skin. The Severance Protocol was complete. The unraveling had slowed. But not stopped.In the heart of the mountain stronghold, where six rings once hummed in distant synchrony, five figures now gathered around a slab of origin stone—unchiseled, untouched since before the Codex had been written.The chamber pulsed faintly. Not with power, but with intention.Miko arrived first, her eyes rimmed in pale gold, probability still flickering off her fingertips like static. Harper followed, silent as a shadow, her projected memory brushing the minds of those present in greeting. Nyx stood with one foot in reality and the other humming with digital decay, her eyes two cold blue points wired into half a hundred dead satellites.And the last: the Echochild.Nathan's half-brother.He said nothin
Ch-169
As the last threads of memory dissolved into stardust, the Astral plane began to settle, shimmering with the aftermath of the Severance Protocol. Harper’s breath slowed beside Nathan, her hand still faintly glowing from channeling the Rite. But time had not fully healed—and across the collapsing corridors of forgotten thought, a deeper fracture pulsed. The echo of Praelor’s dominion, buried but not broken, stirred in defiance. Nathan turned. His work was not done.---Nathan stepped through the silver breach, his coat whipping against the ripples of untime. The chamber he entered was both infinite and enclosed, walls bending around paradoxes—scrolls burning in reverse, ink flowing back into pens, relics whispering their own creation. At its center, Praelor waited.The proto-Sovereign stood tall, his body stitched together from archives of civilizations that never existed, eyes smoldering with stolen insight. “You dare walk into my sanctum,” he hissed, “with broken time hanging off you
Ch-168
The vision lingered long after the vault sealed behind Nathan.Even as he stepped into the windswept outer corridor of the Ardent Cradle, the world no longer held its shape. The stars had turned unfamiliar again—constellations writhing into spirals. Wind sang in reverse. Far below, valleys flickered between seasons, time stuttering like a failing engine.Harper met him halfway up the ridge path, her eyes wide and haunted. “The dreamworld’s unraveling. People are waking in wrong bodies. Entire cities are forgetting their names.”Nathan didn’t break stride. “We don’t have much time.”They spoke little as they moved. A shared rhythm between them had long since replaced the need for words. At the summit, they knelt side by side, not in prayer—but in preparation. Their bodies slowed, breath synced, minds unspooling like threads through layered thresholds.Their astral selves emerged beneath a shattered aurora sky.---The Astral Plane twisted like broken glass.Where once there had been cl
Ch-167
The sky no longer followed rules. Over Nova Point, sunlight refracted at strange angles, casting shadows that bent against their own grain. Clocks stuttered, skipped, and sometimes reversed. Birds flew in circles, then vanished mid-flight. The oceans swelled without wind. On the western coast, the stars flickered in broad daylight—entire constellations rearranging as though the heavens were remapping themselves by will alone. The End Convergence had begun. At the southern edge of the world, buried beneath the granite shelves of Ardent Cradle, Nathan descended into a chamber known only to the original Sovereign lineage. A vault with no key, no door, no defined space—only threshold and silence. The six rings hung around his neck in a tempered alloy chain, each nested in its dormant state. Power coiled beneath his skin like static. Dominion, Vision, Continuum, Flux, Sacrifice, Renewal—each represented a sliver of what had once been unity. And now, for the first time, he needed all o
Ch-166
The skies hadn’t healed since Cairo.The rift still hovered like a wound carved across the upper atmosphere, glowing faintly even by daylight. Nathan had barely slept in forty hours. His body ran on willpower, his mind tethered to too many coordinates—relief zones, kinetic shields, Sovereign Council reports.But it was Miko who hadn’t spoken since touching the corrupted fragment near the Sinai fissure.She sat on a bench just outside the rebel command bunker, hood drawn over her eyes, hands clenched tightly in her lap. The ring of Vision, once a warm pressure along her skin, now felt… absent. No glow. No whisper of potential futures. No shift in probability. Just silence.Nathan approached quietly, stopping when she didn’t look up.“You feel it too?” she asked.He didn’t pretend. “Like a missing limb.”Miko finally looked at him. Her eyes weren’t dull—they were too sharp, if anything. Raw. Exposed. “I touched something I shouldn’t have. It didn’t just take my sight—it stripped my anch
Ch-165
The ink hadn’t yet dried on the declaration of war.Nathan stood in the central chamber of the Nova Point sanctuary, palms braced against a schematic sprawled across the long obsidian table. The air was thick with the scent of old ozone and fresher arguments. The hologram above the table spun slowly—an image of the Ring fragments glowing like stars orbiting a storm.Harper stood beside him, silent but alert. Her voice had returned, but not entirely hers. The words she spoke now echoed faintly, like memory echoing down a canyon. Even Nathan, who could read storms in a person’s silence, didn’t fully know what price she’d paid for that partial return.“There's a way,” Nathan finally said. “To sever a fragment without killing the bearer.”The others looked up.“But?” Miko asked.Nathan tapped the schematic. “It requires a sacrifice. One of us would have to willingly part with their ring. Entirely. Permanently.”Silence spread like frost. Even the monk, usually unreadable, stiffened.Harpe
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