Codex of the Forgotten

chapter 8 :

 chapter 8 :

Lucille exclaimed, "Ethan, we have to go! Something closer from the surface!"

The figure nodded slowly. "When we run out. You will know more when the third fragment is found. But remember ... not all fractions want the world to be put together again."

He stretched out his hand, and a transparent fragment appeared in the air - sparkling like a prism. 

Ethan touched it, and for a fraction of a second, he saw:

Fire. Ruins. Thousands of people prostrate to the robed figure sitting on the throne of Codex. 

That face, his own face. 

And the sound echoed in his mind: "Are you going to choose to repeat the same curse?"

The flash of light exploded from the fragment, and in an instant the three of them crashed back to Leviathan. 

The strange space disappeared. The sea is calm again. 

---

A few hours later, in the Observation Room of Division X, Ethan sat in silence. His hands trembled. The new fragment has been integrated with gloves, now throbbing deeper, as if rooted into his skin. 

Lucille stood beside him. "Whatever that you see, it's not the end, Ethan."

Ethan looked at him. "But maybe that's the beginning of something that I can't control."

Lucille answered in a low voice, "Or maybe, that's the reason why you were given a second chance."

At that moment, the main warning alarm sounded. 

Dante appeared on the main screen. "We have just received an active codex signal - the third Fragmen has been built. But this is different."

He looked at Ethan sharply. 

"Fragment is taken by someone from within our own organization."

Ethan stands. His eyes began to shine faintly. 

His face was tense, and only one word came out of his lips: "Who betrayed us?"

____

The red light from the alarm had not yet been extinguished when Ethan stepped quickly along the main alley of Division X. Juno and Lucille followed him from behind. Their steps are racing against the tension that is now controlling the basement headquarters. 

On the central monitor screen, the faces of the members one by one appear. Some show confusion, some panic, but there is one empty face - without data, without location. 

"Alex Miro," murmured Dante, standing tall in the control room, his voice was flat but deadly. "Senior scientists in the Codex Research Division. He disappeared twenty minutes before the third fragment signal was detected."

Lucille sparked his eyes. "Alex? That person, can't even change the bulb."

"Experiments make people change," Dante said. "Especially when they stared for too long to look into Codex."

Ethan stopped in front of the projection panel. "What did he take?"

Dante looked at him, hesitated for a moment. "It's not just the third fragment."

He pressed the button. 

On the screen, the image ran away from the last surveillance camera before the system was turned off - Alex ran in the underground corridor, carrying a black metal suitcase of codex sealed. But that's not what makes everyone silent. 

Behind him, following in the shadow, is Ethan's own shadow. 

Lucille stepped back. "That ... not you, right?"

Ethan gritted his teeth. "That's it. The entity that appeared in Leviathan." I "were the old one. Or the rest of anyone I used to be."

Juno looked at the screen with a confused expression. "If the fragment can call the old version of you, does it mean that every piece will generate your other dark side?"

Dante nodded. "It could be. But worse, the third fragment is inactive by itself. Someone helps him, raises him."

Lucille exclaimed, "Then where did Alex go?!"

Dante shifted the satellite map screen. A blinking signal in the north - a small red point in the middle of an unnamed desert, a forbidden area called Zone 0. 

"He headed for Codex's old temple. The place where we used to find the first fragment - and where you, Ethan, was first discovered ten years ago."

Ethan raised his face. "Then we go there."

"Yes." Dante answered quickly, briefly. 

---

The journey to zone 0 is not like the previous mission. Air transportation cannot be used - Codex signal opposite has paralyzed all systems. They can only use land vehicles: Black Division X convoy that drove across the barren desert and metal winds that are rustling like ghost whispers. 

Inside the vehicle, Ethan sat quietly. His head was full. 

Lucille approached, sitting beside him. "You tremble."

Ethan was silent. 

"I know," Guess Lucille, "Afraid, huh?"

This time Ethan needs to respond. "It's more awake. It feels like my body remembers things that I haven't had time to think about. I feel part of something much bigger."

Lucille touched his hand, smiling softly. "You don't belong to that past, Ethan. You are the current you."

Ethan turned his head, and for the first time he returned the smile. 

But the smile immediately vanished when it coincided with that they entered zone 0. 

---

The land around them is black, scorched. Large stones lifted from the ground as if thrown out of the surface. Old vehicle carcasses, the rest of the experimental, and debris of the supervisory tower scattered irregularly. 

They got out of the car. The wind here smells of iron and decay. 

Dante gives a signal. "Don't scatter."

But everything is too late. 

The sound of the explosion shook the ground. The ground under their feet collapsed. The old codex snares - time and reality - active again. 

Juno fell first, "Aaaagk !!" Followed by two other members who disappeared in the vortex of light. Ethan and Lucille bounced in a different direction. 

Ethan landed in a cold and dusty underground hallway. Dark. Quiet. Only a faint purple light from the gloves that illuminated the road. 

Footsteps echo in the distance. 

He called, "Lucille? Dante?!"

There is no answer. 

There is only someone's voice from the end of the hall, walking slowly, dragging something. 

And the voice spoke, "Finally we meet ... for the second time, Ethan."

The shadow appeared. Now clearer. The robe is no longer clean, but tattered. But his face remained, Ethan's own face. 

But with empty eyes. A dead smile. 

Behind him, Alex Miro. His hands trembled, his face like he had just seen hell. 

Ethan stiffened. "Let him go."

Ethan's shadow laughed softly. "Why? Didn't all of this start? I just finished what was left from you."

The third fragment floated in the air, spinning over his palm. Like a burning heart. 

Then the entity said: "Let's look, who deserves to have this destiny. Me, or you who forget who he is."

And immediately the light exploded around them. 

Ethan fell, but when he opened his eyes - he was no longer in the hallway. 

He stood on the world that was split in two: one bright side dazzled, one dark dark side. 

And between the two sides, Ethan must choose - and know the consequences