2026-02-26 18:18:27The impact wasn't a crash; it was a planetary concussion.
When ten billion tons of enchanted granite and reinforced alloy slammed into the Pacific Ocean, the resulting displacement sent a tsunami three hundred feet high racing toward the shattered remains of the California coastline. Inside the core room, Han Jin felt his internal organs shift as the inertial dampeners shrieked in agony.
[WARNING!]
[Altitude: 0 Feet (Sea Level)]
[Hull Integrity: 32%]
[Buoyancy Compensators: FAILED]
"Brace for submersion!" Han roared, his voice barely audible over the sound of screaming metal.
Babylon didn't float. It sank like a jagged, metallic tooth. The boiling white foam of the ocean surface vanished, replaced by the deep, oppressive turquoise of the abyss. The roar of the wind was instantly silenced, replaced by the terrifying, rhythmic thrum of water pressure against the outer shell.
"Administrator," the Foreman’s voice flickered back to life, now tinged with a cold, aquatic resonance. "Initiating 'Abyssal Protocol'. Deploying Hydro-Dynamic Stabilizers."
Massive, spade-like fins erupted from the mountain's base, slowing their descent. The glowing violet lights of the Mana Heart cast long, flickering shadows into the dark water, revealing the silhouettes of whales fleeing the mountain that had fallen from the stars.
"Zhao! Status!" Han wheezed, clutching a fractured rib.
"The engines are flooded, Boss!" Zhao Wei’s voice crackled through the intercom, followed by the sound of a heavy metallic clang. "But the [Mana-Turbine] is loving the thermal vents down here. We’re siphoning heat directly from the crust! Power is back to 60%!"
"Aris?"
"I'm here," she whispered, leaning against the core. Her violet eyes were wide, fixed on the external sensors. "Han... they’re above us. They didn't stop at the surface."
Han looked at the primary monitor. Through the dark water, eleven streaks of blinding light were piercing the ocean surface like harpoons.
[Target Identified: The Architect Fleet]
[Enemy Count: 11]
[Distance: 2,000 Meters and Closing]
Xerxes’ fortress, the Dead Star, was leading the charge. It had shed its starlight wings for a streamlined, obsidian shell that cut through the water with terrifying efficiency. Behind him, the Hive-Mind of Xyla had turned its vines into a mass of bioluminescent tentacles, propelling its forest-fortress downward like a giant, predatory jellyfish.
"You cannot hide in the dark, Han Jin," Xerxes’ telepathic voice vibrated through the hull, cold enough to freeze the salt water outside. "The System has designated Earth as a 'Corrupted Sector'. We are the cleanup crew. Your survival is a bug that must be purged to restore the Galamax Balance."
"Cleanup crew?" Han Jin spat blood onto the floor. "You're just scavengers picking at a corpse."
He turned to the Foreman. "Activate [Blueprint: Leviathan’s Maw]. If they want to play in the deep, let's show them who owns the trench."
[Blueprint: Leviathan’s Maw — Tier 4 (Submersible Modification)]
[Requirements: 1,200 AP / 50% Core Output]
[Effect: Converts the Mountain's Drill-Tip into a High-Pressure Sonic Cannon.]
"Aris, I need your psychic lock," Han said, his hand hovering over the 'Execute' button. "Don't look for their ships. Look for the pressure points in the water between them."
Aris closed her eyes. Her violet aura expanded, filling the core room with a soft, pulsing light. "There... the thermal current at 3,000 meters. If you hit it, the cavitation will create a vacuum bubble. It'll crush them before they even reach us."
"Zhao! Dump the excess heat from the Turbine into the cannon!"
"Firing in three... two... one!"
Babylon’s tip, still glowing orange from the friction of the fall, let out a sound that didn't belong in nature. A focused beam of sonic vibration tore through the water, creating a tunnel of super-heated steam that expanded with explosive force.
The lead 'Eraser' drones were vaporized instantly. Xerxes’ Dead Star fortress caught the edge of the shockwave, its obsidian hull cracking as the sudden pressure shift tried to turn the ship inside out.
[Enemy Integrity: 82%]
[Warning: The Hive-Mind has deployed 'Spore-Mines'.]
"They’re learning," Freya said, stepping onto the bridge, her hands glowing with frost-mana. "Han, the water is turning into a conductor. If the Hive-Mind touches our hull with those vines, they’ll fry the A.I. through the outer sensors."
Han Jin looked at the map. They were hovering over the Mariana Trench.
"We're going deeper," Han said, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Foreman, full negative buoyancy. We’re heading for the 'World-Core' access point."
"Han, that’s suicide!" Aris cried. "The pressure there will pancake the base!"
"Not if we use the frost-mana to reinforce the hull," Han countered, looking at Freya. "Freya, can you coat the entire mountain in 'Zero-Point Ice'? It’s the only material that gets stronger as the pressure increases."
Freya looked at the dark abyss below, then at Han. She gave a sharp, determined nod. "It’ll drain me, Han. I’ll be out of the fight for a week."
"Do it. We just need to buy enough time to reach the 43-day mark."
As Freya placed her hands on the cold steel floor, a layer of crystalline ice began to spread, encasing Babylon in a translucent, diamond-hard shell. The mountain accelerated, diving into the blackest depths of the Earth.
Behind them, the eleven Architects hesitated. Their high-tech fortresses were designed for space, for the vacuum—not for the crushing, lightless weight of seven miles of ocean.
But Xerxes didn't stop. His obsidian fortress began to glow with a dark, 'Eraser' light, carving a path through the water as he followed Han Jin into the trench.
"You think the pressure is your ally, Twelfth?" Xerxes’ voice mocked. "I watched my own sun collapse into a singularity. I am the master of gravity!"
The two mountains of steel and ice plummeted toward the bottom of the world, a trail of bubbles and mana-fire marking their path.
Suddenly, the Foreman’s sensors let out a rhythmic, metallic ping.
[Object Detected at Trench Floor: 11,000 Meters]
[Type: Ancient Construct]
[Analysis: It is a 'System Gate' from the FIRST Cycle.]
Han Jin’s heart stopped. There was already a base down here. And it was active.
"Who else is in the loop?" Han whispered.
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Chapter 20
The white light didn't fade; it shattered like a glass mirror.Han Jin woke up with the taste of copper and salt in his mouth. The rhythmic hum of the [Divine Architect System]—the constant digital companion that had dictated his every breath since the reboot—was gone. No HUD. No status bars. No reassuring pings of "Level Up."Silence. The kind of silence that usually precedes a burial.He was lying on a beach of black volcanic sand. Beside him, the rusted wrench of the First Architect was half-buried in the tide. Further up the shore, the massive, jagged remains of Babylon lay beached like the carcass of a dead whale, its enchanted granite cracked and its violet lights extinguished."Zhao? Aris?" Han croaked, his voice raw."Over here, Boss," a muffled voice groaned. Zhao Wei crawled out from under a piece of hull plating, his massive frame shaking. He wasn't wearing his mana-reinforced apron anymore; just a tattered shirt. "The Turbine... it's dead. The System... I can't feel t
Chapter 19
The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench was over sixteen thousand pounds per square inch—a weight that should have turned Babylon into a ball of scrap metal. But Freya’s [Zero-Point Ice] held, the translucent shell glowing with a rhythmic, ghostly blue light as the mountain-fortress finally settled onto the silt of the ocean floor.[Depth: 36,000 Feet][External Pressure: CRITICAL][Status: Hull Stabilized by Cryo-Reinforcement]"We’re on the bottom," Zhao Wei gasped, his breath visible in the freezing air of the command deck. "But we’re blind. The sonar is just... bouncing off something massive."Han Jin stepped toward the primary viewport. He didn't need sonar. Through the crystalline ice, he saw it: a structure of smooth, white obsidian that defied the darkness of the trench. It was a pyramid, perfectly preserved, and it was emitting a signal that resonated with Han’s very soul.[System Link Established...][Welcome, User 001: The Original Architect.]"User 001?" Aris
Chapter 18
The impact wasn't a crash; it was a planetary concussion.When ten billion tons of enchanted granite and reinforced alloy slammed into the Pacific Ocean, the resulting displacement sent a tsunami three hundred feet high racing toward the shattered remains of the California coastline. Inside the core room, Han Jin felt his internal organs shift as the inertial dampeners shrieked in agony.[WARNING!][Altitude: 0 Feet (Sea Level)][Hull Integrity: 32%][Buoyancy Compensators: FAILED]"Brace for submersion!" Han roared, his voice barely audible over the sound of screaming metal.Babylon didn't float. It sank like a jagged, metallic tooth. The boiling white foam of the ocean surface vanished, replaced by the deep, oppressive turquoise of the abyss. The roar of the wind was instantly silenced, replaced by the terrifying, rhythmic thrum of water pressure against the outer shell."Administrator," the Foreman’s voice flickered back to life, now tinged with a cold, aquatic resonance. "Ini
Chapter 17
The descent was no longer a flight; it was a plummeting execution.Babylon groaned as its gravitational anchors snapped one by one, the sound like violin strings made of steel being torn apart by a giant. Below them, the Earth was a swirling vortex of purple mist and jagged, silver-domed cities. Above them, the Planet-Eater loomed—a mechanical moon of gears and grinding teeth, descending to harvest the world’s very core.[WARNING!][Babylon Altitude: 15,000 Feet... 12,000 Feet...][A.I. Takeover: 94%][Foreman Status: CORRUPTED]"Han! The turrets are locking onto us!" Zhao Wei screamed, his hands white on the SUV’s manual steering column as they screeched onto Babylon’s main landing pad.The base’s own defense system, hijacked by the traitorous Xerxes, swiveled its twin railguns toward the SUV. A blast of blue plasma scorched the air inches from Han’s head, melting the rearview mirror into a puddle of slag."Aris, get to the Core! Use that chip!" Han yelled, leaping from the movi
Chapter 16
The air inside the Pillar of Genesis was too clean. It lacked the grit of the shipyard, the metallic tang of Babylon’s forge, and the scent of ozone that Han Jin had come to associate with survival. It smelled like nothing—a sterile, vacuum-sealed void.Han Jin stepped off the ramp, his charred [Kinetic Suit] hissing as it pressurized. Behind him, Zhao Wei gripped his hammer, and Aris stood frozen, her violet eyes darting between the silver-skinned woman and the ten colossal statues lining the hall."The other planets?" Han Jin asked, his voice rasping. "You're saying this isn't a global apocalypse. It's a galactic culling?"The silver woman—the Herald—inclined her head. "Earth is the twelfth seed, Han Jin. A late bloomer. The others have been 'refined' for eons. They have already integrated their worlds into the System. Now, they compete for the right to exist in the next Great Cycle."[System Notification!][Entering: The High Architect Council Chamber][Warning: Physical Combat
Chapter 15
The silver dome didn't just cover the continent; it hummed with a frequency that vibrated in Han Jin’s very marrow. It was the sound of a trillion nanites weaving a cage around humanity.Inside the command deck of Babylon, the atmosphere was thick with the scent of ozone and the heavy silence of a death row cell. Han Jin stood at the panoramic window, his reflection ghostly against the backdrop of the shimmering, metallic sky.[Current Status: Global Registration Phase][Target: The Central Hub - 'The Pillar of Genesis'][Warning: Unregistered Fortresses will be designated as 'Debris' and recycled in 23 hours.]"They aren't just managing the world," Aris whispered, her fingers flying across the holographic medical bay interface as she treated Freya’s frost-burned skin. "They're domesticating it. Han, the energy reading from that dome... it's not mana. It's Order.""Order is just another word for a cage," Han Jin growled. He turned to Zhao Wei, who was frantically recalibrating the
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