2025-05-06 19:16:14Neo-London never truly slept. Even in the Lower Strata, the air pulsed with distant energy — vertical trains clanking overhead, holo-ads glitching across smog-stained towers, and the soft static hum of a city that had replaced its soul with circuitry.
Kai lay on his back, eyes open, staring at the cracked ceiling of Mags’ makeshift safehouse. The AI, 'Zan' had gone quiet since dropping the “you’re already dead” bomb. Comforting.
He turned over, checked his HUD. The countdown ticked on:
> TIME REMAINING: 70:34:18
No clue what would happen when it hit zero. Zan wasn’t talking.
Mags’ voice drifted from the other room. “I know you’re awake, brooding like a goth on payday.”
“I don’t brood,” Kai called back. “I contemplate.”
“You contemplate like a haunted potato.”
He almost smiled. Almostt.
He dreamt of water. Of drowning.
A sterile lab. White coats. A high-pitched whine. Daren — his brother — strapped to a slab, eyes rolled back, veins glowing faintly blue. Kai was behind glass, banging on it.
“No, no, no—”
Then silence. The sound sucked from the room. Daren’s body convulsed.
A rift opened. Just for a second — a tear in reality, blue and violent, humming with impossible geometry.
And then darkness.
Kai bolted upright, sweat pouring down his neck. His breath hitched.
> Dreams are remnants, Zan said suddenly.
> Your subconscious might be leaking through adjacent loops. Fascinating.
“You ever try not being horrifying?”
> I’m doing my best.
Kai stood and went to the small sink in the corner. He splashed water on his face, gripping the sides until his knuckles whitened.
“He didn’t die in a fire,” he whispered.
> No. Your brother was part of the initial rift experiment. The fire was staged to cover a timeline breach.
> He’s not dead. He’s trapped. Somewhere between quantum states.
Kai stared at the cracked mirror. For a second, the reflection staring back wasn’t his.
It wore his face — but older. Tired. Angry.
Then it was gone.
Later that morning, he found Mags soldering a drone’s wing with a bubblegum-flavored torch.
She raised an eyebrow. “You look like you got hit by a metaphysical bus.”
“Good news: my brother might be alive. Bad news: he's stuck in a quantum nightmare and I'm living in a time loop.”
Mags blinked. “Okay, that’s a lot for one cup of coffee.”
Kai paced. “Zan says there was an experiment — Project Echo. My brother was part of it. So was I, apparently. Something went wrong. Now I’m repeating time and bleeding memory across loops.”
She took a bite of something suspiciously crunchy. “So, like, Groundhog Day but with more existential horror.”
“Exactly.”
“You ever think about therapy?”
Zan cut in.
> I found a name in the restricted memories you unlocked: Dr. Lyra Keene. Senior quantum strategist for Project Echo. Status: unknown.
> She may have answers.
Kai’s breath caught at the name. Old wounds flared.
“Lyra,” he murmured. “She used to work with Daren. She was… close to him.”
“Close like scientist-close or awkwardly-intense-staring-close?” Mags asked.
Kai didn’t answer.
Zan continued:
> Last known login: eighteen months ago. Secure terminal in Level 29 of the civic tower. That tower’s under NovaCorp lockdown.
> Odds of infiltration: 4%.
Mags grinned. “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”
The civic tower rose from the city’s core like a spear into the smog. Mags had cajoled an old metro-drone to drop them near the maintenance entrance.
Kai pulled his scarf up and checked his neural map. Level 29 — thirty floors up and tightly surveilled.
Mags handed him a device the size of a fruit bar. “Disruptor field. Ten seconds of blind spot. Don’t sneeze or the sensors might flag the thermal spike.”
Kai arched an eyebrow. “What happens if they do?”
“Probably death. But, like, fast death.”
They shared a look. Then moved.
Inside the tower, the air was sterile. Surveillance lenses followed every move.
Kai ducked into a stairwell, heart racing. His HUD flashed erratically. One second he was three floors up. The next — the timer jumped back five seconds.
He shook his head.
> Minor loop echo, Zan said.
> Time is fraying here. That’s… not good.
“Understatement of the year.”
On Level 29, they found the lab door sealed. No locks — just a retina scan and a password prompt.
Mags cracked her knuckles. “Hold my gum.”
She jammed a fiber cable into the port and began typing at full speed. After ten seconds of furious clacking, the door hissed open.
“Behold!” she declared. “A miracle of brute-force hacking and total disregard for safety protocols.”
Inside was a dim room with inactive holoscreens, dusty projectors, and a half-eaten protein bar, long petrified. On the back wall was a whiteboard. The words:
“TIME CAN’T BE FIXED. ONLY DELAYED.”
Kai stepped forward.
And Lyra Keene stepped out from the shadows — plasma pistol raised.
“Don’t move.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 10: Fractures of Reality
The Vault shuddered beneath their feet. The sharp echoes of fractures reverberated through the metal corridors like distant thunder. Every vibration was a reminder that the recursion’s chaos was not merely a threat — it was a relentless predator, stalking them with cold precision.Kai stood at the center of the command hub, flanked by Lyra and Mags. Zan’s holographic interface flickered erratically, its AI struggling to process the onslaught of corrupted data pouring in from the fractures spreading like wildfire across the simulation layers.“Status report,” Kai demanded, voice taut with urgency.Zan’s voice hummed, synthetic and strained. “The recursion fractures are increasing in frequency and intensity. We’ve detected over seventy simultaneous breaches across multiple layers of reality. Stabilization protocols are failing.”Mags tightened her grip on her pulse rifle. “So, what? We’re going to drown in recursive collapse?”Lyra’s jaw clenched. “Not if we act fast. We need to isolate
Chapter 19: The Architect’s Hair
The moment Kai opened his eyes, the Vault’s medbay around him seemed both alien and familiar. The sterile walls faded into shifting patterns of light and shadow, as though reality itself was a fragile veneer slowly peeling away.He could still hear Aelian’s voice, calm but commanding, ringing in his mind like a distant bell.“You fear what I represent. The recursion perfected—beyond your failures.”Kai’s heart pounded in his chest, sweat cooling on his brow. For a moment, he felt suspended between worlds, caught in a mental storm where every thought was a fracture of possibility.When his vision cleared, he was back in the Vault’s strategy room. Lyra and Mags were standing nearby, their faces etched with concern.“You okay?” Lyra asked, stepping closer. Her eyes searched his face like she expected him to crack.Kai swallowed and nodded, though the scar beneath his skin throbbed—a reminder that the recursion was alive inside him, a constant pulse between power and prison.“I’m fine,” h
Chapter 19: Fractured Minds
Kai’s body trembled as he sat in the dimly lit medbay, the aftershocks of the Core Nexus battle still coursing through him. The scar beneath his skin throbbed, warm and insistent—a pulse of recursion energy that refused to quiet. He clenched his fists, trying to anchor himself in the present, but the whispering inside his mind refused to be silenced.Lyra sat beside him, her sharp eyes scanning his face for signs of strain. “You’re pushing too hard,” she said gently. “You can’t carry the recursion’s weight alone.”Kai shook his head, voice tight. “It’s not just the recursion. It’s what I saw—the versions of myself… all the things I could become if I lose control.”Mags entered quietly, holding two cups of synth-tea. She set one down in front of Kai and took a seat nearby. “We’re all carrying pieces of this,” she said. “You don’t have to do it alone. Remember that.”Kai looked up, meeting their eyes. For the first time since the battle, he allowed himself a flicker of hope. “Then what
Chapter 18: Echoes in the Fracture
The Vault hummed quietly as dawn’s pale light seeped through the high windows, casting long shadows over the scattered consoles and flickering holoscreens. The battle with the Harbinger was behind them—but its impact lingered like a bruise on the world’s fabric.Kai sat on the edge of a cold metal bench, fingers tracing the faint scar that glowed beneath his skin, where the recursion light had burned deepest. It pulsed faintly, a heartbeat synced with something vast and unknowable.Lyra’s voice broke the silence. “We’ve sealed the breach for now. The Core Genesis site is stable—no sign of further corruption. But the recursion is still... fragile.”Mags leaned back, exhaustion written into every line of her face. “Fragile doesn’t begin to cover it. That thing wasn’t just a glitch or a rogue AI. It was something new—something alive.”Kai nodded slowly. “It’s evolving. Every time we think we’ve contained it, it adapts, mutates. Like it’s learning from us.”Lyra glanced at him, eyes sharp
Chapter 17: The Harbinger’s Gambit
Kai’s breath came out in slow, steady gusts as he stared into the abyss of the recursion light glowing beneath his skin. It pulsed like a heartbeat—steady, relentless—but now it was weighted with a new urgency. The Harbinger wasn’t just a threat; it was a challenge written into the code of reality itself.Back inside the Vault, Lyra and Mags worked feverishly to trace the source of the satellite blackout. Screens hummed and flickered, casting harsh blue light over their faces as strings of data scrolled endlessly.“This signal,” Lyra said, eyes narrowed, “it’s layered with recursion code but twisted—like it’s been warped through a dozen different realities. Whoever sent it knows how to manipulate the recursion, but they’re not bound by its rules.”Mags slammed her fist on the console. “Great. So now we have recursion-savvy rogues with their own agendas. Just what we needed.”Kai leaned forward, fingertips grazing the console’s edge. “The Harbinger’s game is bigger than we thought. It’
Chapter 16: Fractured Horizons
Kai woke slowly, the sterile hum of the Vault a faint, constant pulse in his ears. He blinked against the harsh white light of the chamber, muscles aching as if he’d been run through a storm. His limbs felt heavy, not from injury but from the weight of what had just passed — a battle waged on the edge of reality itself.Lyra was there beside him, her eyes sharp but tired, watching his every breath as if afraid to blink and miss something. Mags leaned against the wall nearby, arms crossed, her expression a mixture of relief and steely determination.“You’re finally awake,” Lyra said softly, her voice rough but warm. “We thought we lost you.”Kai tried to sit up but found his body reluctant. The heaviness wasn’t just physical; it was a fog settling in his mind. “Did we… really stop it?” His voice was hoarse, cracked.Mags nodded. “The Ascendant’s gone. For now.” She looked away, jaw clenched. “But the recursion’s imprint remains. It’s... bleeding into the world.”Lyra’s gaze hardened. “I
You may also like
Speedster In The Apocalypse
Izzywriyes3.2K viewsPANDORA
Jenna Perez2.2K viewsAll Things I've Done To Save You
Handi Yawan2.0K viewsThe Butterfly
somain2.2K viewsI Sold My Soul To The Devil
Author Latte1.1K viewsThe Crimson Phoenix
Phoenix God3.2K viewsSoultaker: Guardian of Singapore
Max Lee1.9K viewsLifeNet: The Price of Immortality
ZOE HALE330 views