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CHAPTER 355. ECHOES OF THE ARTIFACT
The artifact pulsed again. A low, trembling throb rolled through the laboratory walls, soft but heavy enough to shake loose dust from ceiling vents. The lights flickered, dimmed, then steadied. The hum faded. Silence returned, but Oliver Beckett felt the vibration still echoing in his chest.He stood beside the reinforced glass chamber, staring at the fragment of the crystal eye lying inside. It was no bigger than a coin, yet it felt like a living heart glowing with its own quiet rhythm.A rhythm that, disturbingly, matched his own. He stepped back, breathing out shakily. “It’s getting stronger.”Across the room, Iris adjusted readings on a floating monitor. Her brow creased with worry. “Every hour it emits a pulse… and every pulse gets louder. The containment field is barely holding.”Oliver rubbed the back of his neck. “Kael won’t like this.”Iris shot him a look. “Kael already doesn’t like this.”He couldn’t argue with that.The lab was a sealed bunker under the academy. Only the
CHAPTER 354. THE HORIZON OF POWER
The sky began changing long before anyone understood why. It started with a soft shimmer, thin ribbons of pale green drifting above the academy like dancing mist. Students pointed at the sky during lunch, whispering that it looked pretty, almost magical, but Oliver Beckett felt something else in that light.Something cold. Something dangerous. By sunset, the aurora grew brighter, too bright, and the air buzzed faintly the way the Zones did. Iris noticed it too. She stood with Oliver at the observatory balcony, her hands wrapped around the metal railing. “This isn’t normal,” she murmured.Oliver gave a slow nod. “The System’s leaking into the sky.”The light pulsed once, sharp enough to sting their eyes, and a strange vibration rolled through the air like a low hum. Iris shivered. “It feels like… like the world is breathing wrong.”Oliver didn’t respond. He felt the difference in his bones. The Zones had always been separate, sealed away inside their own spaces. But now the boundary
CHAPTER 353. ARTIFACT RUMORS
The morning after Oliver’s return from the Obsidian Garden felt strangely quiet. Too quiet.He woke with a dull ache behind his eyes, a heaviness in his chest, and the sharp memory of the smirking reflection whispering Hayes’s name.Even the sunlight creeping into his dorm room felt thin, like the world was holding its breath.Iris sat by the window with a tablet in her hands, reviewing logs. When she heard him shift, she looked up immediately. “Good morning,” she said softly.Oliver tried to smile, but it failed halfway. “Morning.”Her eyes searched his face. “Did you sleep at all?”“A little,” he lied.She didn’t believe him, but she didn’t push. Instead she closed the tablet gently, stood, and walked toward him. “The faculty is meeting today,” she said. “Kael wants to talk about artifacts.”Oliver frowned. “What artifacts?”Iris inhaled deeply. “More of them. They’re appearing everywhere.”Oliver froze. “More? Why now?”Iris didn’t have answers. She only gave him a small nod. “Come
CHAPTER 352. EVOLUTION ZONE: THE OBSIDIAN GARDEN
The portal opened like a tear cut through darkness. Oliver Beckett stepped forward, Iris’s hand still warm against his palm until the light swallowed him whole. The world twisted, folded, then snapped into a silent landscape made entirely of black glass.Zone 08: Obsidian Garden.It looked like a cathedral that had been carved, shard by shard, from frozen midnight. Towers of reflective stone rose overhead. Blossoms of razor-sharp crystal bloomed on the ground. The air felt cold, so still it barely existed.And everywhere Oliver looked…His reflection stared back. Not one reflection. Dozens. Hundreds. All slightly wrong.One version of him had a scar running down his jaw. Another wore heavier armor. One looked older. One younger. One smiled too calmly. Another scowled with a silent rage. Oliver’s breath faded into fog. “This place is wrong.”The System responded instantly, its voice sharp:[Evolution Zone 08 Loaded: The Obsidian Garden][Warning: Pattern-Mimic Entities Active][Objec
CHAPTER 351. SYSTEM UPGRADE
The change began at dawn. Oliver Beckett woke to a sharp pulse behind his eyes, a vibration so sudden and deep that it felt like the world briefly cracked open. His breath hitched. The dorm room blurred. Every shadow seemed to flicker. Even the air hummed.At first, he thought he was still dreaming, then the System’s window erupted in front of him, unprompted, violent, glitching with lines of code that twisted like living needles.[GLOBAL UPDATE INITIATED][PHASE ONE COMPLETE][BEGINNING PHASE TWO: EVOLUTION ZONES]The letters vibrated, scattering pieces of light across the room. Oliver gripped the edge of his bed. “Not now,” he muttered. “Not like this.”Then the world snapped. His vision folded inward. Something screamed through his mind, metallic, distant, almost mechanical.He staggered, hitting the nightstand, knocking over a cup of water. The door burst open.“Oliver!” Iris rushed in, her eyes wide with fear. The silver glow he saw earlier had returned faintly beneath her skin,
CHAPTER 350. IRIS’S AWAKENING
The infirmary was too quiet. Too white. Too cold. Oliver Beckett sat at Iris’s bedside, elbows on his knees, hands clasped so tightly the knuckles had turned pale. He stared at her still form, willing her to breathe easier. She lay wrapped in thin sheets.Her skin shimmering faintly with geometric patterns, sharp lines, angles, and symbols that crawled under her skin like living glass.Patterns she didn’t have before Zone 07. Patterns that terrified him.Billy stood near the doorway, shifting nervously. “She’ll wake up, man,” he said. “She always does.”Oliver didn’t move. “I know.”But he didn’t sound sure. He hadn’t slept since the collapse. His mind replayed the moment Iris fell.The way her mana burst into wild crystalline shapes, collapsing her barrier and slamming her into the ground. The sound of her heartbeat fading. The Zone had nearly killed her. And not because she was weak, but because something inside the Zone recognized her.Now, her breathing was shallow. Too shallow.
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