Chapter 420
Author: Yeshua Yin
last update2026-01-07 22:53:53

The tunnel doors sealed behind them with a sound that arrived too late.

Oliver felt it through his boots first. The vibration traveled up the metal stairs, into the walls, then into his ribs.

The blast doors locked. Secondary seals engaged. Red lights flashed once, then steadied. Underground, time behaved better. Not normal. Just better.

The evacuation column moved fast through the access tunnel. Headlamps cut white lines through dust and steam. Boots hit metal. No one spoke unless they had to.

Billy took point. Rifle up. He checked every side passage, every maintenance hatch. He did not slow.

Iris walked three steps behind Oliver. Her throat bandages were fresh. She held her projector close to her chest, both hands tight around it.

Oliver stayed in the center of the column. The shard rested inside a sealed containment sleeve strapped to his side.

Even through the casing, he felt it. Not heat. Pressure. A steady pulse. Step. Pulse. Step. Pulse.

The tunnel curved downward. Old infras
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  • Chapter 421

    The canyon collapsed without warning. One moment it was there, wide, jagged, packed with refugees running shoulder to shoulder, and the next it folded inward. Stone bent. Gravity spiked. People lifted off the ground and slammed back down as the air twisted. Oliver was already shouting before the sound reached him. “Left flank, break right! Move!”The order rippled late through the mass of bodies. Some reacted in time. Others did not.The canyon floor dropped out. A transport sled tipped sideways and vanished into the dark. A scream cut off mid-breath. The Envoy had moved. Not forward. Outward.Its gravity field swept across Veyra Reach like a slow wave. Cliffs bowed inward. Floating crystal formations slammed together and shattered. The sky dimmed as light bent toward a single point beyond the horizon.Billy skidded to Oliver’s side, one hand braced against the ground. “That was ten klicks out.”“It’s testing range,” Oliver said. “Keep them moving.”Ahead, the fortress came into vie

  • Chapter 420

    The tunnel doors sealed behind them with a sound that arrived too late.Oliver felt it through his boots first. The vibration traveled up the metal stairs, into the walls, then into his ribs. The blast doors locked. Secondary seals engaged. Red lights flashed once, then steadied. Underground, time behaved better. Not normal. Just better.The evacuation column moved fast through the access tunnel. Headlamps cut white lines through dust and steam. Boots hit metal. No one spoke unless they had to.Billy took point. Rifle up. He checked every side passage, every maintenance hatch. He did not slow.Iris walked three steps behind Oliver. Her throat bandages were fresh. She held her projector close to her chest, both hands tight around it.Oliver stayed in the center of the column. The shard rested inside a sealed containment sleeve strapped to his side. Even through the casing, he felt it. Not heat. Pressure. A steady pulse. Step. Pulse. Step. Pulse.The tunnel curved downward. Old infras

  • Chapter 419

    The plateau did not go quiet after the blast. It held its breath.Oliver stood with his boots planted in cracked stone, the air pressing inward from all sides. The mirror forms had stopped moving. They stood frozen across the field, weapons raised, bodies half-turned, like mannequins caught mid-fight. The anchors around them shuddered, cracked open, and hummed with a low, steady tone.The Envoy’s shell loomed ahead. It no longer rippled. It leaned forward, close enough that the light bending around it pulled at Oliver’s vision.Billy’s voice broke through the comms. “They’re not advancing.”“Don’t trust it,” Oliver said. He did not lower his weapon.A mirror form near Anchor Five twitched. Its head turned a fraction too far. The metal at its neck creaked.Oliver raised his hand. “All units, hold position. Do not engage unless I call it.”Silence followed. Not empty silence. Loaded. The anchors began to glow. Not bright. Focused.The runes carved along their frames lit one by one, not

  • Chapter 418

    The first Light Anchor arrived before the smoke cleared. It descended through the broken sky on a column of blue fire and slammed into the plateau hard enough to flatten a ring of crystal shards. The impact sent a wave through the ground. The wave moved late. Rocks jumped after the sound passed.Oliver stood at the canyon edge and watched it lock into place. The anchor was taller than a crawler. Its surface was dull silver, scarred with old marks and fresh weld lines. Thick cables ran from its base into the ground, drilling themselves down with a grinding sound that came in bursts. Runes along its spine pulsed once, then steadied.Around it, the air stiffened. “Anchor One is live,” a voice said over comms. “Time distortion reduced by point zero four.”Oliver did not reply. He watched the sky. The riftstorm still hung above the Reach. The aurora churned in slow bands, bending light toward its center.More shapes cut through the clouds. Artillery skiffs. Six of them. Heavy frames. Gun

  • Chapter 417

    Oliver Beckett watched the timer on his wrist stall between seconds as his message crawled through the air. His mouth moved faster than the signal. The words left him clean and sharp, then stretched thin, like they were pulled apart by something unseen.“All Travelers,” he said, voice clipped. “This is Beckett. Evacuate Veyra Reach. All stations. All teams. Move now.”The reply lights did not blink. They dimmed. One by one.Around him, the plateau groaned. Floating crystals along the ridge shuddered in place. Some dipped, then rose again, slow as if thinking about it. A mining tower in the distance leaned a degree to the left. Bolts popped. No explosion followed. The sound arrived late.Oliver lowered his wrist. “System delay confirmed.”Billy did not answer at first. He stood on the edge of the canyon path, eyes on the convoy below. Six crawler trucks. Two med rigs. One fuel hauler. Civilians mixed with Guild support. Hard hats. Data packs clutched to chests.The ground under Billy’s

  • Chapter 416

    The ground breaks without a sound. One second the plateau stands solid. The next, cracks race across the stone like black lines drawn by an unseen hand. The air turns thick. Light flickers and stutters, as if the sky forgets how to shine.Oliver Beckett feels the pull before he hears anything. Gravity flips. Crates, drones, and loose weapons tear free from the ground and fly upward. A supply truck lifts on one side, then slams hard against an invisible force. Shards of crystal spin into the air like glass insects.“Shields up!” Oliver shouts.His voice cuts through the static. Travelers move at once. Wrist units flash. Shield domes snap into place around squads and vehicles.The domes die in the same second. They do not crack. They do not fade. They simply turn off.The light inside them vanishes, leaving naked teams standing on broken stone.Billy’s convoy slides toward a widening in the ground. He slams the brakes. The truck skids sideways, then lifts, pulled by the inverted force.

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