2026-04-25 23:52:27
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 50
Suddenly, a sound broke the silence of the Dead Zone.Krr-chhh.It was the sound of metal being cut. It was coming from the manual hatch Silas had entered through.The Black-Guard had found the Dead Zone. They didn't have the wheel, but they had tools. The white-hot light of a plasma-cutter began to eat through the iron door.Silas didn't panic. He stood up. He felt the weight of the Black-Iron sword at his side. He felt the silver-lattice marrow in his bones hum.He looked at the diagram of the Engine one last time.If the city was built on his "Internal Flow," then he knew its weakness. He knew exactly where the "Break-Point" was. In a human body, if you hit the central gate at the wrong moment, the energy reverses. The body explodes from the inside.If he could reach the heart of the Spire, he could do the same to the city. He could kill the Citadel."If this is my soul," Silas said, "then I have the right to tear it down."He grabbed the book and the diagram. He didn't have a bag
Chapter 49
The heavy iron door closed behind Silas with a deep, echoing thud.The sound was different here. In the rest of the Academy, every sound was sharp and metallic. It bounced off glass walls and chrome floors. But here, the sound was swallowed. It was as if the room itself was hungry for noise.Silas stood still. He did not move for a long time.The first thing he noticed was the smell. It was not the smell of the Citadel. There was no scent of recycled air or burnt wires. Instead, the air was dry and thick. It smelled of ozone, old dust, and decaying parchment. It was the smell of a "Paper Grave."He reached into the pocket of his torn uniform and pulled out a small chemical light-stick. He cracked it. A soft, green glow filled the room.He was not in a room. He was in a forest made of books.Rows and rows of tall, wooden shelves rose into the darkness above. They were packed with objects that the modern world had forgotten. Physical books. Leather-bound journals. Metal cabinets fill
Chapter 48
The High Council didn't want this information on a network. They didn't want a hacker to find it. They didn't want an AI to analyze it.In a world of digital ghosts, paper was the only thing that was real.Silas ran his fingers over the spines of the books. Most of them were covered in a thick layer of grey dust. He saw titles that made his heart race. The History of the First Engine. The Genetic Records of the Founder Families. The Architecture of the Void.He reached a large, central desk in the middle of the archive. On the desk sat a heavy, black box. It was a Mechanical Reader, a device that used a hand-crank to scroll through rolls of microfilm.Next to the reader was a folder with a name written in bold, black ink.PROJECT RESURRECTION: SUBJECT KAPITO.Silas froze. He stared at the folder. His own name. He opened the folder. Inside was a photograph.It wasn't a digital image. It was a physical print, yellowed with age. It showed a man standing in a field of ruins. The man was
Chapter 47
The night was not dark in the Citadel of Valhalla. It was a fake purple, lit by miles of neon tubes and glowing glass walls. But for Silas Kapito, the light was a lie. He sat in a small, damp crawlspace behind a massive air-conditioning unit in Sector D. The machine hummed like a giant, angry bee, shaking the floor beneath him.Silas did not mind the shaking. He did not mind the noise. He was staring at a stolen datapad. The screen was cracked, and the blue light flickered against his pale face. His eyes, now flecked with the gunmetal-grey of his new skeleton, moved across the digital maps of the Academy.He was looking for a ghost."Every city has a pulse," Silas whispered. His voice was low and gravelly. "Wires, pipes, sensors. They are the nerves. But even the best machine has a blind spot."He had been hacking the Academy’s power grid for hours. He wasn't looking for credits this time. He was looking for an anomaly. He moved his finger over a map of the Central Spire—the massive
Chapter 46
Silas looked at his own fist. The skin was pale, but the knuckles looked like polished stone."I have the Iron-Grey," Silas said. "I am the hammer."The sun began to set over the floating Citadel. It was a fake sunset, created by the massive LED panels on the underside of the upper levels. It turned the clouds a dark, bloody red.The Grand Arena was filling up.This was not just for the students. This was a show for the Nobles. They sat in the high boxes, wearing their silk robes and drinking their expensive wines. They wanted to see a purge. They wanted to see the weak removed so the Academy could remain pure.Headmaster Krov stood on the central platform. He looked down at the red sand. He was wearing his full military dress—medals of gold and silver pinned to his chest.Beside him stood the Inquisitor. The man in the porcelain mask did not move. He did not breathe. He just watched the entrance gates with his single, red eye."Is the boy coming?" the Inquisitor asked. His voice was
Chapter 45
The world did not end with a bang for Instructor Vako. It ended with the sound of a thousand needles hitting a metal drum.Inside the observation deck, the air was still. It was the kind of stillness that happens right before a storm breaks. Vako sat behind his mahogany desk. This desk was his pride. It was made of wood from the old world, deep brown and heavy.Inside its locked drawers were his ledgers—the illegal books that showed every credit he had stolen and every debt he owed to the Syndicate. Then, the vibration started.It began in the floor. A low, humming sound. Vako frowned. He looked at the floorboards. The humming grew louder. It turned into a whistle. Then a scream. "What is—" Vako started to say.He never finished the sentence. The pneumatic vent directly under his feet exploded.The magnesium flare that Silas had tossed into the pipe had reached the filter bank under the office. The Mark-V rocket, following the white-hot heat of the flare, did not care about walls o
You may also like
Programmer in Another World
AmeronWerschrux_17.2K viewsI am the King of the Undead
Matthew 27.4K viewsThe God of War Calen Storm
Cindy Chen32.3K viewsThe Royal Highness
Flower Spirit45.5K viewsHeir of Lightening
Trailblazer 3.9K viewsThe Misadventure of Marvin The Magnificient
Oluwabiyi Raymond639 viewsThe Martial King
Miss Meadows3.7K viewsAetherborne Infinte Glitch
AFAManga250 views