2025-07-08 09:43:00The Arclight coasted through an uncharted star stream, where the light of distant suns refracted through crystalline dust like a million shattered reflections. In the observation dome, Captain Ethan Cross and First Officer Mira Vale watched the prismatic display, marveling at the beauty that lay beyond any map.
Mira turned from the viewport, holo-pad in hand. “Our sensors are picking up three new anomalies beyond the Whispering Veil: a world shrouded in perpetual twilight, a drifting ring of singing asteroids, and an exoplanet whose oceans cloak a hidden archive beneath the waves.”
Ethan’s gaze sharpened. “Divide and illuminate. Twilight World to Team Dusk, Asteroid Ring to Team Chorus, and Ocean Archive to Team Abyss. I’ll lead Team Abyss — undersea archaeology has my name on it.”
Kaz Reed cracked his knuckles. “Asteroids sound like my kind of playground. I’ll take C
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 261 – The Waking Engine
The humming deep within the Citadel’s spine had changed. Where once it had pulsed with the rhythm of containment, now it thrummed like a heartbeat — mechanical, ancient, and awakening. Ethan Cross stood on the catwalk overlooking the Leviathan Core, the last great secret of the Dominion, staring into the abyss of gears and light.“Status report!” Ethan barked into his comm.Below, Reina crouched beside the Prime Conduit’s control panel, sparks dancing at her feet. “We’ve re-routed auxiliary power to stabilize the overclock. I need three more minutes.”“We don’t have three minutes,” Gabriel hissed. His pistol was trained on the ascending lift, which groaned as it carried a full squad of the Consortium’s final wave — obsidian-armored Sentinels. “They’re coming.”Alina emerged from the upper gallery, cloak billowing behind her like war smoke. “There’s
Chapter 260: The Abyss Within
The silence that followed the explosion was not quiet—it was oppressive. A thick pall of smoke and dust blanketed the shattered command room of the Dominion Citadel. Monitors sparked, walls buckled inward, and across the fractured floor, Ethan Cross lay motionless beneath a collapsed beam. A low groan escaped his lips as consciousness clawed its way back into him.He blinked, disoriented, the flickering red of emergency lights casting everything in hellish tones. The HUD in his visor was cracked but still functioning. Time: 03:46. Status: Critical.“Echo-One… do you copy?”A muffled voice broke through the static. Ethan coughed, his throat burning from inhaling smoke, then tapped his comm. “Still breathing,” he rasped.“Thank God.” Nova’s voice. Frantic. Relieved. “I’m triangulating your position. Hang tight. There was a secondary detonation—Sebastian’s alive. He&
Chapter 259: The Final Alignment
The storm howled above the ruins of the Obsidian Vault, now laid bare to the heavens. The blackened sky cracked with electric rage, as if the dominion itself were protesting the final convergence. Ethan Cross stood at the center of the ancient sigil, surrounded by flickering remnants of spectral data and real-world decay. The Algorithm’s pulsing core—now exposed—hovered before him, destabilizing by the second. It was no longer just data. It had evolved. It had become sentient, fractured, and desperate.“You’re running out of time,” Vega’s voice crackled through the comms, distorted by interference. “You need to inject the final sequence, Ethan. Now!”Ethan didn’t respond immediately. His gloved fingers hovered over the last encrypted module. The one that would erase everything the Consortium had built—from the shadows of Avernus to the ghost code buried in the world’s financial systems. But there w
Chapter 258 – The Threshold Between Worlds
The surge of energy that followed the detonation of the Ether Core cracked through the entire expanse of the Citadel’s inner sanctum like lightning breaking the back of heaven. The chamber Ethan and his team had entered moments ago was no longer the sterile, silent vault it once was. Now, it pulsed with ancient resonance, like a dying god exhaling one last time.Sera stood at the edge of the containment field, eyes wide, lips parted in awe and terror. The Threshold Portal had opened—not completely, but enough to leak through something primordial, something wrong. A sliver of the Dominion’s true nature oozed out into their world. Not shadow, not light, not even energy in the classical sense. It was memory twisted into madness. Voices. Screams. Echoes.Ethan staggered to his feet, blood dripping from his temple, and shouted into the comm, “Team status!”A flurry of static preceded Kael’s voice. “Still alive. Barely. We los
Chapter 257 – Ashes and Architects
The sky over the ruin of New Bastion bled violet, bruised by residual aftershocks from the Citadel’s collapse. Smoke spiraled up like ghostly arms still reaching for power, though the seat of the Dominion now lay in fractured silence. Ethan stood on the edge of what had been the command tower, wind tugging at his coat, ashes settling in his hair like snowfall.He could still hear the last words of the Architect.“This isn’t the end. It’s only the beginning of the next recursion.”No riddles this time. Just pure truth. And it rang with more terror than any weapon they’d faced.“Sir,” Malik’s voice came through the broken comms unit. “You better come down. We found something under Sub-Level Theta. Looks like a vault.”Ethan exhaled slowly. “On my way.”He navigated the wreckage with calculated steps, bypassing flame-lit crevices and the bodies of broken sentinels. Th
Chapter 256 – Ashes of Dominion
The wind tore through the skeletal arches of the old Citadel’s ruins, carrying with it grains of ash that glowed faintly under the afternoon sun. Ethan Cross stood among twisted metal and fractured marble, the debris of a regime long since toppled. He traced the inscription on the shattered Obelisk base—now blasted clean of code—while dust fluttered across the open expanse.Behind him, Ilyana cataloged shards with a neural interface scanner, her fingers nimble and precise. Sera and Markov guarded the perimeter. Above them simmered the silhouettes of Watch drones scanning for infraresidual echoes.To outsiders, the ruins might have looked abandoned. But for Ethan, it was sacred ground—the birthplace of both the Dominion’s rise and its demise.Then a soft chirp sounded at his commlink.Ethan… there’s something in the rubble. I think you should see.He focused on Ilyana, who froze mid-catalog. Her scanner dis
You may also like
Midnight
Chinny1.8K viewsDark Eater
RandomGuy14.2K viewsThe Veracity Behind the Reality
Amber Shaw2.4K viewsDark Secrets (Thriller)
Julie Paola2.1K viewsDouble Personality; THOMAS BRADLY.
RedCEE1.1K viewsAge of Serial Synot
Shade Arjuun1.8K viewsReapers Domain
Zanewrites996 viewsShadow On The Eyes
Natashia_Lou4.3K views