2025-04-21 07:00:00Ethan’s heart was still pounding in his chest, the sound of it deafening in his ears. He was hyperaware of the room around him—the broken glass from the door, the scattered bodies of men who had been far too eager to die, and Clara standing beside him, her expression grim but unwavering. It was a victory of sorts, but Ethan knew better than to allow himself a moment of relief. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
The retreat had been swift and precise. The mysterious man—the one who had spoken of “The King”—had made sure to leave no trace, no sign of a battle other than the carnage left in their wake. They’d disappeared into the shadows as quickly as they’d appeared, but Ethan knew they weren’t gone for good. No one who operated with the kind of cold, calculated precision they had just witnessed was ever truly gone. Clara moved toward the wreckage of the door, her eyes scanning the room as though searching for any lingering threats.
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Chapter 265 – The Ash Warden Protocol
The council chamber was no longer a war room. Now, it pulsed with debate, voices from across every restored territory patched in via hololinks. A thousand dialects. A hundred philosophies. All pulled together by a fragile thread—Ayla’s Vault.But peace, as Ethan Cross had learned long ago, was not the absence of war. It was the interval before the next campaign.At the central podium, Ayla stood still, her posture calm, but her mind whirling. The archive had been live for ten days. In that time, three minor skirmishes had broken out over interpretation rights. One city had been caught distributing altered memory strands—rewriting history in their favor. And now, a new concern had emerged.The Ash Warden.Ethan entered through the side, flanked by Vega and Kaito, his face tight. “He surfaced again.”Ayla turned to him, brow furrowing. “Where?”Kaito tossed a datapad onto the table. “Northern fri
Chapter 264 – The Covenant Line
The scream of the Aegis Core was not one of pain—but of release.As Ayla’s palm lifted from the console, light erupted upward in a cyclone of energy, laced with fragmented symbols and cascading data streams. It reached the vaulting heights of the crystalline chamber and then burst outward like a shattering halo, collapsing every corrupted line of Consortium code in its path.Outside, the storm died instantly.Weapons jammed mid-fire. Drones plummeted from the sky. And for a long breathless moment, the mountain range stood still—silent, as if history itself was holding its breath.Ethan staggered backward from Alaric’s limp form, his knuckles bleeding, chest heaving. He turned to Ayla, who had dropped to one knee at the Core’s base, her eyes glazed over but her body intact.“Ayla!” he shouted.Kaito and Vega rushed in behind him, weapons drawn—though none of them were sure what threat remained.<
Chapter 263: The Aegis Decision
For a heartbeat, time fractured.Light crashed in waves against Ayla’s skin as her fingers remained pressed to the Aegis Core. The world around her blurred—no longer snow, steel, or shadow, but data, memory, sensation. She was falling through time. Rising through meaning. The Core had no language for what it held, only truths buried in the hearts of countless minds, echoes of intent that resonated across centuries.A dome of light expanded from the Core, freezing the battle outside in perfect stillness. Bullets stopped mid-air. Flames turned to static. Alaric, halfway through a snarl, hung motionless as if caught in amber. Even Ethan’s shout faded to silence.In this frozen instant, Ayla was alone.Alone… except for the voices.“Heir of the Sigil.”It was the Founder’s voice again—but multiplied now. Male. Female. Human. Synthetic. Each carried the same calm intensity, a current
Chapter 262: The Legacy Vault
The metallic doors of the Vault groaned open, their ancient hinges echoing like thunder down the obsidian corridor. Ethan’s flashlight beam sliced through the darkness, casting flickering shadows along the stone walls, carved with symbols that pulsed faintly with blue light.“Everyone keep your guard up,” Ethan murmured, stepping forward.Behind him, Vega and Kaito followed closely. Ayla lingered for a moment at the threshold, her gaze locked on a rune etched above the doorway—one that matched the birthmark on her shoulder.Inside, the Vault was nothing like they’d imagined. It wasn’t a chamber of gold, weapons, or ancient relics. It was a long corridor lined with memory crystals suspended in air—each one swirling with blue-white light, as if containing frozen thoughts. They stretched down the corridor in perfect formation, humming softly.Kaito touched one gently. “It’s… consciousness. Preserve
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&
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