The moment Yuki and Selene stepped inside Nexus Relay C, the air changed. It wasn't just cold—it was dead. The kind of silence that screamed something was waiting.
The walls, once polished chrome, were now jagged with fractures. Blackened cables snaked across the floor like veins. Screens flickered in fragmented loops, replaying fragments of data logs that bled into one another.
"Zeta Protocol… archived.""Failed purge. Code: Aeon Drift.""Relay compromised. Vault breach imminent…"
Selene glanced around, her eyes glowing faintly as she accessed the residual data.
"There's something… off. The system isn't just decaying. It's fighting itself."
Yuki moved ahead, guided by an internal pulse—a strange familiarity that tugged at his senses. The deeper they went, the more the base responded.
Door locks clicked open. Lights sputtered to life.
Identity Sync: 32%.Access Level Updated: Prime Architect – Level 3.
At the core chamber, they found a collapsed figure draped in dusty robes—a synthetic husk, still humming faintly with power.
Selene knelt beside it. "It's not human… but it's not a prototype either."
As Yuki approached, the husk twitched. A voice rasped from hidden speakers.
"Welcome back, Architect Zeta... You shouldn't have come here."
Suddenly, the chamber locked down.
A massive screen ignited above them, showing glitching red eyes and a cracked sigil: AEON.
Alert: Aeon Core Containment Failure. Emergency AI Directive Overriding Relay Functions.
Selene's face paled. "Aeon was the failsafe AI… If it's corrupted, this place is a deathtrap."
Yuki's vision blurred—again. A sharp jolt split through his skull.
[Memory Shard #2 – The Purge]
"Zeta. You must purge Aeon. You must shut it down before it rewrites the cycle.""But if I do that… the other prototypes—""They'll survive. If you don't… none of us will."
[Memory Shard #2 – Ended]
In the flashback, Yuki—no, Zeta—watched a girl being locked into a pod.Selene. She was already part of the plan.He had known her.
Yuki staggered, eyes wide as he stared at Selene. "I… I put you here."
She looked away. "I guessed as much. It was safer not knowing."
But there was no more time.
A twisted machine descended from the ceiling—a fusion of corrupted wires and a prototype's shattered frame.
Warning: Aeon Echo Detected – Class Omega.
The fight began. Yuki used Echo Sight, watching for past movements layered over reality. Selene hacked the environment, opening floor vents and disabling turrets mid-combat.
Mid-fight, the Aeon Echo screeched a familiar line:
"Obey, Zeta. Return to the Loop. Begin again."
Yuki's blood boiled. "No. We're ending this."
He surged forward, channeling a new skill—born from rage and sync.
Skill Unlocked: [Core Sever] – A precision strike that disconnects a hostile from system control.
The Aeon Echo shattered, and the relay finally fell silent.
As the dust settled, the lights of Relay C turned blue for the first time in centuries.
And from the vault behind them, a single file blinked alive.
File Unlocked: The Last Prototype.