The stairway descended into silence.
Each step was formed of flickering data-light, shifting just enough to make Yuki question if the stairs would vanish beneath him at any moment. Selene walked beside him, one hand constantly resting on the hilt of her blade. Kai padded silently behind them, his eyes glowing with uneasy static.
Yuki's arm still tingled from the memory of the Guardian's defeat. The embedded fragment from the cube-star pulsed softly beneath his skin, like it was breathing. Ever since unlocking Quantum Resonance, the Sky Bastion had started noticing him—subtle changes in the walls, in the light, like the place was responding to his presence.
They descended for what felt like hours.
Then, without warning, the stairs ended—not with a grand gate or ornate arch, but with a torn metal hatch, half-open, as though forced apart. Beyond it: complete darkness.
Selene whispered, "Doesn't feel like part of the Sky Bastion anymore."
"It's not," Yuki murmured. "This is older."
They stepped into a corridor that looked… wrong. The walls were made of matte-black alloy, cracked and veined with old circuitry. The symbols etched into them weren't Nexus script. They were older, fractured, half-deleted glyphs.
Kai snarled softly, his fur flickering. "Smell… dead code. Forgotten."
Yuki opened his interface to check the map.
[Map Unavailable: Out-of-Sync Zone]
Of course.
He focused his vision through Echo Sight. Faint trails of light hovered in the air—ghosts of engineers, researchers, long vanished. He followed the strongest path, which led them through the broken corridor and into a vast chamber.
And there… was silence.
Hundreds of memory caskets lined the room—transparent pods with humanoid forms sealed within, each marked with an ancient symbol Yuki didn't recognize. Some had shattered long ago, while others glowed faintly, still active.
In the center of the room stood a tall, transparent obelisk—fractured, but humming.
Selene walked up to one of the pods. "These aren't prototypes. They're…"
"Predecessors," Yuki said softly. "Failed vessels. Maybe even early versions of what became me."
He reached out to the obelisk.
It flared.
[Memory Interface Detected: Core Archive Sync Available]
"Careful—" Selene began.
Too late. Yuki placed his palm on the surface.
The world dissolved.
[Memory Sync Initiated… Processing… Accessing Core Archive: Subject Z-Kron 01]
Yuki stood in a sterile lab, watching from a third-person view. Scientists in black suits hovered over a stasis pod. Inside it lay… a child. Pale. Wired. Barely alive.
One of the scientists muttered, "Too much exposure to asynchronous code. His neural thread's fraying."
Another, taller one—faceless—responded, "He lasted longer than the others. The interface still holds. Begin the imprint."
The scene blurred. A blade of glowing data was inserted into the child's mind. Not physically—digitally. A flood of information: combat routines, survival instincts, ancient language packs, tactical overlays.
The child didn't scream.
He convulsed… and laughed.
Static bled into the memory.
A whisper echoed through Yuki's mind:"The first to endure the glitch was not the first to survive it."
Yuki staggered back from the obelisk.
His status flickered.Hidden Trait Updated: Shattered LineageYou are not the first. You are what was left after.
Selene caught his arm. "You okay?"
"No," Yuki said. "But I'm starting to understand."
Behind them, one of the pods hissed.
They turned, blades ready—just in time to see a figure step out.
Not a monster. Not a person.
A failed prototype—still functional, but broken. Its face was smooth metal, no eyes, no mouth. The voice came from within its chest.
"You are the child of a broken loop," it said. "The Sky Bastion watches because it remembers."
Yuki narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
The figure tilted its head. "I am Z-Kron 03. I was meant to lead the Coreward Descent. But the glitch unraveled us all."
Kai growled. Selene raised her blade. "Is it hostile?"
Z-Kron took a step forward. "No. I am… lost. You carry the code I was denied. The Heart Core recognized you. It didn't reject you. That means it's begun."
Yuki's voice was quiet. "What's begun?"
The figure's body glitched—flickered—and then stabilized. "The reactivation of the deepest layers. Beneath this archive lies a door. One only a true sync-point bearer can open. But I warn you…"
Its voice deepened. "What sleeps below is not from our world."
A rumble passed through the chamber.
Selene turned to Yuki. "We need to decide now. Push deeper—or leave."
Yuki didn't hesitate. "We go down."
Z-Kron's fractured hand lifted. A panel on the floor opened, revealing a narrow lift—surrounded by anti-code glyphs.
The prototype spoke one final time. "If you descend, you abandon the known. You'll walk into echoes that can rewrite who you are."
"I already have," Yuki said, stepping forward.
Kai followed. Selene close behind.
The lift activated. With a quiet hum, they began their descent—into the Hollow Vault.
The last words of Z-Kron echoed behind them:
"The Bastion was a gate. You're now heading toward what it was built to seal away."