The Forgotten Signals
The borders of the Wastes weren't marked by walls or fences. They were marked by silence.
As Kael's Wraith-Class Slicer crossed the last visible outposts of civilization, the sky itself seemed to dim. The clouds grew dense and unmoving, suspended like cobwebs over a land untouched by time. The terrain below was scorched and fractured—shards of ancient structures protruding like bones through the blackened soil.
Erynn sat beside him, silent for once, her hands resting on her dagger straps. Selene's gaze flicked between readings on the dashboard. "Our systems are glitching already. Signal interference is off the charts… and growing stronger the farther we go."
Kael said nothing. His eyes were fixed ahead, past the physical into the pull of what shouldn't be.
They landed near the coordinate point hidden in Renan's data—a cluster of jagged hills surrounding a crumbling facility. The walls bore no insignia, but Kael could tell: this was not Serix-built. It was older. Smoother. Inhuman in its symmetry.
The trio stepped out, armored and alert.
Selene activated her drone. It flickered and buzzed for a second before simply vanishing—as if swallowed by space itself.
Erynn's eyes narrowed. "That's not normal. Tech doesn't vanish like that unless…"
"Unless the laws here are different," Kael finished grimly.
---
Inside the ruin, a vast hallway stretched forward, lined with dormant lights and deep grooves etched into the walls—runes or circuitry, it was impossible to tell. As they walked, the temperature dropped. Faint pulses of violet light began crawling across the grooves.
Selene slowed. "I've seen this pattern once before… back when I cracked that Serix core node. The deepest layer of their encryption—it used this same structure."
"Then they didn't invent their tech," Kael murmured. "They reverse-engineered it."
They entered a chamber shaped like a dome, its center occupied by a massive crystalline structure suspended mid-air, rotating silently.
Kael stepped closer.
Suddenly, a pulse of energy surged through the floor. Symbols ignited on the walls. The room awakened.
A voice—clearer this time—rang out through the ruin. Feminine. Ageless.
> "User authenticated. Shadowborne protocol recognized. Welcome, Operator Kael Virell."
Erynn's hand went to her blade. "It knows your name."
Kael didn't flinch. "That means it's watching."
> "Do you seek knowledge, Operator? Or do you seek control?"
> "This is not the beginning. This is a recursion."
Kael clenched his fists. "I seek the truth."
The room pulsed. The crystal spun faster, then suddenly burst into fragments—suspended mid-air, rearranging into glowing glyphs. Images flowed through them—wars, worlds, artificial gods, and figures wearing the same symbol Kael bore on his system interface.
"Those aren't projections," Selene whispered. "They're memories."
> "You are not the first. You are not the last. But you are… different."
---
Deeper in the ruin, a hallway slid open with a hiss.
Inside stood a figure—a woman in tattered robes, her skin pale as ash, her eyes glowing with soft silver light. She was surrounded by dormant machines, long fused into the walls. The system had kept her alive.
Barely.
She looked at Kael with quiet recognition.
"I've waited… a long time… for one like you."
Kael stepped forward. "You knew me?"
"No. But I knew what you would become."
Her name was Isara, a surviving remnant of an ancient civilization lost to the system's first evolution. She wasn't human anymore. The system had changed her—preserved her. She remembered the origin. But her memories came at a price.
"I can guide you," she said. "But each truth comes with sacrifice. The system feeds on belief, on power… and on those who wield it. You've already fed it. You just don't know it yet."
---
As they exited the ruin hours later, the clouds above began to shift unnaturally. Lightning danced in patterns—not random, but coded. A signal.
Selene adjusted her scanner. "We're being traced… someone activated a remote gate."
Erynn muttered, "Serix?"
Kael shook his head. "No. This signal is older than Serix. Something else is waking up."
Then Kael's system interface chimed for the first time on its own. A new directive appeared.
"Obelisk 1 of 7 located."
"Begin Sequence: Origin Ascension."
Kael stared at it, feeling something ancient stir in his blood.
The system wasn't just giving him power.
It was guiding him to its birthplace.