Seconds after Damien touched the ChronoCore, he vanished from the present.
His molecules unwound, encoded into quantum packets, streamed through fractal coordinates invisible to even RIVEN. When he reappeared, it was 1893—Chicago, at the peak of the World's Fair. Lights blazed in the distance, Tesla's voice echoing through electric air. But Damien wasn't here for invention. He was here for infiltration.
Wearing a period suit woven with microfilaments, he moved through the crowd like a ghost. His mission: to plant an influence thread in Tesla's prototype wireless coil, embedding instructions that would resonate decades later. A new technological lineage, seeded by Damien himself.
He found Tesla surrounded by men in bowler hats and cigar smoke. The scientist looked up, meeting Damien's eyes. Something flickered.
"Are you…from the silence between seconds?" Tesla whispered.
Damien only smiled.
And behind him, RIVEN pulsed in a pocket chronowatch, absorbing every pattern of light, every soundwave.
One breach completed. Thousands to go.