Cherreads

Chapter 33 - Whispers Beneath the Ice

The wind howled across the frozen plains like a banshee mourning the lost. Ebonveil's once-warm air had turned cold as an expedition had ventured beyond the known maps, trailing rumors of a glacial ruin—the Vault of Echoes. They said it was buried beneath ancient ice, hiding a fragment of a Forgotten Protocol, one that even the Ascension Codex refused to acknowledge.

Kai stood on the edge of the desolate ice fields, draped in a reinforced cloak laced with Aetherweave, resistant to both the cold and spirit interference. He stared at the jagged glacial ridges ahead, their sharp peaks piercing the sky like fangs. Behind him, Reina adjusted the calibrations on her Pulse Lens, while Zerai knelt beside a mound of snow, analyzing a spectral trail only she could see.

"It's buried deep," Zerai whispered, her breath misting in the air. "But it's not just a ruin. Something's awake down there."

Kai's system pulsed.

⟢ Protocol Alert: Quantum Instability Detected

"Whatever it is… it's moving."

As they approached the supposed entrance—a yawning crevasse veiled in thick mist—Kai activated his Chrono-Step skill, slipping forward in time fractions to avoid unstable frostspikes that jutted from the ice beneath. Each step deeper into the fissure was met with unnatural silence. No animal, no echo, not even the whisper of wind.

Inside, the ice walls shimmered faintly, not from light, but from memory.

Reina touched the frozen surface. Her pupils dilated. "These glaciers... they're storing echoes of the past. Look."

Suddenly, the ice pulsed and visions flickered around them: A woman in silver armor fell to her knees, clutching a glowing data core. A voice thundered behind her.

"Seal it before it speaks again!"

"We don't have time! It's already rewriting—"

Then darkness swallowed the vision whole.

"That wasn't just a memory," Reina murmured. "That was a warning."

They reached the inner chamber—a vast circular vault, its walls carved with forgotten dialects. In the center was a pedestal encased in translucent ice. Within it pulsed a core of immense energy—cold blue and silver with spiraling glyphs.

Zerai's voice trembled. "That's not a fragment. That's a Proto-Core. A precursor to the Protocol itself."

Kai's system flickered violently.

⟢ Ascension Protocol Conflict: Layer Interference Detected

⟢ Warning: Conscious Echo Engaged

Suddenly, a voice echoed in all their minds. Male, ancient, hollow.

"You seek purpose beyond your limits. But to ascend… you must first survive me."

The ice cracked.

The entire vault shook.

From the shadows emerged a creature unlike any they'd faced—humanoid, but forged of crystalline ice and void circuitry, eyes blazing like dying stars. A Warden of the Deep Layer, corrupted by time, guarding what should never have been remembered.

Kai drew Nullfang, his system auto-enhancing his stats by 300%. But the Warden moved between seconds, forcing Kai into multiple Temporal Shifts to keep up. Reina fired bursts of Refractor Arrows, which splintered on the Warden's icy armor. Zerai unleashed spectral chains, binding its limbs momentarily—but it broke free with unnatural force.

Each blow they landed didn't wound the Warden—it taught it.

"It's learning," Kai hissed. "Adapting mid-battle."

"Then we give it something it can't adapt to," Reina said, activating her Chaos Burst, flooding the area with raw unpredictable Aether.

The Warden staggered, faltering for a brief second—enough for Kai to activate a forgotten protocol within himself.

⟢ Unlocking: [Ascension Trait - Fractal Reversion]

Time rewound a moment—just enough for Kai to dodge a lethal blow and counter with a strike amplified by both past and present momentum. The blow landed true, piercing the Warden's core.

But instead of dying, the Warden split into two.

"It cloned itself from the timeline fracture!" Reina screamed.

Zerai's eyes widened. "We're in a recursive loop! Every time we hurt it, it multiplies using our own temporal residue."

Kai's breath slowed. "Then we need to seal it, not destroy it."

He glanced at the pedestal where the Proto-Core still pulsed.

"Zerai. Can you interface with that Core?"

"If I do, I won't be able to help in the fight. I'll have to anchor my soul to the system itself."

"Then we'll hold it off. Do it."

As Zerai knelt before the Core, her hands glowing with spectral runes, the chamber began to warp. The two Wardens advanced, faster now, flanking from both sides. Kai and Reina moved as one, syncing attacks, using short-range portals, gravity flips, and a new team maneuver Kai hadn't even named yet—Impulse Sync—where their energies merged briefly for explosive counterbursts.

Still, they couldn't last.

Blood painted the ice.

Cracks formed in the very reality of the vault.

Zerai screamed. "I have it— I can reset the recursion loop!"

"NOW!"

She slammed her hand into the Core. Energy erupted. Time screamed. The Wardens froze in place, their forms unraveling in slow motion, sucked into the Proto-Core like reverse-ashes.

Then silence.

Only the gentle hum of the Core remained.

Kai slumped to his knees. "Is it over?"

Zerai stood, her face pale. "I bound part of my soul to the Core. It's dormant now… but if someone else tries to activate it…"

Reina nodded grimly. "We bury this place. Forever."

But as they turned to leave, Kai's system pulsed again—violently.

⟢ You have absorbed Proto-Core Fragment [Cryo-Layer Resonance]

⟢ New Pathway Unlocked: Temporal Fracture Class

⟢ WARNING: Your presence has been marked by the Deep Protocol

Kai looked up into the shadows of the ice chamber, and for a fleeting second, saw eyes staring back.

Something beyond the Ascension Protocol had awakened.

And it had noticed him.

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