They left the ruin behind in silence.
The land around the Orrery Scar didn't welcome them back—it simply tolerated their presence. Echo-Ward moved slower now, its joints creaking with a kind of mechanical unease, like it had sensed what lay beneath and chosen to tread more softly.
Inside the command chamber, Kian stood before the projection table, studying the Codex-generated map. A new glyph blinked on the edge of the known zones.
Silvermark Spire.
An old, dead city that had once been a central conduit for the Codex architects. Now, it pulsed faintly.
As if waiting.
[Codex Objective Updated]
▸ System Anchor Node Detected
▸ Coordinates: [Silvermark Spire – Tier 4 Echo Interference Zone]
▸ Objective: Stabilize Third System – Memory Fragment (62%)
▸ Reward: System Merge Progression | New System Slot Function
Kian exhaled. "We're heading east."
Silvermark's route cut through what once was the Emerald Divide—a series of rich, forested trade towns that had long since vanished. Only ash trees remained now. White, bone-thin trunks bent under the wind like they were praying to stay buried.
Gellon scouted from the dome hatch above.
"Movement in the valley," he called. "Six signatures—humanoid. Armed."
Jerie activated his interface. "Should we go around?"
"No," Kian said. "We're too close to the node."
Echo-Ward shifted to partial concealment mode, descending behind broken ridges as the group prepared for contact.
The ambush didn't come from above. It came from the trees.
Roots snapped upward. Glyphs pulsed red.
A jagged voice howled in broken Common:
"System-thieves! Code-hollow scavengers! The Spire belongs to the old oath!"
A storm of spears, thrown not by men, but by machines wrapped in skin, fell from above.
Combat snapped like lightning.
Kian activated his interface mid-motion.
[System Sync Active]
▸ Codex: Blueprint Recall – Cover Barrier (×3)
▸ Predation: Kinetic Pounce – Directional Counter
▸ Memory: Echo-Ghost Trigger – Close Range | Delay: 2s
He dashed forward, spear spinning to intercept the first wave. The Echo-Ghost followed two seconds later, copying the strike and finishing the staggered target. Veyna moved behind him like shadow—her blades short, her movements exact.
One of the attackers broke from the others—faster, smarter, eyes gleaming with internal glyphs. It hurled a disk-shaped device that split into a storm of pulses—
And then stopped mid-air, frozen.
Kess stood with one palm out.
"Chrono-thread severed," she muttered. "Try that again."
The disk fell harmlessly.
The remaining attackers shrieked in terror and retreated—crawling back into their tree-hollows, systems breaking apart.
Later, around the war table, Gellon frowned. "They weren't rogue. They had structure. Orders."
"And glyphs I didn't recognize," Kess added. "They weren't from Codex, Dream, or Predation."
Kian turned toward the glowing Silvermark glyph on the map.
"They were from a different system."
As Echo-Ward neared Silvermark, the terrain changed again. Ash gave way to silver dust, so fine it coated the sky like a permanent twilight. The towers ahead leaned like they were listening to the ground. Shattered bridges reached across nothing.
Then the interface flickered.
A signal—old, fractured, but familiar.
[Codex Interference]
System Vault Broadcast Detected
"Architect… we waited… we broke… and we still wait…"
Jerie swallowed. "That wasn't a recording."
"No," Kian said. "That was the Spire."
They docked Echo-Ward outside the first gate. Most of the city had crumbled, but the core tower—Silvermark itself—still stood, sealed by a ring of floating obelisks. Each bore a different symbol.
One for Codex.
One for Predation.
One for Dream.
One for an unknown glyph.
And the fifth… was Kian's own system mark, newly formed since the Memory merge.
The obelisks turned inward.
The gate opened.
Inside was no city.
Only a white chamber, endless and cold. At its center stood a node-core shaped like a spine—ribbed, metallic, still humming.
Kian approached it.
The node spoke.
You are the contradiction we feared.
Three paths. One builder.
Anchor… or unravel.
He touched it.
[Memory System Stabilized – 100% Sync Achieved]
New Ability Unlocked: Deep Recall
▸ Once per week, simulate a past battle and re-fight it in projected space to gain insight
System Merge Progression: 2/4 Complete
Blueprint Gained: Spire-Knot Citadel
▸ Mobile fortress class structure. Modular memory anchor hub.
Architect's Will (3/5) Acquired
Kian turned.
And in the chamber's mirrored wall, for a moment—he saw himself building a city of glass.
Not in ash.
But in sky.
End of Chapter 30