I descended alone.
Not because I had to—but because I couldn't afford to expose anyone else to the unknown.
The catacombs beneath the palace were older than the kingdom itself—ancient, cracked bones of a time before kings and thrones, when the world still whispered in forgotten tongues. Most believed the lower catacombs were sealed for good.
I made sure of that.
But they were never truly sealed—from me.
[Access Node Detected: Quantum Fragment Resonance – Signal Pulling South-East, Depth: 5,800 meters]
The fragment I took from the Earth-wraith pulsed softly in my palm. It didn't feel like data anymore. It felt like... a memory waiting to be triggered.
And it wanted to be triggered down here.
The System confirmed it.
[Warning: You are entering an unindexed zone. System mapping offline. GPS, mana field, and quantum threads degraded. Continue?]
"Yes."
The walls around me groaned. The deeper I walked, the more alive the stone became—pulsing with a low, breathing rhythm, as if the very Earth remembered what once slumbered in its heart.
Then I saw it.
A door.
It didn't belong to this world.
It was black glass and chrome.
Alien to this magic-laden world. Familiar to me.
Earth tech.
No, pre-Earth tech—classified black site kind. Projects buried beneath miles of ice and censorship.
At the center of the door glowed a singular symbol: ∞
Infinity.
And beneath it, engraved in old Earthscript:
"ARCHITECT ZERO – ACCESS RESTRICTED"
"GENETIC KEY REQUIRED: MATCH FOUND – PRINCE JAMES, REBORN DESIGNATION"
It opened.
The room beyond was massive—circular, crystalline, and suspended in nothing.
Floating in the center, a sarcophagus of shimmering obsidian glass.
And inside…
A woman.
Eyes closed. Body still. Connected to hundreds of golden-threaded wires.
No heartbeat.
But no decay.
And above her:
[Welcome, Architect. Memory Unlocked. Subject: Project H.A.R.M.O.N.Y.]
Last Log Entry – Year: 2094, Earth Timeline.
Subject Status: Dormant. Awaiting Signal.
My death was in 2025. This woman—this project—was created nearly 70 years after I died. After the collapse. After the AI Wars. Which meant…
Someone rebuilt Earth.
And they remembered me.
The air trembled.
Not from the sarcophagus—but from behind me.
I turned.
A single red eye blinked open in the darkness of the stone wall—followed by five more.
Then a voice, ancient and bitter, echoed from the deep.
"You should not have come here, Prince of the Endless Thread."
I summoned my spear instantly.
"Who are you?"
The thing didn't step forward—it formed forward, as if its body had never quite belonged to physical space.
[System Alert: Presence Identified – 'Watcher of the First Silence']
Threat Level: Undefined. No battle record. No mana signature. No dimension resonance.]
Impossible.
Even Spiral agents had resonance.
This was something… older.
It didn't breathe.
It remembered.
"I was the eye beneath your crib, James. The one who watched when your soul shattered across time. I have seen you die. I have seen you be born. I know your sister's name, even when you don't."
That chilled me more than anything yet.
Because Aelya's full name hadn't been spoken aloud. Not even once.
And then it said it.
A whisper like shattering glass:
"Aelya Virel. Child of the Folded Realms. Born of spark, bred for collapse."
It lunged.
A blur of black logic and shadow-shaping claws.
I countered with the Void Spear, enhanced by my latest level gains.
[Skill Activated: Intercept Protocol – Thread Breaker Mode]
Result: Partial Damage – Entity Temporarily Dispersed. Regeneration Imminent.
Too strong. Too fast. Too aware.
This wasn't a monster.
It was a remnant.
A part of something Earth had buried in data vaults—and this realm had mistakenly let breathe.
But I wasn't here to win.
I was here to learn.
So I triggered the one thing I'd built into every escape route:
A foldgate—dimensional shortcut tech, barely stable, powered by the shard.
[Foldgate Initialized – Destination: Upper Vaults, Time Sync +4 seconds]
[Confirmed. Activating]
The light swallowed me just as the creature screamed:
"YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE EYE, PRINCE. THE STARS HAVE ALREADY TURNED."
I reappeared in my lab, gasping, bleeding from my left shoulder.
My mana was drained by half.
But I was alive.
And in my palm, the Earth fragment glowed brighter than ever before—unlocking its next level.
[System Sync Enhanced – New Data Tree Unlocked: AI Corecrafting, Fold Tech, and Earth-Class Nanoweapon Blueprints]
Subtree: Project Harmony Monitoring Active – 1 of 7 Echoes Located]
There were six more like her.
Six more remnants of Earth's lost future.
And each one held keys to something bigger—something my sister was born to either command… or destroy.
Level Up!
Level: 26 → 30
+20 Stat Points
Assigned: Strength +5, Agility +5, Mana +10 – Unspent: 5