Brilliant direction. Chapter Twenty-Nine will begin the breach of Labyrinth The
The first alarm shattered the silence like a scream.
Wards cracked. Light flared.
Labyrinth Theta had been breached.
---
Outside, the valley was chaos.
Blue fire surged from the outer glyph towers as Vexa hurled a soul-bomb into the main gate, tearing through the reinforced wall like paper. Ashbourne led the charge through the smoke, twin daggers glowing with nullfire enchantment.
Serida moved behind him, fast, focused — blade already drawn, her eyes on the map burned into her mind.
They had twelve minutes to reach the access ring.
After that, the memory-veil would reset.
And they'd vanish.
---
The first enemy wave came fast.
But they weren't Cradle soldiers.
They were too quiet.
Too… wrong.
Black-cloaked figures with porcelain masks descended from the rafters like insects. Limbs moved unnaturally. Their eyes glowed with fractured glyphs.
Vexa cursed. "What in the gods' silence—"
Then one lunged at her.
She barely blocked — and felt the strength behind the strike: inhuman.
---
"They're augmented!" Ailen shouted. "Cradle tech—mutated memory tissue!"
"Echo-based enhancements," Ashbourne growled, ducking a blow. "They're using our own against us."
---
One mask shattered mid-fight, revealing half a human face, the other half stitched with rune-inked wires. The man beneath smiled without emotion.
"Rebellion is obsolete," he whispered, voice distorted. "You cannot resist progress."
Serida sliced through him without a word.
Another emerged — a woman with glowing hands and exposed spinal runes that pulsed with blood-red light. She levitated off the ground, releasing a shockwave that sent two rebels crashing into a pillar.
"Kill the leaders," she hissed to her squad.
---
But Serida wouldn't fall today.
She hurled her blade in a spiral — then flashed across the chamber in a flicker of shadowstep magic. The blade returned to her hand, soaked in blood.
"Clear a path to the south lift!" she shouted. "We go through!"
Ashbourne nodded grimly. "Form up! Push forward!"
---
They were bleeding, but alive.
For now.
---
Below, in the depths of the Labyrinth, Kael jolted awake.
The alarms had started.
But they weren't rescue bells.
They were warnings.
"What's happening?" Lira asked, sitting up fast.
Kael pressed a hand to the wall. "Someone's coming."
"Friends?"
Kael looked toward the ceiling.
"I hope so."
---
Up above, the last of the Augmented Sentinels fell — but not without taking three of Serida's team with them.
The hallway ahead flickered with red lights.
They were close.
Too close for the Cradle to stay silent.
---
And deeper still…
In a chamber lined with runes, Riven knelt before a pool of black fluid. Beside him stood Matron Vohr, calm as ever.
"They're breaching the south wing," he said.
Vohr dipped her hand into the liquid. "Let them. It'll lead them right to the next trial."
"And Kael?"
She smiled.
"Soon, he'll see the shape of the world we've built."