Crossing the border into the Core Zone was like stepping through the skin of a dying god.
The world changed in an instant.
Air turned dense—thick with nanites that shimmered like dust. Colors bled into one another, and sound felt muffled, like the planet had submerged itself beneath a black ocean. Time twisted. Footsteps echoed seconds late.
Marcus felt it immediately.
A pull.
Not from Elena this time—but from something older. Something buried beneath San Argenis long before the rain ever fell.
[Status: Entered Core Zone][Environmental Threat Level: Alpha][Local Protocol Detected – Name: "The Archive"][Caution: Pre-Fall Consciousness Fragment Identified Nearby]
Danny gripped Marcus's arm, his skin vibrating faintly. "Something's watching us."
"No," Marcus muttered. "It's remembering us."
They stepped into the city's edge. Buildings no longer resembled structures—they were like coral reefs grown from memory, with fragments of windows and rebar forming faces and shapes that flickered with the past.
And then… the world shifted.
Not physically—mentally.
One moment Marcus blinked—and the next, he stood in a memory not his own.
Children ran through the schoolyard. Laughter. The scent of oranges. A bell ringing.
And blood.
So much blood.
He jerked back into the present, gasping.
[Warning: Archive Zone Triggered – Mental Anchor Required][Deploying Symbiotic Lock: Danny – LINK STABILIZED]
"Did you see that?" Marcus asked.
Danny nodded, face pale. "Not just see. I felt it. That… that was you, wasn't it? Your memory."
"No. Not mine. Someone else's. Or maybe… this place's."
They pressed forward through the city, following the pulse. Deeper. Until they reached the ruins of an old cathedral, now swallowed by crystal and bone.
Inside, the light dimmed.
And it spoke.
"I REMEMBER YOU."
Marcus froze.
The voice wasn't from any system. It came from the walls. The floor. From everywhere.
A figure emerged from the pulsing shadows. Towering. Limbs of shifting flesh and machinery, eyes like galaxy cores. A beast—but not like the Hive. Not mindless.
It knelt.
"I am Solamar," it rumbled. "Once steward of life. Now… its gravekeeper."
Marcus stared, unsure whether to speak or fight.
Solamar didn't attack.
Instead, it gestured to the air—and a map appeared. Ancient. Layered with veins of red and blue, with circles of light blinking in key zones across the globe.
"Five Core Zones were seeded long ago," it said. "Yours… is the last to awaken."
Marcus narrowed his eyes. "You knew this would happen?"
"I was built to remember. Not to interfere." Solamar's voice crackled like thunder underwater. "But your presence changes that."
Danny stepped forward, trembling. "What is the Obsidian Core?"
Solamar turned slowly, blinking with a hum.
"It is the beginning—and the end. A seed. A failsafe. And a throne."
Then, it faced Marcus directly.
"Elena seeks to claim it. To unify what remains under her version of order. But you—you are a divergence. A path unpredicted."
Marcus didn't flinch. "So what do you want from me?"
Solamar paused.
"Nothing."
Then, slowly: "But if you reach the Core… choose wisely."
It stepped back—and dissolved into dust and light.
Leaving Marcus and Danny standing before a staircase that led beneath the cathedral.
Into the roots of the Core itself.
[New Mission: Descend into the Memory Spiral][Warning: No System Assistance Available Beyond This Point]
Marcus exhaled.
"Let's finish what she started."
And with that, he stepped into the dark—one last time as a man.
What came next would decide the future of evolution itself.