The journey northward was not a quick one.
Kai had thought, briefly, of utilizing the Omega Vehicle hidden within his storage space, a small but reliable hovercraft capable of speeds that would have shaved days off his trip. But after the unsettling encounter in the Hollow Citadel, he couldn't shake the feeling that things weren't as simple as they seemed. The Rifted Expanse wasn't just an ordinary wasteland, nor was it a place you entered without a full understanding of the consequences.
[System Update: New Region – Rifted Expanse][Warning: Unstable Terrain – Temporal Distortions Possible][Caution: Unknown Entities Detected]
The more Kai stared at the Rifted Expanse, the more he realized that no map or data feed could truly capture the chaos that lay ahead. This was a zone outside the bounds of normal reality—a place where time and space blurred together, where dimensions collided, and where echoes of the past coiled around the present like poisoned vines.
Despite the starkness of the landscape, the journey felt almost dreamlike. The wind howled constantly, pushing against him with a strange persistence, like it was trying to steer him off course.
But he didn't relent.
[System Notification: Unknown Entity in Proximity]
Kai's hand instinctively went to the hilt of his blade, but no immediate threat presented itself. The air felt heavier, though, as if something intangible was watching him from afar.
Minutes stretched into hours, and the terrain began to shift. Jagged stone spikes shot from the ground, twisting upward like fingers grasping at the sky. The occasional ruins of long-dead cities lay scattered in the distance, swallowed by the shifting tides of sand and rock. Kai couldn't help but feel the cold grip of dread tighten around him. There was something wrong with this place. Something deep beneath its surface, waiting to awaken.
But then, as he crossed a particularly jagged ridge, he saw it.
The Silent Choir.
It wasn't a choir at all, not in the traditional sense. It was a cathedral—a towering structure made of obsidian, twisted into sharp angles that seemed to defy the laws of geometry. No windows adorned its walls, and no doors marked its entrance. Yet, Kai knew that this was the source of the mysterious disturbances. This was the place the System had warned him about.
[System Notification: Silent Choir Detected – Entity Designation Unknown]
Kai felt the weight of the presence pressing against him. There was something here, something ancient and powerful. A voice, no, many voices, whispered at the edge of his consciousness—just beyond reach.
[System Alert: Mental Distortion Detected – Caution Advised]
Without thinking, Kai activated his Focus Node, a device designed to sharpen his mental clarity, pushing aside the intrusive whispers. He knew that the voices weren't just hallucinations; they were a manifestation of something that had existed long before his time. The Silent Choir wasn't just a name. It was a force, a presence tied to the Omega Protocols, something that could unravel a person's mind with a single thought.
The ground beneath his feet trembled as the Rifted Expanse responded to his presence. The earth cracked, and the air grew heavy with an unnatural stillness. Ahead of him, the Silent Choir's cathedral loomed like an impenetrable shadow.
As Kai approached, the whispers intensified, growing louder, more insistent.
"You shouldn't be here..." the voices crooned, a blend of calm and menace.
He ignored them, stepping into the cathedral's dark threshold.
The moment he crossed into the Silent Choir's domain, the atmosphere shifted. The air thickened, and the world seemed to warp in strange ways. The floor beneath him felt unstable, as if it were shifting with every step he took. The walls were adorned with runes—ancient symbols that flickered and shifted, changing their meaning with every passing second.
In the center of the grand hall stood an altar—a smooth stone slab carved with complex sigils, glowing faintly in the dim light. On it rested a large object, wrapped in a thin layer of cloth. The object hummed with a quiet resonance, a faint pulse that matched the rhythm of Kai's heartbeat.
He approached cautiously, the whispers growing louder, more urgent.
"The path you seek leads only to ruin."
Ignoring the voices, Kai reached out and gently removed the cloth, revealing the object beneath.
It was a fragment of the Omega Core. A piece of the very technology that had spawned the Ascension Protocols. Its surface shimmered with a strange, otherworldly energy, like a piece of the universe itself had been trapped within it.
The moment his fingers made contact, the world around him shifted violently.
[System Alert: Temporal Distortion – Paradox Triggered]
Reality wavered like a flickering flame. The walls of the cathedral bent outward, distorting into impossible shapes. The air buzzed with static, and a sense of vertigo gripped Kai's mind. Time and space twisted around him, crashing together like two broken pieces of a shattered puzzle.
And then, through the chaos, a voice rang out.
"So... you've come."
It was a voice like no other. Calm, yet heavy with the weight of millennia. It wasn't a voice that existed in the present. No, it was a voice from the past, from the very origins of the Omega Protocols.
Kai's vision cleared, and standing before him was a figure draped in shattered white armor. The figure was tall, with no visible face—just an empty helmet, devoid of expression. Their presence filled the space, a palpable force of will that suffocated all else.
"I am the First. The origin of all that you have come to know," the figure intoned, their voice vibrating with authority.
Kai instinctively took a step back, his hand reaching for his blade, but the figure raised a hand, and a powerful wave of energy slammed into his chest, sending him sprawling across the stone floor.
"You are no longer part of their world, child. The Omega Protocol was never meant for you. It was meant for us. We, the first to ascend, the true inheritors of the power you seek."
Kai's mind raced. The First. The one who had created the Omega Protocols. The architect of the Ascension. The one who had brought about the rise of the Systems.
"You are a mere echo," the First continued. "A failed experiment. The Omega Core is our birthright, not yours. You, and your kind, are nothing more than... pawns."
Kai struggled to his feet, his pulse hammering in his ears. This was it. This was the force behind the Silent Choir—the one who had engineered the catastrophe that led to the Omega disaster.
"We were meant to become gods," the First whispered. "But we were betrayed. The Omega Protocol was corrupted. And now, only echoes remain. But you... you are the last. You will either restore us, or destroy everything."
The figure raised their hand, and the air shimmered again, reality bending like a twisted mirror.
"Choose," the First demanded.
Kai's eyes narrowed.
He wasn't going to let the First control the fate of the world.
With a growl, Kai unsheathed his blade.
"Then I choose to fight."
End of Chapter 19