Chapter 74 – Kairos Protocol
The winds of the North howled like wolves mourning forgotten gods. Snow lashed against the figures trudging through the endless frost, their cloaks flapping like torn flags.
Kael-X led the way, his eyes fixed ahead, mind replaying Maya's warning and Elijah's prediction of spatial collapse. Behind him walked Nyx, Veyron, and the shadow-beast Umbra, whispering in a tongue only Kael-X seemed to understand.
"The tomb is near… The Architects dream in ice…"
They reached a ridge carved into the mountain—a gate of broken time. Frozen gears jutted from the cliffs like bones, and ancient glyphs pulsed faintly with residual energy.
"This is it," Veyron muttered, floating up, scanning the glyphs. "The Tomb of Architects. Last used... seven hundred cycles ago."
Kael-X touched the runes. They responded—reacting to his void signature.
The mountain rumbled.
A massive door of layered metal and crystal slid open, revealing a dark, descending path lined with flickering neon runes.
They stepped inside.
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Meanwhile…
Deep within the Ouro-Core Tower, Ghostline stood before Commander Yurell. Clad in obsidian armor laced with chrome veins, her eyes glowed behind the scope integrated into her visor. She spoke few words. She never had to.
"He's headed north," Yurell said. "To wake the Codebreakers."
Ghostline adjusted the weapon on her back—a rail sniper known only as Timepiercer.
"Don't kill him yet," Yurell continued. "Just slow him down. Force him to open the vaults. We need what's inside."
She nodded once, then vanished.
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Back in the Tomb…
Kael-X's team descended further, entering a cathedral-like chamber with massive holographic projections spiraling above them—fractured timelines, alternate realities, divergent futures.
Statues lined the chamber—tall humanoid beings cloaked in robes, faces hidden beneath masks of shattered glass.
"The Architects," Nyx whispered. "They were the first to resist the timeline's pull."
"And they paid for it," Kael-X added.
A voice echoed.
"Not all of us are gone."
From behind one of the statues, a figure stepped out—tall, genderless, with one glowing eye and a body composed of shifting data.
"Welcome, Kael-X… Voidspawn. Codebreaker. Catalyst."
Kael-X tensed. "You're an Architect?"
The being nodded. "I am what remains. And I know why you're here."
Kael-X stepped forward. "Then help us stop the collapse."
The Architect paused.
"Very well. But first, you must remember who you were… before Kael-X.
Only then can you open the Kairos Vault."
Kael-X's pupils narrowed.
His past was no longer a closed door—it was the key to everything.
Chapter 74 (Continued): Kairos Protocol
Kael-X stared at the Architect, shadows dancing beneath his cloak. The others remained silent, watching with tense curiosity. Even Veyron, normally flippant, floated quietly now.
"What do you mean… who I was before Kael-X?" Kael-X asked, voice edged with suspicion.
The Architect extended a hand. A ripple of light burst into the air between them, and a projection flickered into view—grainy, broken memories. A younger man with familiar eyes. No markings. No cloak. No beasts.
"He was once called Kalen Vor," the Architect said. "A chrono-specialist under Division XIII. Before the first experiment. Before the Compound-X saturation. Before the anomaly broke loose inside him."
Kael-X felt the tremor under his skin. A flicker of something long buried.
"I don't remember that name," he muttered.
"You're not supposed to," Umbra hissed from the shadows. "The void ate your past to protect your future."
The Architect nodded solemnly. "But if you are to open the Kairos Vault and stop what's coming, you must reclaim what was taken. Your fractured identity is the cipher."
Suddenly, one of the side chambers lit up. A circular room filled with floating memory cores. Each orb pulsated with strange energy.
"This is where your truth lies," the Architect said. "Enter… and remember."
Kael-X turned toward the chamber. But before he could take a step—
BOOM.
An explosion echoed through the tomb.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Ghostline stepped out of a temporal rift at the far end of the chamber, Timepiercer slung over her shoulder, one eye glowing blood-red behind her visor.
"I told you they'd send her," Nyx hissed.
Kael-X didn't flinch. "She can't kill me. Not here."
"No," Ghostline spoke at last. Her voice was like ice over metal. "I came to watch you remember… and then erase it all again."
She raised the rifle.
Before she could fire, Veyron shot forward, forming a wall of kinetic mirrors mid-air, shattering the first bullet. "This chamber is sacred, assassin."
Ghostline didn't blink. "So is war."
The Architect's hand began to glow. "If you fight here, you risk destroying everything left of the Architects."
Kael-X stepped between them. "Then we don't fight yet. We remember. And then… we burn everything they've built."
Ghostline lowered her weapon slightly, intrigued more than threatened.
"Then remember, Kael-X. Remember fast," she said. "Because when you're done, we finish this."
Kael-X stepped into the memory core chamber. And as the doors sealed behind him, the first orb floated forward—pulsing, waiting to unlock what even the void had tried to erase.
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Next: Chapter 75 – Memories of Before