Beneath the Vereti Empire's imperial palace, hidden far from the public eye, was the most restricted chamber in the entire empire: the Oracle Drive Restoration Vault.
The chamber was a large, open cavern. Its walls were made of an extremely rare dark metal covered in glowing golden runes that flickered gently with soft golden light.
The Oracle Drive was suspended above the wide platform at the center of this chamber.
An array of advanced machinery surrounded the Oracle Drive. Mechanical arms moved with precision and care as they circled the drive, repairing its fractured rings. Some spun from the outside while others rotated within the spherical core.
The rings rotated unevenly, showing how far the Oracle Drive had fallen from its original state.
A man in a white scientist's robe stood below the control platform. In front of him was a holographic screen. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion. The Vereti Empire crest was stitched onto his robe.
He let out a long sigh.
"Sigh… Repairing a treasure of this caliber… it's like trying to stitch together a shattered star."
Beside him, another scientist adjusted her data slate, its projections flickering with error codes.
"What do you think caused the damage?" she asked, glancing at her tablet. She continued speaking while reviewing the data on the screen.
"The Empress hasn't informed us of anything regarding the Drive. If we knew what caused it, maybe we could figure out how to repair the Drive."
The lead scientist slowly shook his head. "I don't know. I've worked with ancient relics for thousands of years, but I've never seen anything like this. The Oracle Drive isn't just damaged. It's as if it's rejecting our restorations."
"Maybe that theory's true," the female scientist said, eyes still on the Oracle Drive.
"Which theory?" asked the lead scientist, barely glancing away from the readouts.
"That powerful weapons can develop sentience."
He scoffed. "That's been tested countless times. We've never succeeded."
She shrugged slightly. "Maybe the weapons tested weren't powerful enough."
He paused for a moment, then gave a slight nod. "That's… possible." His voice lowered a bit. "But this—" he motioned toward the Oracle Drive, "—this is the most powerful weapon I've ever worked with. And even it shows no signs of sentience."
He then waved a hand dismissively in her direction making her stop what she was about to say and then turned toward a nearby holographic screen, checking the latest readings without saying another word.
"We've already burned through half the empire's allocated energy resources," he said. "And all that effort only repaired one-tenth of the first ring."
Just as the frustrated scientists turned back to their data, the temperature in the chamber changed.
The air grew heavier as if the laws within the room were constricting in response to the approaching presence.
A moment later—whoosh—a circular portal appeared on the chamber's floor.
Then Empress Quintessa appeared first, wrapped in her flowing silver armor dress, her eyes sharp.
Behind her followed the eighteen powerful figures, each cloaked in strange energy, each one strong enough to bend the rules of reality in their path.
The scientists dropped to their knees at once—not out of fear, but from instinct. The sheer pressure radiating from the group demanded submission.
The lead scientist barely dared to lift his head.
"Y-Your Majesty… we weren't expecting you this soon…"
Quintessa's gaze moved past him, directly to the Oracle Drive.
"There's no time to wait," she said her voice urgent as it echoed throughout the chamber.
"Understood, Your Majesty," the lead scientist said calmly, eyes steady behind tired lenses.
There was awe in his gaze, yes—but also the resolve of someone who had spent thousands of years working with the impossible.
The other scientists followed his lead, rising with disciplined precision. They weren't warriors or nobles, but they were experts; chosen to tend to the Oracle Drive not just for their knowledge, but for their composure in situations like this.
The scientist holding the control terminal gave a respectful nod to the Empress and the powerful figures behind her.
"We've kept the platform stable. Energy output is constant, and we've halted all low-level repair attempts as ordered."
Another, a dark-skinned woman with long silver implants running down her arms, stepped forward slightly.
"The machine arms will stand by. Just give the word, and we'll switch to full manual override."
Quintessa gave a single nod of approval. The room fell silent again. They were no longer in control of what would happen next.
But they would be ready. And they would be watching as this is their field.
She stepped forward, the others fanning out behind her. Their presence alone caused the mechanical arms around the Drive to glitch, they retreated slightly backward.
The lead scientist who was quiet looked toward the Empress. "It's worse than we thought," he said. "The Drive is resisting every attempt at restoration. Even with full resource allocation, we've barely made progress."
Quintessa didn't respond right away.
Instead, she reached into her pocket dimension and took out the vial. The moment it appeared, the Oracle Drive trembled.
The scientists gasped. For the first time in months, the Oracle Drive moved on its own, albeit slightly.
As soon as the vial left her hand and floated above her palm, the Oracle Drive shook again, this time calmly. A low hum rippled through the chamber as its damaged rings throbbed irregularly.
The scientists froze.
The lead scientist squinted up at the vial, his breath stuck in his throat. "It's… responding."
The woman with the silver implants narrowed her eyes, accessing readings from a nearby console. "The Drive's rejection field just dropped by sixty-five percent," she said. "It hasn't done that anytime."
"That vial… I've never seen anything like it." the lead scientists stepped forward cautiously but with overwhelming curiosity, addressing the Empress without arrogance but with visible curiosity. "Your Majesty, may I ask where was this vial found"
"What curious little ones, " said the gene fanatic who was standing behind Quintessa and among the powerful figures. "They remind me of my old days" The others weirdly looked at him, even in a situation like this he was talking nonsense.
Quintessa didn't answer back to the lead scientist. Her gaze remained locked on the Oracle Drive.
The lead scientist glanced at her, waiting for a response. When she said nothing, he awkwardly turned away and stepped back toward his console.
Trying to ease the tension, the female scientist gave a faint smile.
"You couldn't control your curiosity, huh?"
He let out a short breath, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Don't do that… I know what I did." He paused, his eyes drifting back toward the Oracle Drive.
"It's just—after months of silence… seeing it react like that? It got to me. I've been working on this thing non-stop, and it never moved. Not once. Not even a flicker but all of a sudden it reacts."
She nodded, her expression softening.
"I get it. We've all been waiting for something. And now… maybe we're finally seeing the start."
Quintessa finally turned her head toward them, her voice commanding. "Prepare the chamber. We'll initiate contact manually."
Six minutes later, the chamber was fully prepared.
The glowing runes on the walls lit up in perfect sequence, activating a large barrier that surrounded the entire room.
This barrier wasn't just for defense—it had multiple layers of protection.
First, it would shield everyone inside from any unknown danger that might happen during the process. Second, it would hide everything happening here from all forms of divination or spying, even from beings who could see into the future.
The runes were also specially designed to make the room exist outside of the normal timeline, so if someone tried to go back, or forward, in time to interfere, they would find nothing.
To them, this event would be imperceptible.
The barrier also served other hidden purposes: it erased karmic links, blocked tracking methods, and made sure no one could locate the chamber through magical or spiritual means.
This place was now completely hidden, safe from enemies, even those beyond time.
The lead scientist checked the readings on his screen and then turned to Quintessa.
"All systems ready," the lead scientist reported. "The barrier is stable. We've fully exited the timeline. No one can find us."
He hesitated for a moment, then added,
"We have three days—only three. If we remain outside of time any longer, we risk being lost to the unknown."
Quintessa gave a single nod, then turned to the powerful figures standing behind her.
Each one gave a silent nod in return.
They were also ready.
She looked back toward the Oracle Drive, her voice steady.
"Begin."
At Quintessa's command, the lights in the chamber dimmed and the mechanical arms around the Oracle Drive pulled back, moving into standby mode.
A low hum filled the air as if the chamber itself was bracing for what was about to happen.
Quintessa stepped forward, holding the vial in her hand. The substance inside glowed like a small galaxy, swirling gently.
She raised the vial with steady hands, then slowly tilted it forward.
A single drop touched the damaged surface of
The ring of the Oracle Drive. And instantly, the spherical core jerked, as if it had been shocked awake.
BOOM!
A wave of energy exploded outward making her silver armor dress flutter as if stuck by a powerful gust of wind.
The runes on the chamber walls lit up at once, absorbing the shock and keeping the barrier stable.
The Oracle Drive shook once more… then again… then the rings started to rotate, slowly at first but gaining speed.
The liquid spread across its surface on its own, slipping into cracks and glowing lines, as if it were alive. Wherever it passed, the damaged parts of the Oracle Drive began to mend, not like a machine, but like a living thing healing itself.
Gasps broke out among the scientists. "It's working," one of them cried out.
Quintessa's eyes stayed locked on the spherical core of the Oracle Drive, the core that had remained lifeless since the day it was damaged was reacting to the remaining liquid in the vial, it was drawn to it and she could feel Hunger, bordering almost desperation from the drive.
She frowned slightly, the sensation unsettling.
"What is this liquid, it could make a cosmic relic act like this? Like a mortal staring at riches, they were never meant to touch."
She tilted the vial again and the last of the swirling liquid slipped out and dropped onto the core of the Oracle Drive.
But This time, the response they were waiting for was different. The drive didn't shake, didn't hum, and no dramatic flare of light appeared.
Just… silence. It simply hovered in the air as still as a corpse.
The room grew tense when they found out that the reaction they expected didn't come.
The scientists said nothing, their hands frozen over their controls. The powerful figures standing behind Quintessa exchanged quiet glances.
One of them, a man with deep lines on his face and the tired eyes of someone who'd seen too much, spoke softly.
"The more we want from it… the more it slips away."
No one responded to his words.
They just waited.
Minutes turned into hours.
Three hours passed. Then ten.
And still, nothing.
After a full two days, a few of the gathered figures finally stepped away, the weight of disappointment sinking in.
One of them exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's it then. We won't even get a glimpse of who or what we're facing."
Another nodded, his voice low. "We've gone back to guessing. And the enemy… keeps progressing."
Quintessa didn't say a word.
She stood in front of the Oracle Drive waiting, she could feel a profound transformation was taking place in the core of the Oracle Drive