Light swallowed them whole.
When the spiral gateway vanished behind them, Metatron, Cyberius, and Jack found themselves standing in an endless hall of stone and silence. The air was still, thick with an ancient pressure that made even sound hesitate before echoing.
Crystalline veins ran along the walls, glowing faintly beneath layers of dust. No wind. No system pings. No signs of life.
> [System Notice: Unknown Zone Detected]
[Location: Core Frontier – Inner Sanctum]
[Warning: Map Function Disabled]
Cyberius clicked his tongue. "Figures. We step through a glowing death spiral, and now the map's dead."
Jack turned slowly, his eyes wide with both awe and fear. "This… this shouldn't exist. The Core Frontier was supposed to be sealed after the first world reset. No one's ever been here."
Metatron stepped forward, scanning the air. His visor flickered with static—the System itself struggling to read the environment. "Then maybe it's been waiting for someone to find it."
They followed a stone path leading toward a raised platform in the center of the chamber. Dozens of floating monoliths surrounded it, each engraved with moving symbols that rearranged themselves when looked at.
Jack's voice trembled. "Those glyphs… they're pre-system. That means this place was here before the world-building engine even loaded the current version."
Cyberius rested one hand on his revolver. "Translation: old magic mixed with bad news."
Metatron crouched and brushed his gloved fingers across the nearest rune. The moment he did, every monolith in the chamber flared to life. Streams of light shot upward, twisting together into a glowing spiral above them.
> [Accessing... Ancient Record Sequence Initiated]
Then came the voice—vast, calm, everywhere at once.
> [Wanderers of the Core... You seek the origin.]
The three froze. It wasn't coming from their interfaces. It wasn't even coming from a direction. It was inside the air.
Jack swallowed hard. "That… that's not an NPC protocol."
Metatron's voice was steady. "No. That's the system itself."
> [I am the Watcher of Balance. The Hand that shapes your rise and fall. You may call me... the God of Ascender.]
The walls trembled faintly as one of the monoliths cracked open. Within, a radiant sphere hovered—half blue, half gold—pulsing like a living heart.
Cyberius shielded his eyes from the glare. "What in the world—?"
Metatron stared, visor dimming automatically. The energy sphere pulsed again, sending gentle waves through the floor.
> [Your paths converge by will and by chance. The choices you make here will ripple beyond design.]
The voice faded. The monolith sealed itself once more, leaving a faint trail of light extending deeper into the hall.
Jack exhaled shakily. "We just spoke to the God of Ascender…"
Cyberius holstered his weapon with a half-scoff. "You mean we just triggered the weirdest side quest in history."
Metatron didn't answer. His gaze followed the fading light ahead, his visor reflecting it like a single blue flame.
> [Exploration Objective Updated: Investigate the Core Heart]
Without another word, he started walking toward the deeper corridor. The other two hesitated for a second, then followed.
The Core Frontier had awakened, and its god was watching.