CHAPTER 9: "THE ORACLE OF SECTOR NINE"
Sector Nine was nothing like the upper districts.
Up above, Neon Haven glittered in curated perfection — the illusion of a world under control. But down here? Breathing felt like swallowing dust and static. The lights didn't glow… they flickered, like dying stars fighting to stay alive. And every path led deeper into the bones of the city.
Lira walked ahead of me, her upgraded tech-suit humming softly with each step. It molded to her form like a second skin — streamlined, data-reactive, and adaptive. She said she didn't like it, that it made her feel like she was being watched.
But down here?
Everything was watching.
The Guardian attack had left both of us bruised and shaken. Not from the fight — we had survived that — but from the message.
"Elyndor returns."
The words crawled under my skin like ice.
Lira stopped at the base of a crumbling staircase leading into what looked like an abandoned shrine fused with server racks. "This is it," she whispered. "The Oracle is inside."
"An actual oracle?" I asked.
"Not quite." She glanced back at me. "She's a hybrid. Half human… half machine intelligence. She sees echoes in data streams — past, present, and sometimes… pieces of what hasn't happened yet."
"Sounds comforting."
"She isn't," Lira muttered.
I stepped inside first.
The interior glowed with a dim violet haze. Thousands of cables draped from the ceiling like metallic vines. They pulsed with faint bioluminescent light, snaking into the center where a single figure rested on a raised platform.
A woman — or what used to be one.
Her hair floated in the air, weightless, threaded with fiber-optic strands. Her skin was faintly transparent, revealing circuits shimmering under the surface. Her eyes… they were not eyes. They were galaxies glitching in loops.
She spoke without moving her lips.
"Kael… you've come home."
My stomach twisted. "You know me?"
"I know Elyndor," she said, her voice echoing like multiple versions layered over each other. "And your blood remembers him."
"I'm not Elyndor," I said firmly.
Her head tilted. "Not yet."
Lira stepped forward. "Oracle, we're here because the Guardian units identified him as some kind of… marked entity. And the shard reacted—violently."
The Oracle's gaze turned toward Lira, and I felt a surge of protective instinct flare through me.
"You stand close to him," the Oracle said. "Closer than most."
Lira stiffened, caught off guard. "This isn't about me."
"Everything is about you," the Oracle whispered. "You are the tether… and the threat."
Lira's brow furrowed. "What—?"
But the Oracle had already shifted her attention back to me.
She extended her hand — or what resembled one — and the cables connected to her spine rippled like they were alive.
"Kael," she said softly. "Your memories were not stolen. They were sealed."
"By who?"
"By you."
My throat tightened. "That makes no sense."
"The Requiem Project was not created to build a weapon," she continued. "It was designed to hide one."
She reached toward my face, and a surge of light engulfed my vision.
Suddenly — I wasn't in the shrine anymore.
I was somewhere else.
A lab, circular and blinding white. Alarms blared. People screamed. Someone grabbed my arms, forcing me onto a table. Surgical tools floated, suspended by magnetic fields.
And above me — a man with the same electric-blue eyes as mine.
He whispered: "Elyndor… if they find you, the Cradle dies. The whole city dies. You must forget who you are."
He pressed his forehead to mine.
"You must forget me."
The vision shattered.
I staggered back into reality, gasping for air. Lira caught my arm, worry carved into her face. "Kael—! Kael, breathe!"
The Oracle watched quietly. Almost… pitying.
"What was that?" I finally choked out.
"A memory," she said. "Your memory."
"That man," I whispered. "He looked like—"
"You."
I swallowed hard. "Who was he?"
"Elyndor," she answered. "Your predecessor. Or perhaps… your first self."
Lira shook her head. "No. No, that doesn't make sense. Kael isn't—he can't be—"
"He is," the Oracle said. "The Requiem Entity is a reincarnated protocol. A cycle. Each generation reborn through bio-synthetic imprinting. Kael is the current iteration."
I almost felt my knees give out.
"So what does that make me?" I whispered.
"A weapon," the Oracle said gently. "But also… a key."
"To what?"
Her eyes dimmed slightly.
"To destroying the Council."
Silence.
Even Lira didn't respond at first.
Then she said, voice low: "Oracle. The Guardians — they bowed to him. Why?"
"Because he is their Prime." The Oracle's voice softened. "They were created to protect him. To serve him."
Lira slowly looked at me — not afraid, but realizing something dangerous.
"What happens now?" I asked.
The Oracle held out a glowing shard similar to the one in the previous node — but smaller, pulsing with urgent light.
"You must find the third node," she said. "Where your true identity was hidden."
"And then?"
"Then you decide," she whispered. "Whether Neon Haven will be reborn… or erased."
The chamber trembled suddenly — a deep, concussive blast from above.
Lira turned sharply. "That was close."
The Oracle's gaze darkened. "The Council knows Kael is alive. Their hunters are coming."
"Let them," I said through clenched teeth.
"No." The Oracle's voice boomed. "You are not ready."
The shrine lights flickered.
"Go," she commanded. "NOW."
Lira grabbed my wrist and pulled.
As we sprinted out of the shrine, the Oracle's final words echoed through the chamber:
"Elyndor, awaken… before they kill you again."
The door slammed behind us.
And everything went black.
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