The fragments hovered in the air like pieces of broken moonlight.
Vale rotated them slowly, each shard singing a different note—some high and trembling, others deep like echoing drums.
Stark felt each one tug at the mark on his wrist, as if the fragments recognized him.
Aiden frowned at the floating pieces.
"It's just noise," he said. "Broken spirit-data that wants to act important."
"No," Lira said quietly. "It's a pattern. A song. Or part of one."
The wolf at her feet was growling softly, ears pinned back. Even it felt the resonance.
Vale raised her hand and the fragments spun faster, aligning along faint lines of red code.
Each piece projected a stream of symbols, until the fragments overlapped like layered runes.
The hologram flickered—
Then snapped together with a sound like clicking bones.
A small map appeared.
A spherical grid representing Sanctum-9, its lower layers pulsing in faint blue.
Under the grid, within a hollow space the Academy had sealed ages ago, glowed a pulsing red core.
[Chorus Map — Partial Reconstruction]
Location Identified: Old City Archive Ruins — Deep Axis
Node Class: Dominion Anchor I
Threat Level: Extreme
Aiden cursed softly. "We're going under the Archive again? That's where the Watcher was born."
"Not the same area," Vale said. "Deeper. Beneath even the maintenance tunnels. Pre-Collapse structures."
Stark's mark throbbed.
He recognized the pulse—like a memory trying to surface.
Lira leaned close. "What is it?"
"I've seen this place," Stark said quietly. "The First Summoner showed me his world. Buildings shaped like this. Vaults carved like these. It's the Architect's…" He hesitated. "…cradle."
Vale met his gaze. "Then this is the next piece of the map."
She turned to the others. "Do not underestimate this. What lies beneath the Archive is not just a Node. It is where the Architect tested the first Summoners."
Aiden looked grim. "Meaning?"
"Meaning," Vale said, "that this place may react to Stark. And not in predictable ways."
The Descent
The Old City Archive was a cathedral of rust and half-collapsed pillars.
They passed broken shelves, tattered tomes, and rusted machinery—relics of a world that believed it could cage spirits by writing their names.
A deep stairwell opened at the back, sealed by thick iron doors smeared with runes.
Vale pressed her palm to the lock.
The runes flickered.
Nothing happened.
"Stark," she said. "Again."
Stark stepped forward. The chains on his wrist glowed faintly, and he pressed his hand against the iron.
The runes pulsed.
The door groaned.
A draft of freezing air brushed his neck, carrying whispers in a forgotten script.
Then the door fell open.
A narrow shaft wound downward into a place untouched by sunlight or time.
The Hollow Atrium
They descended through a vertical corridor until the walls gave way to a massive chamber—so vast the ceiling vanished into darkness.
A ring of chains suspended an entire platform above an endless pit.
On the platform sat structures—half temples, half servers—humanoid statues braided with cables.
Everything hummed a faint, mournful tone.
Lira whispered, "This… isn't human architecture."
"No," Vale said. "This was built by the First Summoner and his kin. Before humans corrupted the system."
Aiden's spear flared uneasily. "I don't like how the floor is breathing."
Indeed—the tiles bulged and dipped, as though something beneath them shifted with every pulse.
Stark's mark ignited, light crawling up his veins.
The Ash Phantom materialized, flickering as if struggling to remain whole.
"We should leave," it hissed. "This place is a grave for my kind."
Stark stepped toward the platform anyway.
Every statue turned its face toward him.
The air tightened.
[System Alert]
Recognition Sequence Initiated
Entity Classification: SUMMONER-LINE
Status: Last of the Chain-Bearers
Triggering Awakening Response…
Lira's eyes widened. "Stark—something's activating!"
A statue's chest opened.
A core floated upward—crimson, pulsating.
A hum built in the room. The temperature dropped.
Aiden lifted his spear. "Incoming!"
The Echo-Fragment Beast
From the edges of the platform, a shape rose—a mass of broken memories and half-formed bodies stitched together by code and spirit.
It was enormous—standing on limbs that flickered between metal and spirit-mist.
Eyes—too many eyes—blinked in chaotic rhythm.
[Entity Identified]
Dominion Sentinel — Echo-Fragment Beast
Level: 45
Behavior: Destroy Summoner-Line Intruder
It lunged.
Lira's wolf leapt forward with a snarl. Aiden spun his spear, light carving across the creature's chest. Vale raised barriers of shifting glyphs.
Stark fired.
[Skill: Soul Reap—Chain Surge]
[Condition: Mark Boost Active]
[Effect: +65% Penetration]
The shot pierced through the creature, but instead of dying, it split into two smaller shapes—each screeching.
"Great," Aiden muttered. "It's a replicator."
They fought across the platform, dodging claws and beams of code-light. The beast regenerated, splitting and changing shape with each hit.
Stark tried to sync with his Ash Phantom, but the spirit faltered, its form glitching.
"This chamber rejects me," it growled. "It wants you alone."
Lira struck at a limb with her gauntlet, sparks dancing. "Stark! The core is responding only to you—you have to change the fight!"
Stark swallowed hard.
"What do I do?"
Vale shouted from behind a barrier. "Use the Chain Memory—change the Sentinel's binding! It's tied to the Architect's script. Rewrite it!"
Stark closed his eyes. The First Summoner's voice flickered through the echo:
"Do not answer the chain—teach it your song."
The mark pulsed like a heartbeat. Stark raised his palm.
[Chain Memory Activation]
Objective: Rewrite Dominion Binding
Risk: Sync Overload / Architect Influence Surge
Glyphs burst around him—red, blue, silver.
The Sentinel froze, trembling.
Aiden slammed his spear through its chest. "Do it—NOW!"
Stark inhaled and recited the new chord, the one the First Summoner taught him:
Bind in peace, not in war.
Rest, not rend.
Hear, not hunt."
His voice carried across the chamber.
The Sentinel convulsed—
Then shattered into dust.
The chamber went still.
The heartbeat hum quieted.
A soft glow floated to Stark's feet: a new fragment.
[Item Acquired]
Chorus Fragment #4 — Dominion Map Core
EXP: +120
Trait XP: +20
Stark exhaled shakily. His mark dimmed.
Aiden leaned on his spear, breath heavy. "Remind me again why everything in this city wants you dead?"
"Not dead," Vale said. "Claimed."
Lira helped Stark steady himself. "Your control is getting better."
"Barely," Stark said.
The Map Awakens
Back at the central platform, Vale arranged the new fragment with the others.
The moment it touched the hologram, the map expanded.
New pathways lit up.
Three more nodes.
Then a final central location.
But at the center of the map—beneath the deepest layer of Sanctum-9—
a single point glowed brighter than all the rest.
A point shaped like an eye with three lines.
Aiden whispered, "What is that?"
Stark knew the answer even before the system displayed it.
[Architect Core Identified]
Location: Void Cradle – Forbidden Depths
Status: Awakening
Time Until Full Activation: UNKNOWN
Lira stepped back. "We're running out of time."
Vale turned to Stark.
"You've done what none of us could. But now…the Architect will come for you directly."
Stark looked at the glowing map, at the lines crossing his wrist, at the faint tremble in the air.
"We find the last fragments," he said quietly.
"Then we decide whether the chain breaks…
or changes."