Chapter 211: Discovery

[SEARCH COMPLETE: 1 RESULT FOUND]

Evren tapped the optical glass console, selecting the only record returned by the deep archival query.

A low chime echoed through the subterranean vault as the screen refreshed. A formal military dossier appeared across the wide display, its digital border marked with a faded crimson seal.

—

IMPERIAL HIGH DEFENSE COUNCIL // SPECIAL ARCHIVAL SECTION

DEPT. OF ANOMALOUS ARCHAEOLOGY & SPATIAL PHENOMENA

CASE FILE: #4409-C (ARCHIVAL QUARANTINE — LEVEL THREE RESTRICTED)

DATE OF RECORD: 12-03-2195 // YEAR 12 OF THE IMPERIAL ERA

SUBJECT: AUDIT OF EXPEDITION RESEARCH GRANT #882

LEAD RESEARCHER: DR. ALISTAIR MORROW (FELLOW, RELIC ARTIFACT STUDIES)

—

Evren leaned forward in the leather chair, his fingers resting lightly against the cold edge of the glass console.

The terminal presented four indexed sub-files: Field Discovery Log, Theoretical Abstract, Council Hearing Transcript, and Final Disposition. He tapped the first tab to open the discovery logs.

—

[SECTION 1: FIELD DISCOVERY LOG]

EXPEDITION SITE: SOUTHERN SECTOR // FIRST CONVERGENCE SUB-BEDROCK RUINS

DEPTH: 180 METERS BENEATH BEDROCK STRATA

RECORDING OFFICER: DR. ALISTAIR MORROW

—

"During the deep excavation of Southern Rift Ruin IV, our drilling team breached an untouched pre-war chamber. The architecture does not match standard First Convergence ruins; the walls are forged from an unknown null-metal alloy that completely resists mana conductivity."

"Within the central altar, we recovered five fractured lithic codices. Preliminary linguistic reconstruction confirms the repeated occurrence of three distinct pre-war designations: ’Archive Seed’, ’Progenitor’, and ’Custodian Protocol’."

—

Evren’s pulse picked up as his eyes tracked across the illuminated characters.

Seeing those exact words written thirty-four years before the extinction-class rift appeared in District One sent a chill through his veins. He reached forward and tapped the second tab to open the theoretical abstract.

—

[SECTION 2: HYPOTHESIS & THEORETICAL ABSTRACT]

AUTHOR: DR. ALISTAIR MORROW // GRANT ALLOCATION: 12,000,000 CREDITS

"The High Defense Council continues to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the recovered tablets. The military committee insists on classifying the Archive Seed as an offensive weapon or a mana battery to be harnessed for war. It is neither."

"The Archive Seed possesses no physical form, nor can it be extracted through surgical, biological, or alchemical means. It is a dormant dimensional stabilization matrix, designed by the Progenitors to prevent planetary dissolution during cosmic thinning."

"Furthermore, the Seed cannot be awakened through brute force, military awakening rituals, or high-tier cultivation. According to the third lithic fragment, the Seed functions solely through ’Sympathetic Soul-Resonance.’ It requires broken vessels; individuals from ancient, discarded, or shattered high-tier bloodlines whose ruined pathways can be reconstructed to form an interconnected harmonic network."

—

Evren stared at the glowing lines on the glass display, a heavy stillness settling over his chest.

His thoughts immediately flashed back to the day he met Amber in Veridia. She had been stripped of everything, betrayed by her uncle, and left to waste away in a wheelchair.

Then came Zephyra, dying in agony from Grade-Five shadow necrosis inside an underground arena.

And finally Calista, her cervical spine crushed and star-weaving meridians calcified, imprisoned in a dark cellar for two years while her family name was wiped from history.

Three women from legendary, fallen lineages, each broken and cast aside by the world. For months, Evren had believed his encounters with them were fortunate coincidences guided by his personal choices and his rebate system.

He had believed he was simply investing capital to cure people who deserved a second chance.

But reading the exact words written by an eccentric archaeologist decades ago, the truth hit him with breathtaking clarity.

The encounters had never been random. The dormant Seed within him had responded to their shattered pathways, drawing them into his life by design.

Evren took a steady breath, exhaled slowly, and pressed the third tab on the interface.

—

[SECTION 3: COUNCIL HEARING TRANSCRIPT]

PRESIDING COMMITTEE: HIGH DEFENSE AUDIT BOARD // CHAIRMAN: GENERAL T. BRANDT

CHAIRMAN BRANDT: "Dr. Morrow, you have expended twelve million credits of defense funding over seven years. Yet you present this committee with zero tangible weapons, zero harvestable monster cores, and zero military applications."

MORROW: "Because the Progenitor matrix is not a weapon, General! If the dimensional fabric thins again, standard armies will accomplish nothing unless we locate the harmonic bloodlines!"

CHAIRMAN BRANDT: "Enough of this unscientific drivel. The Council will not waste imperial defense reserves on superstitious fantasies about ’broken vessels’ and ancient fairy tales."

—

Evren moved his finger to the final section, tapping the screen to bring up the official verdict.

—

[SECTION 4: FINAL DISPOSITION & EXPULSION ORDER]

"1. Research Project Aethel-Seed is hereby officially terminated, and Dr. Morrow’s twelve-million-credit grant is immediately revoked."

"2. All formal laboratory reports, research codices, and university transcripts are to be expunged from imperial academic registries."

"3. Subject Morrow is stripped of all senior academic titles and assigned to permanent civilian exile in the provincial township of Oakhaven under passive municipal monitoring."

[ADMINISTRATIVE FOOTNOTE // AUDIT CLERK]:

"Subject vehemently refused to surrender his personal expedition field journals, shouting that the Council was blind to the coming collapse. Given subject’s advanced age and lack of combat capability, physical confiscation was deemed unnecessary. Let the old fool rot in Oakhaven with his scribbles."

—

Evren read the clerk’s final dismissal twice, his eyes lingering on the last sentence.

The official reports had been wiped clean from the imperial universities, but the real research was never destroyed. Dr. Alistair Morrow had kept his private handwritten journals when they exiled him to Oakhaven.

Evren committed every detail to memory... the name, the town, and the thirty-four-year-old audit number. He did not attempt to download the file to a drive or take a screenshot on his communicator.

Instead, he tapped the purge command, clearing his search history and wiping the terminal’s temporary memory cache. The interface flickered briefly before returning to its blank, default standby screen.

Evren removed Kincaid’s black keycard from the slot and turned away from the console. He stepped through the doorway as the titanium bulkhead slid shut behind him, sealing the forgotten records back beneath thirty feet of bedrock.

—

When the elevator doors parted, the penthouse was quiet, warm, and dark. Soft ambient light from the city skyline filtered through the floor-to-ceiling glass, casting long shadows across the polished hardwood.

Evren took off his coat, hung it by the entrance, and slipped quietly down the long hallway toward the master suite. He opened the bedroom door with a light touch.

Inside, a single bedside lamp was on, casting a warm golden glow across the king-sized bed. Amber was sitting up against a pair of large pillows in an ivory silk nightshirt, a leather-bound financial folder open across her lap.

When Evren entered, she looked up, her dark-brown eyes softening with a warm, welcoming smile. "How was your late-night drive?" she asked softly, setting the folder onto the nightstand.

Evren stopped at the edge of the carpet, blinking in genuine surprise. "How did you know I was out?"

Amber gave him a gentle, teasing smile. She lifted her slender hand and rested her palm flat over her chest.

"We’re connected, don’t forget," Amber murmured in a warm, melodic voice. "The bond never sleeps, so I felt when you drove out into the cold night... and the exact second you stepped out of the elevator."

Evren let out a quiet breath, feeling the chill of the subterranean vault finally leave his shoulders. He walked over to the side of the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress.

Amber shifted toward him immediately, sliding her warm fingers into his open hand. Through their joined hands, the gentle, rhythmic pulse of her mana flowed into him, beating in synchronization with his own heart.

Amber studied his face in the soft light, noticing the weight lingering in his dark eyes. "You look like you’re carrying the weight of the whole city," Amber said softly, her thumb brushing gently across the back of his hand. "What’s troubling your mind?"

Evren smiled faintly, giving her fingers an affectionate squeeze. "Nothing serious. Just running through plans for Starlight and clearing out some old thoughts."

Amber tilted her head, her golden eyes narrowing with playful skepticism. She leaned in closer, the scent of crushed jasmine and honey wrapping around his senses.

"You don’t want to tell me?" Amber murmured, a seductive, teasing spark lighting up her gaze.

She reached out with her other hand, catching the collar of his shirt and tugging him gently toward her. Her lips brushed lightly against his jaw, her breath warm against his skin.

"That’s fine," Amber whispered with a sultry purr. "How about I help you relieve some of that stress?"

"And how do you plan to do that?"