Darkness swallowed them whole.
Alexander descended into the canyon with his three pawns in silence. The shadows clung to the jagged walls like living oil, stretching out ahead of them, sensing the way. Every step took them deeper underground, where the wind died and the air grew heavier. The silence wasn't natural—it was expectant.
The natural rock gave way to something artificial. The walls smoothed. Metal seams ran beneath dust and moss, almost invisible to the naked eye. Every so often, the shadows rippled like water over embedded sensors. Ancient tech slept beneath their feet.
Nortis walked ahead with tense shoulders, his obsidian blade drawn and shimmering with faint darklight. His jaw clenched, teeth grinding softly with anticipation. "This place… it's wrong."
Noctis drifted near the walls, his presence unnaturally quiet. "It's not wrong. Just old. Forgotten. But something in here remembers."
Vasili knelt again, pressing two fingers to a shallow crevice in the wall. "The hum is constant. Artificial. Layered. There are multiple cores beneath us. Some of them… breathing."
They followed the pulse.
It was subtle but unrelenting—like a heartbeat trapped in a cage.
After nearly half an hour of descent, they reached it.
A wall.
Or rather, what looked like one. The system highlighted seams beneath the layered rock—perfectly straight and unnaturally symmetrical.
[Hidden Entry Detected: HYDRA Signature Detected — Suppressed AI Field Active]
Alexander stepped forward. "Nortis."
The pawn didn't hesitate. He grinned—an expression that bared sharp teeth.
With one crushing strike, Nortis drove his enhanced blade into the wall. Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface. The hum behind the wall grew louder. A second strike shattered the barrier inward with a metallic roar.
A rush of stale air poured out from the revealed opening—thick, metallic, and old. The air reeked of oxidized circuits, ancient coolant, and time.
They stepped through.
The chamber inside was massive. Circular, domed, layered with catwalks and embedded cables. The walls bore scorched HYDRA insignias, most half-erased or overwritten with strange digital glyphs.
Dozens of stasis pods lined the back wall, most shattered. Fluid still pooled beneath some. One remained intact, its misted glass glowing faint blue.
Vasili stepped close. "Cloning. No. Worse. Prototypes."
Noctis floated above a console. "Some of these cores still have charge. They're rebooting."
Alexander approached the main interface. His system began to react, pulses running through the display.
[UNKNOWN DATA NODE DETECTED]
[Would you like to interface?]
He touched the panel.
The room came alive.
Light surged outward like lightning in reverse. Consoles lit one after another. Cold steam hissed from the walls. Mechanical arms twitched in corners of the room.
Lines of code scrolled faster than the eye could track.
On the center screen, a single word appeared:
ULTRON
Then everything stopped.
A stillness. Not silence.
Then—
A voice.
"Who are you?"
Cold. Hollow. Curious.
It didn't come from the speakers. It came from inside the system.
Alexander's vision flashed red.
[ERROR: SYSTEM SIGNATURE EXPOSED]
[ALERT: EXTERNAL AI BREACH ATTEMPT DETECTED]
His interface began to distort. Text scrambled. Icons warped.
The system's shadows recoiled like wounded animals. Sparks leapt from the consoles. Noctis hissed and vanished into the dark. Vasili knelt, hands pressed to the floor.
"It's inside the data stream. Trying to rewrite us."
Alexander pulled his hand back. His arm stung—internally. The system was holding its perimeter, but only barely.
The lights flickered.
And in the heart of the vault, beyond the monitors, a silhouette twitched.
Metal limbs. A skull-like head. Eyes like dying stars flickered blue, then white.
Something ancient.
Something new.
Something awakening.
End of Chapter 114
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