The descent grew colder—not in temperature, but in feeling. The further they moved down, the more the space around them seemed to hum with something ancient… and alive.
Nova paused at a fork in the path, scanning the walls. "Seismic resonance is rising. There's a pulse coming from below—like a heartbeat."
Seojun closed his eyes. He could feel it too. Not just through his body, but in the Seed embedded in his very soul.
It's not just technology… it's consciousness.
Rho gripped his rifle tighter. "The kind of thing that makes entire civilizations disappear without a trace?"
Hana flicked a torch forward. "Or the kind that creates gods."
The path narrowed, carved with symbols they'd seen in fragments on the moon, on the ruins of Aeon Station, and even in Seojun's dreams. As they touched them, the glyphs lit up, illuminating a vast subterranean chamber.
At its center stood an obelisk of black stone, floating a few meters above a circular platform. Tendrils of light curled around it, whispering into the air like breath.
Elias whispered, "That thing… it's humming in a language I can almost understand."
Nova's scans went wild. "It's broadcasting on frequencies older than language itself. Brainwave patterns. Seojun—it's calling you."
He stepped forward. The Seed within him pulsed in sync with the obelisk.
And then it spoke—not in words, but in thought.
You seek the truth of the First Exodus. You carry the Echo of Origin. But to wield it, you must remember who you were before you were born.
Images rushed into Seojun's mind: a city beneath the ice of Europa, humanity's first contact with an ancient machine intelligence, a war that rewrote history—and someone who looked just like him standing at the center of it all.
He fell to his knees.
Hana ran to him, grabbing his shoulder. "Seojun! Talk to me!"
But his eyes were glowing, locked on the obelisk. And then, with a sudden jolt, the entire chamber shook—not from collapse, but from awakening.
The obelisk cracked.
From it poured light and voice:
The others are coming. The ones who never forgot. The ones who want the Seed for themselves.
Nova's face went pale. "We've triggered a beacon."
Seojun stood slowly, his voice layered with something more. "Then we don't run. We finish what was started eons ago."
The obelisk shattered completely—revealing what lay within.
And what they saw…
…changed everything.