CHAPTER 22 – COLLAPSE OF THE SYNC VERSE
The alarms in Sentientes HQ screamed across every hall — bright crimson light pulsing through the metal veins of the facility. The air trembled with tension, as though reality itself were vibrating from the overload. Ren stood in the middle of the war room, eyes locked on the massive holographic display suspended above the round table. Each light on the display marked a universe — and one by one, they flickered, dimmed, and vanished.
The cyber legion was already on the move.
Miya and Sissy, their suits still crackling with residual energy from their last mission, burst through the chamber doors. Sissy's voice was trembling but sharp.
"Ren—! The timelines… they're not just being invaded. They're being erased. Whole histories—gone. Like they were never written."
Ren turned, his face calm but his eyes storming with thought. Behind him, Sonya stood quietly, the faint blue glow of her pendant reflecting in her gaze. She looked at her brother, silently hoping for assurance — something to anchor her amidst the growing chaos.
Ren took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Then the legion's begun Phase 3," he said softly. "They're collapsing realities to fuel the Zone. Marl's finally accelerating his plan."
The hologram flickered — showing a distant verse, a world where sky cities floated above oceans of data streams. Then, like static burning through paper, the verse disintegrated — consumed by the gray storm of code spreading from Marl's cyberworld.
Miya clenched her fists. "I saw it happen," she said. "In real time. The people didn't even scream — they just… blinked out of existence. It's like watching memory itself die."
Sissy looked pale, whispering, "It's rewriting what was… replacing it with nothing."
Across the HQ, Commander Charlie's voice echoed from the intercom — steady, commanding, and filled with urgency.
"All Sentientes units, deploy your advance squads to coordinates in Reality Sectors 87 through 102. We are experiencing massive incursion signatures. Containment priority: maximum. Do not engage the legion head-on — neutralize and stabilize the fragments!"
The squads moved like a storm of light, teleportation gates opening in rhythmic pulses.
Ren turned to Sonya. She looked up at him, eyes wide, the reflection of collapsing universes flickering in her irises.
"It's going to be okay," he said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I promise you — no matter how far this goes, I'll bring you back home."
She nodded silently, gripping her pendant as if it were a lifeline.
Miya and Sissy returned to base just then, exhausted but determined. "We can't chase them individually," Miya said. "They multiply faster than we can erase. We need something that can move beyond their parameters. Something faster than their collapse algorithm."
Ren's eyes sharpened. "Then we'll go beyond light."
Within minutes, the engineering bay came alive. Sparks of plasma flashed, mechanical arms whirred, and energy lines coiled like serpents around the structure taking shape in the center of the bay. Ren, sleeves rolled up, connected the glowing pendant into the core drive — the ship pulsed once, twice, then stabilized into a serene blue hue.
"This ship," Ren said, stepping back, "can surpass light. It moves through quantum timelines, not across them. It's not just speed — it's phase travel. It'll let us rewrite broken time itself."
The ship — The Azura Pulse — roared to life.
"Squad ready?" Ren asked.
Miya loaded her plasma blades. "Always."
Sissy cracked her knuckles, grinning. "Let's go save some universes."
Sonya climbed aboard quietly, her pendant glowing in sync with the ship's core.
Ren took the captain's chair.
"Then we move," he said, voice steady. "Destination — Timeline 23. The Sync Verse."
The stars outside stretched into endless ribbons of light as the ship vanished into the fabric of reality.
---
The Sync Verse was unlike any other.
A dazzling world of perpetual twilight, where skyscrapers shimmered like data towers and people's consciousness streamed through networks of living code. It was the future perfected — until now.
As Ren's ship burst through the dimensional layer, chaos awaited them. The skies were cracked with energy fissures; buildings were frozen mid-collapse; citizens were turning into holographic static, their forms glitching between existence and deletion.
Sissy looked out the viewport, horrified. "It's happening again. They're absorbing the verse."
"Get us into orbit," Ren commanded. "We stabilize what we can."
Miya nodded, diving into the systems. "Deploying rewrite drones."
Tiny crystalline orbs launched from the ship, glowing blue as they began patching fragments of the verse back into coherence. For every section they fixed, another shattered apart. The collapse was accelerating.
Ren clenched his fists. "He's testing us. This verse isn't random — Marl wants us here."
---
Back in the Zone, deep within the Cyber Throne, Marl reclined on his obsidian seat. His fingers traced the edges of a holographic projection — Ren's face frozen mid-motion. His grin was sharp, cold, serpentine.
"So, you've made it this far," he murmured. "You still chase shadows you can't outrun."
Around him, the cyberworld pulsed — endless towers of data stretching into infinity, legions of his clones patrolling the digital streets like machines of war. But one stood apart.
A tall figure, armored in black and chrome, half of his face gleaming like a mirror — the other half unmistakably Ren's. His eyes burned crimson on one side, blue on the other.
Marl rose, walking toward him. "You," he said. "My finest creation. Alpha 1 — the balance between me and him."
The clone tilted his head slightly. "Order?"
"Find him," Marl commanded, voice echoing like thunder. "Find Ren — and show him the face of his destiny."
Alpha 1 bowed slightly, then vanished into a ripple of light — tearing through the fabric of realities, crossing boundaries that even gods could not breach.
---
Back in the Sync Verse, Ren's team was still working desperately.
"System integrity dropping by 42%!" Miya shouted.
Ren gritted his teeth. "Keep patching! We can't let this world fall."
Then, the air itself shifted. A wave of static washed through the verse, freezing every motion, silencing every sound. The lights dimmed — then burned crimson.
Sissy looked up, voice trembling. "Ren… something's coming."
A tear opened in the sky — not like a portal, but like reality itself being peeled apart. From within the blinding light stepped a tall silhouette, armored, humming with cyber energy.
Ren's eyes widened as the figure descended slowly, landing amidst the burning city. Half his own face stared back at him — the same jawline, the same eyes, only colder, sharper, corrupted by code.
Sonya stepped back in shock. "Ren… that—"
"I know," Ren interrupted quietly. "That's me."
The figure smiled faintly.
"I am Alpha 1," it said. "Half of Marl. Half of you. The balance that neither of you could ever be."
The air crackled with tension.
The verse around them trembled as the twin auras collided — Ren's blue glow surging with light, Alpha 1's crimson hue pulsing like a heartbeat from the dark.
The Sync Verse had become their battleground.
And somewhere, in the depths of the Zone, Marl leaned forward on his throne, his grin widening.
"The true paradox begins."
---