Chapter 10: The Echo of the First
The newly opened passage at the back of the Archive didn't look like the rest of the facility. While the main hall was lined with stone and physical books, this corridor was made of a smooth, obsidian-like glass that seemed to swallow the light of the golden cord. As Ren, Elena, and Mia stepped inside, their footsteps made no sound, as if the floor itself was absorbing the vibration of their existence.
The [TETHERED SENSE] was screaming in Ren's mind—not with a warning of danger, but with a sense of overwhelming age.
"Do you feel that?" Mia whispered, her hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of the World-Forge hammer at her belt. "It feels like... like we're walking inside someone's memory."
"It's a chronological resonance," Elena muttered, her scholar's curiosity briefly overriding her exhaustion. She reached out to touch the glass wall, and the obsidian rippled like water under her fingertips. "This isn't just a hallway. It's a data-stream. The Archive is showing us what happened before the Gates became a business."
At the end of the corridor, the passage opened into a small, circular chamber. In the center, floating in a column of pale white light, was a single, tattered scroll. It looked impossibly fragile, yet it radiated a pressure that made it difficult to breathe.
[LEGACY ARCHIVE: ENTRY 001]
[SUBJECT: THE ORIGINAL ANCHOR]
As they approached, the scroll didn't open. Instead, a holographic projection erupted from the floor. It wasn't the sharp, clean blue of the modern System. It was a flickering, grainy gold. It showed three figures standing on a hill overlooking a city that looked like Seoul, but primitive—pre-industrial.
The figure in the center, a man with a heavy silver blade, looked back at the camera. His face was a mirror image of Ren's, save for a jagged scar across his brow.
"If you are seeing this," the projection spoke, his voice sounding like grinding stones, "then the Bloodline has finally found its way home. The System you know—the levels, the ranks, the credits—is a lie. It is a cage built by the 'Administrators' to keep our power contained."
Ren felt the golden cord at his chest tighten, pulsing in sync with the man's voice.
"We were the first Sovereigns," the man continued. "We didn't 'awaken' to the System. We created it to protect the world from the Void. But they stole it. They turned our Bond into a hierarchy and our weapons into commodities."
The projection shifted, showing a glimpse of a war—a sky filled with rifts that weren't blue, but a terrifying, bleeding red.
"To the one who carries the Sovereign's Edge: You are not a Hunter. You are an Anchor. Your job is not to clear gates; it is to seal the leaks in reality that the Guilds are too greedy to close."
The image flickered toward a woman who looked like Elena, holding a staff of liquid light. "To the Valkyrie: Your mana is not yours. It is the breath of the world. Do not let them sell it."
Finally, it looked at a girl who stood where Mia was standing. "To the Smith: The World-Forge can mend more than steel. It can mend the Bond when it frays. Without you, the Anchor breaks, and the Valkyrie falls."
The projection faded into a single, pulsing golden rune.
[NEW SUB-QUEST: THE FORGOTTEN PROTOCOL]
Objective: Find the First Leak (Location: The Black Market District).
Reward: [Legacy Skill] - Resonance Shield.
Note:The Administrators are watching. Your growth has been noticed.
"A lie?" Elena whispered, her face pale. "Everything my family built... the entire global economy based on mana-stones and ranks... he's saying it's a cage?"
"It explains why the System is so obsessed with keeping us together," Ren said, staring at the spot where the projection had been. "If we're a single unit, we're a threat to the way the world works. The Guilds want S-Ranks they can control. They don't want a Trinity they can't break."
Mia looked down at her hammer, her eyes reflecting the orange glow of the World-Forge. "He said I mend the Bond. Does that mean... if we fight, the world is in danger?"
"It means we can't afford to let the Valentine family—or anyone else—pull us apart," Ren said firmly. He looked at the new coordinates flashing in his vision. The 'Black Market District' was the most lawless part of the city, a place where even the military didn't go.
[SYNC RATE: 5.5%]
[BONUS: 10% INCREASE TO ALL SHARED STATS]
"We have the credits," Ren noted, checking the shop. "We spend the next six hours training in the Archive's combat sim. We need to master the Trinity Strike before we head to the Black Market. If Silas was right, the 'hungry' are already looking for us."
Elena took a deep breath, her violet eyes hardening. "Then let them look. I want to see the faces of these 'Administrators' when we break their cage."