Rome always looks eternal in the morning.
Sunlight brushes ancient walls gently, as if the city has never witnessed wars, plagues, or the fall of empires. Tourists once again crowd the streets. Cameras click. Laughter rings lightly through the air.
Luca stood by the railing near the Colosseum, staring at the massive structure with a different gaze than before.
Now he knew something was beneath it.
Not merely stone foundations.
Not merely the underground chambers of gladiators.
A stone circle.
Glowing symbols.
And someone standing at its center.
Himself.
He closed his eyes, trying to summon the vision again.
A slow pulse traveled from his chest to his temples.
The world dimmed slightly.
But this time, no clear image came.
Only a sensation.
Like an echo from a very deep chamber.
He opened his eyes.
The fragment did not always respond as he wished.
Maybe it wasn't the future.
Maybe it was a memory of something that had not yet happened.
Luca walked along the outer perimeter of the Colosseum, pretending to be just another tourist. He studied the architectural details carefully. The stone arches. Fine cracks in the walls. The structural precision that seemed too exact for ancient technology.
He had once studied Roman construction techniques. Hydraulic concrete. Drainage systems. Geometric planning.
But now he saw it from a different angle.
The arena's shape was too symmetrical.
Too aligned.
As if it had been designed not merely for spectacle, but to focus something.
Energy.
He stopped when he spotted a group of men in dark suits on the western side.
The same as last night.
Their movements coordinated. Their gazes sharp. One of them held the small device he recognized.
Chrono Council.
They didn't know who he was yet.
But they knew there had been a disturbance.
Luca did not approach.
Instead, he moved away, taking a narrow path leading down to the underground section open for limited tours.
He bought a ticket without hesitation.
If the circle truly existed, the fastest access would be from below.
The underground corridors were colder. Damp stone walls and the scent of ancient earth filled his lungs. Dim lights illuminated narrow passageways where wild animals had once been kept before release into the arena.
The tour guide spoke about gladiator history.
Luca didn't hear a single word.
He watched the floor.
The structure of the corridors.
The spacing between certain points.
The deeper he walked, the stronger the pulse in his chest became.
The fragment was responding.
At the third turn, his head throbbed sharply.
A vision struck suddenly.
He saw the corridor empty of tourists. Lights off. A wall shifting open to reveal a hidden chamber.
He opened his eyes.
The lights were still on.
Tourists still walking.
But the feeling was unmistakable.
Something was behind the wall.
He slowed his pace, letting the group drift ahead slightly. He touched the stone surface at a spot that felt subtly different.
Cold.
A faint vibration traveled into his palm.
Like a heartbeat behind the stone.
Luca inhaled deeply.
He summoned the fragment.
The world softened.
Three seconds.
He saw himself pressing a particular stone. The wall shifting slightly. A faint light escaping through a gap.
He opened his eyes before time fully resumed.
Without hesitation, he pressed the same stone.
At first, nothing happened.
Then a soft grinding sound.
The wall shifted less than a centimeter.
Enough to reveal darkness beyond.
Luca held his breath.
Tourist footsteps echoed farther away.
He slipped through the narrow opening.
Darkness greeted him.
He turned on his phone's flashlight.
The chamber beyond the wall was circular.
And carved into its floor was a stone circle.
Symbols etched across its surface.
The same symbols from his vision.
The circle wasn't large. Perhaps five meters in diameter.
Yet the atmosphere was different.
The air felt dense.
Time felt slower.
At the center of the circle was a shallow indentation, like a place meant to hold something.
A fragment.
He knew it.
This circle was a mechanism.
A seal.
Or a trigger.
Luca stepped into the circle.
The moment his foot crossed the boundary of symbols, the world shifted.
Outside sounds vanished.
His flashlight dimmed.
The symbols on the floor glowed faintly.
A shadow appeared before him.
Himself.
But not as before.
This version was paler. His eyes emptier.
"You came earlier this time," the shadow said.
The voice did not echo.
It sounded directly inside Luca's mind.
"This isn't the first time," the shadow continued.
Luca did not answer.
Pressure built in his chest.
"What you saw that night wasn't the beginning," the shadow said. "It was the result."
The result of what?
The question nearly left his lips.
But before he could speak, another vision struck.
He saw Rome destroyed in different variations.
He saw Athens.
He saw the sea splitting apart.
He saw a similar stone circle beneath the ruins of the Parthenon.
And in every image, he was there.
Sometimes standing at the center.
Sometimes kneeling.
Sometimes unmoving.
Luca staggered.
The shadow before him gave a faint smile.
"You want to control the destruction," it said. "But you don't know who first opened the door."
The symbols on the floor glowed brighter.
Pain pierced Luca's temples.
He remembered the suited man from last night.
The Chrono Council.
If they knew about this chamber, why hadn't they sealed it?
Or perhaps they had deliberately left it open.
As a trap.
The shadow began to fade.
"Witness," it whispered softly.
The word returned.
Binding.
The stone circle trembled.
Footsteps echoed from the outer corridor.
Luca opened his eyes.
The chamber was dark again.
His phone flashlight normal.
But the footsteps were real.
Not an illusion.
Someone had found the gap in the wall.
He summoned the fragment.
Flash.
He saw three suited men entering the chamber.
He saw himself restrained.
He saw the blue device shining brightly at the center of the circle.
He opened his eyes before the scene finished.
Time resumed.
The footsteps drew closer.
Luca did not panic.
He stepped out of the circle.
The symbols dimmed.
He pressed the stone in the wall again.
The gap nearly sealed completely.
Leaving only a thin line difficult to notice.
He hid behind a stack of old stones at the chamber's edge.
Seconds later, the wall shifted from outside.
Three suited men entered.
One of them was the gray-eyed man he had encountered the night before.
The blue device in his hand glowed stronger this time.
They stood at the edge of the circle.
One knelt, touching a symbol with a black-gloved hand.
"Activated," he said quietly.
Gray eyes scanned the chamber.
Calm. Methodical.
Almost like a hunter.
Luca held his breath.
The fragment inside him vibrated.
As if responding to their presence.
The gray-eyed man stood precisely at the circle's edge.
He closed his eyes briefly.
Then opened them.
"He's here," he said softly.
Cold seeped into Luca's spine.
The blue device emitted a faint tone.
But suddenly the screen flickered.
Signal gone.
The gray eyes narrowed.
"Adaptive anomaly," he murmured.
Adaptive.
They realized he could change.
Luca summoned the fragment again.
A flash came.
He saw himself running now.
He saw one of the men raise his hand.
Blue light striking.
He opened his eyes before it finished.
Don't run.
He remained still.
One of the other men said, "The trace is weakening."
The gray-eyed man looked at the circle once more.
"Not yet," he replied. "He's learning."
Something shifted inside Luca.
Not just power.
Role.
If they considered him an adaptive anomaly, then he was not an ordinary case.
That meant there was precedent.
Or at least a theory about him.
A few seconds later, they withdrew.
The wall sealed again.
Footsteps fading.
Silence.
Luca stayed still for a while longer.
Only when he was certain they had truly left did he step out of hiding.
The stone circle looked ordinary now.
But he knew.
This was no mere ancient site.
It was a node.
And the Chrono Council were not simply guardians.
They were waiting for something.
He touched the nearest symbol with his fingertip.
A faint pulse answered.
Somewhere deep within the city; perhaps far below even this chamber, something pulsed in response.
If this circle had been active before he touched the fragment, then the fractures had long been planned.
Or maintained.
The question was no longer how to stop the destruction.
The question was who first began this experiment.
And whether he was merely a pawn who believed himself a player.
Would Luca continue hunting fragments alone…
Or was it time to approach the Chrono Council and uncover the truth from within?