جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 70

The canyon grew quieter the further they moved from the rotunda.Not calmer—just quieter in the way prey quiets when a predator enters the clearing.Aiden felt the shift immediately.The walls no longer hummed softly with ancient resonance.They throbbed with tension—like something was watching, waiting, listening.Dante noticed too.“Something changed,” he muttered, scanning the shadows. “It feels like this place is holding its breath.”Aiden placed a steadying hand against the canyon wall.“It is.”Dante paused. “What do you mean ‘it is’?”Aiden swallowed.“The memory vault wasn’t trying to lure me in. It was trying to warn me.”“Warn you about what?”Aiden looked at him, eyes wide and troubled.“About what’s coming.”Dante’s jaw tightened. “Then we don’t wait around to meet it.”He took Aiden’s hand and guided him down a winding path—one with lower walls and a slight incline that suggested an exit.But after several minutes, the incline dipped.Then dipped again.Until the path cu

The hum grew louder, vibrating through the stone beneath their feet.Aiden pressed closer to Dante as the canyon walls rattled with the force of descending engines. The air shimmered with heat, dust swirling in spirals as the ship lowered itself into the canyon like a metal predator sniffing fresh tracks.Dante’s voice dropped to a low, lethal whisper.“That’s not a scout ship.”Aiden shook his head. His voice trembled.“No… that engine signature is heavier.”The ship finally broke through the canyon’s mist—sleek, dark, reinforced with armor plating.Silent except for the deep mechanical thrum shaking the ground.A transport.A carrier.A collection unit.Aiden’s heart plummeted.“They’re here for me.”Dante’s hand gripped the back of Aiden’s shirt tightly, as if anchoring him to reality.“No. They’re here for both of us. And they’re not getting either.”Aiden swallowed hard.“Dante… I can’t fight another wave. The resonance—”“Then I’ll fight for both of us.”Aiden looked up at him

The blinding light faded slowly, dissolving into a soft violet glow that shimmered along the canyon walls like stardust settling after a storm.Aiden’s body sagged forward.Dante caught him before he hit the ground.“Aiden—hey—stay with me,” Dante whispered, brushing trembling fingers across Aiden’s cheek.Aiden blinked, dazed, pupils still swirling faint violet.“I’m… okay,” he breathed, though his voice shook with exhaustion.“It feels… different.”Dante swallowed.“Different how?”Aiden touched the center of his chest.“It’s like… something inside me stopped fighting. Like the storm finally picked a direction.”Dante kept his arms firm around him, steadying him as Aiden forced himself to stand.A soft hum echoed around them—The canyon walls are glowing in synchronized pulse with Aiden’s breathing.Dante shivered.“It’s reacting to you.”Aiden shook his head weakly.“No.It’s reacting to us.”The bond was faint but present—a subtle warmth threading between them, like their souls w

The ship did not move the way Aiden expected.There was no lurch, no violent acceleration, no sensation of being torn from one place and forced into another. Instead, the world seemed to slide—quietly, smoothly—as though reality itself had decided to make room for them.Stars stretched across the viewing window in soft ribbons of light, bending and reforming as the vessel slipped through layers of space Aiden could feel but not name. The sensation wasn’t painful. It was… strange like standing at the edge of sleep, where thoughts dissolved before they could hurt.Aiden pressed his palm flat against the transparent surface, grounding himself.The canyon was gone.The stone.The vault.The screaming resonance.The moment he had thought his body might split apart under the weight of power it was never meant to hold alone.All of it felt distant now. Not erased—never erased—but muted, like a wound that had finally stopped bleeding.Behind him, Dante stood close.Not touching.Not crowding.

The first thing Aiden learned was that power never arrived quietly.It settled into him slowly, like pressure building beneath the skin—subtle at first, then impossible to ignore. The resonance no longer screamed, but it was far from dormant. It moved now with purpose, flowing rather than surging, responding rather than rebelling.And it listened.Aiden stood barefoot on the smooth, circular floor of the training chamber, pulse steady but alert. The room was vast, its curved walls faintly luminescent, marked with symbols he didn’t recognize but somehow understood.They weren’t restraints.They were boundaries.Dante leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, eyes never leaving Aiden. He’d insisted on being present, despite the caretaker’s initial resistance.“She stabilizes better with you nearby,” Dante had said flatly.“And I don’t trust anyone who thinks separating us is a good idea.”The caretaker hadn’t argued.She stood now at the edge of the circle, hands clasped behind her bac