Novel Core Novels & Stories

“We need to know what has happened. The Core is awakening, but it’s not just the land that’s changing. The very fabric of magic itself seems to be unraveling.” Elena hesitated, glancing at Lucas before speaking. “The Core is more than just a source of power. It’s connected to something ancient, something dark. I saw it in a vision—there’s a figure, someone with glowing eyes, like the Core itself. I think he’s the one who created it. He warned me that the war isn’t over. That the Core was never meant to be a weapon. It was meant to restore balance, but it will only bring destruction if it’s not stopped.”

For the first time, Cathedra had someone who didn't cringe every time she opened her mouth to speak. So this is what having a friend feels like, huh? Cathedra thought to herself. One lunch break, while waiting for Diane underneath the tree, Cathedra was scribbling a draft of her first novel in her notebook. The novel contained the scenes she saw in the storybook, back in her kindergarten days. Since that day at kindergarten, she didn't tell anyone what she saw in the storybooks anymore. The thought of seeing things that other people couldn't still terrified her but she tried hard not to think about it by avoiding any book she can see other than school books and textbooks.

“No more eternal Author cores. No more being welded to the engine just because we can see your insides.” I dug the pen into a particularly nasty cluster of directives: AUTHOR_CORE_ENABLE = TRUE CORE_RESIDENCY = PERMANENT REUSE_MERGED_AUTHORS_FOR_OUTPUT “NO ETERNAL AUTHOR CORES,” I wrote over them, letters big and ugly across its beautiful function names. AUTHOR_CORE_ENABLE = FALSE. MAX_CORE_RESIDENCY = 0. MERGE_OPTION: DISABLED_BY_DEFAULT. “YOU CANNOT—” “You keep saying that,” I snapped. “And I keep doing it.”

"The Core’s surface is completely covered in a void-lattice! Physical strikes won't touch it—it will just absorb the kinetic energy and detonate!" "Then we don't break it!" Caelum rumbled, his silver-gold eyes burning through the murky violet darkness. "We purge it from the inside out!" Caelum took their raw burst of speed and turned course, driving them into the centre of the pulsating Core. BANG!

{Dominic} It had been a while since I dipped my fingers back into the dirty waters of corporate warfare. And yet, here I was—four hours, two cups of coffee, and God-knows-how-many spreadsheets later—elbow-deep in NovaCore’s files and already slipping back into my old rhythm like I’d never left. It was like muscle memory. The same way you never really forget how to ride a bike—especially since this particular bike was one I’d built from scratch, oiled with sweat and sleepless nights, and fine-tuned with ruthless precision.

“You trust her with that much power?” The question hit harder than I wanted it to. I ground out my cigarette and said, “If I don’t, we’ve already lost.” He nodded, pushing off the doorframe. “You always did like your lessons in pain the hard way.” When he left, I stayed at the balcony, staring down at the courtyard. The truth was, Niko wasn’t wrong. The Core had started as my idea—a system to keep the empire’s pulse in one place. But Alana had taken it and made it her own. Now, every whisper of information came through her first. Every shipment, every alliance, every betrayal.

A new layer opened. Silence filled the room for a second. Adrian spoke quietly. “We’re in.” Marcus stepped closer. “What is this?” Adrian answered, “The core network.” Yvonne felt her heart beat faster. “This is where everything connects.” Marcus nodded. “Then this is where we break it.” The work became harder, every command took longer. The system was blocking, redirecting and trying to slow them down. Adrian wiped his forehead. “He’s pushing back.” Yvonne asked,

It turned into a round deep shaft lined with shiny metal and pulsing white lights. The shaft looked like a throat leading into the belly of the world. June gasped she held the glass clipboard tight to her chest her fingers were still numb. The coldness from the Machines touch stayed on her skin like a ghost. "The map " June said, "it says the Core is not a power source it is a nursery." Hope asked, "A nursery for what?" The silver girl stood at the edge of the hole her eyes scanned the dark depths. "I hear a heartbeat but it is not human it is heartbeats at once."

“We can’t keep running like this. He’s inside everything.” Adrian caught her chin gently, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Then we go where he can’t reach us.” “Where is that?” He looked past her, eyes dark with determination. “Offline.” She frowned. “You mean—?” “The Core Nexus,” he said. “If we shut it down, we sever every neural link in the city. Kael loses his network.” Lena hesitated. “You said the Core was buried after the collapse.” “It was,” Adrian said. “But I built the failsafe before I left Echo. If it’s still intact, we can overload the central matrix.”

We fell into a small chamber filled with emergency supplies. The air was still here. Cold. Safe, for now. I sank to the floor, gasping. “What even was that thing?” Alexander wiped the sweat from his face. “Whatever it was, it’s not supposed to exist. It’s rewriting itself.” “Rewriting?” He nodded. “The core was designed to learn. It wasn’t just processing data—it was learning from us.” I felt a chill crawl down my spine. “You mean it knows who we are.” He looked at me. “It knows you.”