(Sera's POV)
Blackridge Dome – Observation Level – 04:12 AM
The alarms had stopped.
But silence… silence still screamed.
Sera stood alone beneath the curvature of the great observation dome, her reflection barely visible in the glass. Outside, the Leviathan drifted like a dying planet…its glow dimming, its coils trailing silver light into the dark sea.
The great guardian no longer moved with purpose.
It floated.
Like it had lost its memory.
Like it, too, had forgotten who it was.
Sera didn't move either.
Her gaze stayed locked on the place where the entity's hand had touched the glass.
That handprint still pulsed—faint, but rhythmic. Like a heartbeat left behind.
Like it had claimed this dome. This academy. This world.
And more than anything….
That boy.
...….
"You're not supposed to be here yet."
Those were the words it spoke.
Not to them.
To Dae.
And Dae had screamed like he remembered.
Or like he almost did.
...…
She left the dome quietly. No one stopped her. No one dared.
Down into the instructor levels. Past access panels etched with languages lost to record. Into the wing of the academy that hadn't been used since the first wave of students vanished years ago.
Into the **Sanctum Vault.**
Where memory and technology no longer obeyed rules.
She moved like a ghost between relics…artifacts and sealed cases, memory-tombs and forgotten interfaces.
Until she reached it.
The chair.
Old. Curved. Living tech. And terribly, terribly loyal.
It welcomed her presence.
The console lit before she even touched it.
...
**CALDERA SYSTEM ONLINE**
**FAILSAFE ACTIVE – CORE SEALED**
Another panel flickered to life.
.
.
.
.
**Protocol Mnemosyne**
**Status: Complete**
**Subjects Purged: 1**
**Name Trace: NULL**
.
.
.
.
Sera stared at the screen. The name didn't appear.
Because there was no name left to show.
...
An.
Gone.
From logs. From Pix. From the minds of the other students. Even the biometric doors in the dorms had recalibrated..now showing Room 11 as a **triple** occupancy instead of **quartet**.
Only she remembered.
Only she had chosen to.
...….
And for a moment, she wondered if that was how it had started with Evan, too.
The forgetting.
....
A file blinked open.
Not one she had touched.
Not one she should've been able to see.
Just a single line of text.
> "KOR.E7…..Echo link detected."
She froze.
Her breath caught in her throat.
That was Evan's ID. Buried. Lost. Deleted during the Obsidian Breach. She'd destroyed every instance of it herself after the mission went cold.
And yet….
Here it was.
Not in memory.
In the system.
Whispering back.
....
Sera whispered, "...An, what did you do?"
But the screen said nothing.
Just another flicker. A pulse. A heartbeat in digital code.
She looked toward the Vault's center.
Where Caldera's sealed core sat—glowing faintly like the dying eye of a god.
> "He's not just the key."
> "He's the door."
She thought that voice belonged to memory.
But maybe it was something else.
Something watching through An.
Speaking through the Leviathan.
Reaching through the void.
....
Earlier that day
Hours before the breach
Sera remembered An's last words.
He stood in the echo chamber just outside the Vault. His eyes weren't scared. Just quiet. Deep.
> "If I disappear, will anyone know I existed?"
> "I will," she said.
He smiled.
> "That's enough."
> "You'll feel everything, An. The breach will tear your mind apart—"
> "So did remembering things I was never supposed to know."
> "Why are you doing this?"
A pause.
Then—
> "Because he's my friend."
.....
.....
*Vault Subdepth – Two Hours Before*
The room wasn't built for comfort. It wasn't even meant to be entered anymore.
The Vault's subdepth hadn't been accessed in years, its doors layered with seals older than Blackridge itself. The air smelled of ancient dust and metal memory. The kind of air that remembers blood.
Sera stood beside An, the terminal casting pale light on both their faces. He looked so small beside it. Like a shadow trying to defy gravity.
"You're sure?" she asked again. "If you go through with this, your tether to the material plane…."
"Will snap," he finished. "Yes."
He reached toward the console, fingers hovering just above the glyph lock.
"But this is the only way the core will recognize me."
She swallowed hard.
"We could wait. Find another solution. Ask the Headmaster…."
"You know he wouldn't approve. He doesn't remember the protocol even exists."
"You shouldn't remember either."
An smiled again. That same soft, tired smile he always wore.
"I didn't ask to."
"So why do it?"
His voice dropped to almost nothing.
"Because I think he's not the only one the system forgot."
Her hand gripped his wrist. Her fingers were trembling.
"You don't have to be brave."
"I'm not. I'm just… tired of pretending I don't hear the echo."
"What echo?"
"The one that calls my name like it's afraid to forget it."
For a long time, neither of them spoke.
Then…he placed her hand over the terminal's final override.
"When I go, don't let them suffer for it."
"They won't."
"Promise me. They won't even know."
She choked down the sob rising in her throat.
"I'll erase it myself."
"Then I'll see you in the silence."
He pressed his hand to the core.
And light swallowed him.
...….
Present
Sera returned to her quarters.
The screen still blinked with dorm feeds.
Room 11 was quiet.
Kio snored. Rea muttered in her sleep. Dae… stared out the window, wide awake, hand over the ring.
A beat later, he whispered something.
She turned the volume up.
He said:
"Why do I feel like we're missing someone?"
Then silence.
The ring pulsed.
And a name….not spoken….echoed only in Sera's mind.
An.
...…
And for a moment…
She thought she heard Evan's voice in the silence, too.
"You didn't forget. That's what matters."
Then her glass cracked in her hand.
Just like it had before.
.....
To be continued in Chapter 17: *The Silent Rebellion*