Location: Belowground Metro Hub, Sector-8, Chennai
It had been three days since Vaelin's merge.
Three days of running. Hiding. Training.
Arangan had taken him beneath the city — into the tangled ruins of the old Metro network, now overridden by jungle roots, data cables, and ghosts of the past.
"Breathe slower," Arangan whispered. "You're not breathing. You're leaking fear."
Vaelin sat in a lotus pose, sweat running down his back, his glowing veins pulsing in sync with something not human.
> [CALIBRATING COGNITIVE OVERLAYS...]
[NEURAL GHOST DETECTED - MEMORY LOCKED]
"What are neural ghosts?" Vaelin asked.
"They're echoes. Of Bluecore's previous users. Their memories. Some come as warnings, some... as madness."
"Can I choose what I see?"
"No. But you can survive it."
Vaelin nodded, closing his eyes.
Then—his mind shattered.
He found himself in a field of blue sand under a black sky. Tall statues surrounded him, each carved in the shape of warriors, monks, and scholars. All of them had empty eyes—and blue sigils burned into their chests.
A voice echoed across the desert.
> "WE FAILED. WILL YOU?"
From the sand, a shape rose — his own reflection, but older. Stronger. Broken. The doppelganger lunged, fist glowing with Aether fire.
Vaelin blocked by instinct, pain jolting up his arm.
> [NEURAL GHOST CHALLENGE: INITIATED]
[VIOLENT REJECTION MAY LEAD TO TEMPORARY MEMORY LOSS]
Boom!
Back in the real world, Arangan watched Vaelin convulse on the floor, blood dripping from his nose. But the boy didn't scream. He fought.
Inside the vision, Vaelin struck the ghost with a blue-tinted roundhouse, followed by an uppercut powered by raw resolve.
The ghost vanished into code.
> [CHALLENGE PASSED. UNLOCKING NODE: AETHER SCAN]
[SKILL ACQUIRED: PERCEPTION SPLICE]
Vaelin gasped as the world returned.
His eyes opened—not just to light, but to data. He could now see the electrical patterns of a man's thoughts, the intent behind a twitch, the path of a punch before it was thrown.
"I know what people will do," he whispered.
Arangan smirked. "Then you're ready."
"For what?"
Arangan threw a small holodisc onto the floor. It opened a 3D image of a massive underground structure, pulsing with blue rings of power.
"That," he said, "is the Neuralnet Facility. The core's second memory seed is locked inside. Guarded by both drones and... something else."
"What else?"
Arangan's eyes narrowed.
"The last host who didn't survive."
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