Gaia Chronicles: The Integral Saga

The deeper the Octagon moved into Lyrenthal, the more it became clear:This wasn't just an infiltration.It was a symphony.One composed not of blades or bullets—But of secrets.Secrets laced through the city like veins of quiet rot, bleeding into every inch of Gaia's proud infrastructure.

And someone had been conducting this silent betrayal for years.

Team B—Sylvia, Eun-Ha, Hikari, and Mia—had now crossed into the lower breach corridor, beneath the Cathedral Sector, where the data trail led.

What they found wasn't a dungeon.

It was a sanctuary.

Black banners. Candles flickering over void-scribed altars. Statues of twisted figures—half human, half unmade.

Sylvia whispered, "This isn't Abyssal worship."

"No," Eun-Ha said, stepping forward. "This is Orion's church."

Behind them, Mia's grimoire fluttered open of its own accord. Pages turned rapidly before stopping.

A line glowed across one page:"The price of oblivion is memory."

"They're feeding off what we forget," Mia murmured. "Twisting what's lost into their own design."

Hikari's gaze fell on a broken mask set upon the altar.

It was made of Gaia alloy. It bore a Knight's insignia.

"Whoever this Knight was… they were converted."

Back above ground, in the ruined outpost's communications chamber, Cyg, Charlotte, Harriet, and Elaine continued triangulating the false relay signals.

But something was off.

Cyg's expression turned flat. "This signal shouldn't exist."

"What is it?" Charlotte asked, fingers still dancing across the ether console.

"It's not broadcasting," Cyg replied. "It's listening."

Elaine narrowed her eyes. "A surveillance drone?"

"Worse," Cyg said. "A live mental relay tethered to someone inside our network."

Harriet's eyes darkened. "You're saying one of us…"

"Not just a mole," Cyg cut in. "A signal receiver. Someone doesn't even know they're compromised. Orion's whispering through them."

Charlotte turned slowly toward him. "A sleeper."

"Exactly."

A small click echoed through the chamber. It wasn't from their devices.

It was from within the walls.

Harriet's wings of flame flared immediately as she spun, weapon drawn. "We're not alone."

The lights cut out.

Half a city away, in the undercathedral, Mia stiffened.

"Someone's activating a cross-sense tether."

Sylvia asked, "To where?"

Mia's voice was barely a whisper. "To him."

All of Team B fell silent.

She didn't need to say the name.

They all felt the sensation—the air thinning, their chests tightening like a hand gently pressing into their lungs.

Erebus.

Suddenly, Cyg's eye blazed with brilliant blue. He turned to the far corner of the room and fired a pulse from Aetheron. The beam carved through steel and darkness, revealing—

A young man.

Or at least, he looked young.

Jet-black hair, pale skin, eyes completely white.

He smiled.

"Well done, Tactician," the intruder said, stepping into view. "Only three seconds slower than Kael predicted."

"You're not Orion rank," Charlotte said sharply. "You're… something else."

"I'm a recording," the figure replied. "A flesh shell echo left behind to observe."

Elaine's wind surged, slicing the figure's coat.

But it didn't bleed.

It glitched.

Cyg's voice was ice. "That's not a person."

The figure nodded. "Of course not. I'm his shadow."

And with that, the room exploded in waves of illogic. Sound ceased. Gravity twisted. Logic blinked.

Charlotte screamed as the data she was tracking re-coded itself into her neural stream.

Harriet held her ground through sheer will, wings blazing, shielding Elaine.

But Cyg…

He didn't blink.

He stepped forward and aimed Aetheron directly into the heart of the anomaly.

"You think I fear losing control?" he said, voice deathly calm. "You're still playing checkers."

He fired.

The room inverted. Reality stuttered.

The shadow vanished, leaving behind only a whisper:

"He's watching you, Cyg. And he remembers everything you forgot."

Back in the sanctuary below, the Cathedral's silence was broken when a doorway opened—automated and ancient, lined with shifting crystal veins.

Mia gasped.

"This isn't Orion tech."

Eun-Ha stared ahead.

"No," she said softly. "It's from before Orion."

Sylvia took a cautious step. "Pre-Rift?"

"Pre-Gaia," Eun-Ha confirmed. "We just found something even Thea doesn't know exists."

At Fort Argenvale, alarms screamed across the communications deck.

Thea stood frozen as an old file opened by itself on the central console.

It was dated 2071.Decades before the Abyss.Before the Integral Knights.Before Gaia.

The file contained one image:A photograph of a young man holding a black blade.

The same face as Cyg.