Gaia Chronicles: The Integral Saga

Fort Argenvale.

Thea stood before the screen, pale fingers curled into a trembling fist. The image hadn't changed: a sepia-toned photograph, aged by time and sealed within pre-Gaian archives. In it, a man in a tattered black coat held a sword identical to Nihileth, the infamous artifact wielded by Erebus himself.

But it was the man's face that had the entire control room frozen.

It was Cyg.

Younger. More expressive. But undoubtedly… him.

"Run facial confirmation again," Thea ordered, voice cold as ice.

"Ma'am, we've run it five times," said a tech officer nervously. "Ninety-nine-point-eight percent match."

Thea turned away, her thoughts a storm.

What are you, Cyg Synthesis Eleven?

Back in Lyrenthal, Cyg stood silently above the shattered remains of the glitch-entity. Charlotte sat slumped against the wall, still dazed from the mental feedback loop.

Harriet hovered protectively near Elaine, who had taken a glancing blow during the reality stutter.

"We shouldn't stay here," Elaine said, wincing. "This place... it reacts to us."

"It wasn't a trap," Cyg said, narrowing his eyes. "It was a test."

Charlotte groaned softly, looking up at him. "You passed, cold prince."

"Don't joke," Harriet snapped. "We need extraction. We need—"

But she stopped. Because Cyg wasn't listening.

He was staring at the screen in front of him. The one that now displayed an active audio link.

"Tactician," a voice whispered through static. "Let's talk."

Cyg's expression didn't shift. But his eye twitched once.

He knew that voice.

Elsewhere, below the Cathedral, Team B descended into the crystal-veined vault, now lit by a strange glow that pulsed with life.

Sylvia paused at a pedestal with a single fragment of alloyed glass resting atop it.

"This is Gaia alloy… but mixed with Abyssal ore."

Mia studied the runes etched into the pedestal.

"It's a memory seal. Layered with pre-language code. I've never seen anything like it."

Eun-Ha's divine aura surged.

"Something is waking up."

The vault shimmered. A projection formed—a flickering construct of light and shadow.

Not Orion.

Not Abyss.

It looked like a Knight, clad in ancient armor… but with no face.

"What are you?" Hikari asked softly.

The projection tilted its head.

And answered with a whisper:

"We are the First. The Ones Gaia Forgot."

Back above, in the tower ruins, Cyg stood alone in the communications room as his team retreated to the surface.

He stared at the comm feed. The voice on the other end was clearer now. Smooth. Icy. Familiar.

"Still playing their game, I see."

Cyg's expression remained unreadable.

"Kael Verdan. Void Council."

"And you," Kael replied, "still pretending to be one of them."

Cyg's fingers curled slightly on Aetheron's grip.

"I'm not pretending."

"A pity," Kael murmured. "You once taught me to think faster than the world. Now you crawl behind it, playing Knight."

"You don't know who I am anymore."

"Don't I?"

A beat.

"Do they?"

On the edge of the city, Zayne and Zaria led a backup squad through the western perimeter. Dozens of Wretches—berserk Abyssal hybrids—poured out from half-formed breach rifts, forcing the Siblings to fight back-to-back.

"I'll take left!" Zayne shouted, Azrakel blazing with sunlight.

"Watch your blind spot," Zaria murmured coolly, spinning with Lysara, the moonlight whip dancing in arcs of silver.

Three Wretches lunged. Zaria flicked her wrist, disarming them with graceful slashes.

"You're slowing," she teased.

"I'm flaring," Zayne shot back. "Big difference."

Behind them, Tryce and Ali arrived, flanking the perimeter with icy arrows and tectonic hammer-blows.

"We've got twenty-four active rift tears and two unknown signals," Ali muttered.

"This was coordinated," Tryce added. "Someone knew our response patterns."

In the vault, the projection continued speaking.

"Gaia was born on the bones of forgotten kingdoms. Before Abyss. Before Orion. There was another enemy."

"Who?" Sylvia asked.

The projection's light dimmed.

"The One Who Remembers. Erebus. The mistake Gaia never erased."

Mia gasped. "You mean Erebus… was from Gaia?"

"No," the projection said. "He is Gaia."

Back in the comm tower, Kael's voice cut sharper.

"You and I are anomalies, Cyg. They can't understand us. They never could. They'll discard you when the truth breaks through."

"You're wrong," Cyg said quietly. "They're not perfect. But they choose to believe. And belief… matters."

Kael chuckled. A slow, humorless sound.

"We'll see if that faith holds, Cold Tactician."

The transmission ended.

Charlotte reappeared at the doorway, leaning against the frame.

"You didn't tell them everything."

"Neither did you," Cyg replied, finally looking at her.

Charlotte's smile was crooked. "Guess we're both liars."

"No," Cyg said. "Just survivors."

As the team regrouped at the edge of Lyrenthal, the sky was already turning gray.

Gaia's capital had been cracked open.

And Orion was already inside.

But in the shadows behind both enemy and ally...

Something even older had awakened.

A truth deeper than the Abyss.