Metaverse of Mechas

📘 Chapter 68

🌌 Scene 1: Echoes of the First Core

Deep beneath Kyro City, Zeron—still recovering from the battle with Velos—descends into a forgotten chamber recently uncovered by a quake. Ancient mech carvings line the walls, etched with symbols predating all known Krono tech.

Deus Krono (telepathic): "This is not a temple. It's a tomb."

Zeron brushes away rubble and finds a stasis pod… inside it, a mechanical skeleton—with a heart-shaped, violet core beating faintly.

Zeron: "A mecha... that lived? Without a pilot?"

As he moves closer, the core activates and pulses a holographic memory: a vision of the First Emissary, who looks strikingly similar to Zui, standing against a sea of mechanical titans.

🌠 Scene 2: Zui Unlocks Protocol Zero

Zui, standing before AEON-ZERO, touches its core once again. The glyph burns bright, and a surge of energy slams through her.

She sees thousands of years in a flash—civilizations rising and falling, wars fought in her name, temples built around her statue.

Then—a message from AEON-ZERO:

AEON-ZERO: "Protocol Zero unlocked. Bond confirmed. Emissary Code: ZU-1."

Zui: "What does this mean?"

AEON-ZERO: "You are not its pilot. You are its origin. You were always meant to command the machines."

A new suit of armor materializes around her—lightweight, glowing with fractal Krono energy, forged for Emissary command. Not to fight—but to awaken.

🔥 Scene 3: Betrayal from Within

Meanwhile, Zeron returns to the surface only to be greeted by Serin, his former comrade in the rebellion ten years ago.

Zeron: "Serin? How did you find me?"

Serin: "You should've stayed gone, old friend."

Before Zeron can react, Serin stabs him in the side with a Krono-disruptor blade, disabling Deus Krono's link temporarily.

Serin: "Velos promised me my own mech god… if I delivered you."

But instead of finishing him off, Serin hesitates.

Serin: "You were right… about her. About Zui. That's why I can't let either of you live."

🧪 Scene 4: Zake's Regression

Zake, meanwhile, begins experiencing full-blown past-life inhabitation. He wakes in the Academy but speaks in a foreign language, calling himself Thalos—a boy-genius from the First Krono Era.

Kairen finds him drawing advanced mecha schematics in seconds—designs far beyond Earth's current technology.

Kairen: "How… do you know these?"

Zake (as Thalos): "Because I built them. Centuries ago. Before they turned on us."

He writes down one last phrase before collapsing:

"The Core will choose only the one who remembers how it was born."

🦠 Scene 5: Kera-Vault's Descent

Velos launches Kera-Vault toward Kyro City. Unlike any mech before, it doesn't fly—it slithers across reality, warping it as it moves.

Its core is alive, dripping with anti-Krono parasites that latch onto other mechs, rewriting their systems, turning them into mindless drones.

Velos (watching remotely): "Let's see how the Emissary handles a plague."

The corrupted mechs storm Kyro City's defense grid.

AEON-ZERO steps forward. Zui, for the first time, commands it fully.

Zui: "Don't kill them. Purge the corruption. They can be saved."

And so AEON-ZERO activates a pulse that releases restoration waves, severing the parasite links from infected mechs—but only within a limited radius.

AEON-ZERO: "That is all I can do… without the Origin Beacon."

Zui: "Where is it?"

AEON-ZERO: "Buried beneath the Forgotten Core."

⏳ Scene 6: Zeron's Revival & the Last Message

Bleeding and weak, Zeron barely escapes Serin's ambush. Deus Krono's link flickers back to life.

As Zeron reaches Zui and AEON-ZERO mid-battle, he sends a transmission to all remaining resistance bases:

Zeron: "This is not just about Earth anymore. The war Velos is waging… it's against history. Against what made us."

"We found the Emissary. And she's just awakened."

The message cuts off as Kera-Vault charges toward Zui at terrifying speed.

📖 Preview – Chapter 69: The Origin Beacon

Zake enters a hidden subspace and finds the original schematics of the Core.Zui and AEON-ZERO attempt to reach the Origin Beacon before Velos does.Deus Krono and Kera-Vault clash in a rematch that shakes Earth's crust.A new faction emerges—rogue AI remnants from the First Krono War.And someone presumed dead… is about to return.