Metaverse of Mechas

📘 Chapter 8

🩸 Scene 1: Shattered Trust

The air in the Astral Vault was thick with tension.

Zeron stood frozen, face pale, as Commander Yurei—his former superior, once a mentor—held a corrupted Krono blade to Zui's throat.

Zui didn't flinch. Her eyes glowed with defiance, flickering between gold and white.

Yurei's voice echoed like venom.

"You were always the final piece, Zui. Your brother was the decoy. The Key never needed a wielder. It needed a resonator—and you are the last Lucid Spark."

He pressed the blade closer. "Now… open the gate. Complete the sync."

Zui's hands trembled. The Astral Key behind her pulsed, calling her, binding with her neural signature.

Zeron stepped forward.

"Let her go."

"Or what?" Yurei sneered. "You have no Krono. No mech. No weapon. You are nothing."

He was right.

But in that moment, Zero—Zeron's clone—stepped beside him.

"You're wrong," Zero growled. "He has me."

⚔️ Scene 2: Echo Combat

With lightning reflexes, Zero charged Yurei.

Their blades clashed—Krono red vs Krono blue. Sparks danced. Echoes of power shook the chamber walls.

Zeron pulled Zui away while Rin sniped incoming shadow mechs with precision shots from behind crumbling stone pillars.

Zero shouted, "Zeron—get her out of here!"

Zeron grabbed Zui's hand and ran, dragging her down a narrow tunnel as plasma bolts screamed past.

Behind them, Yurei unleashed a wave of Shadow Krono, mutating surrounding machines into feral beasts of metal.

One of them lunged—

—but Zui turned, eyes glowing.

"You want the Spark?" she hissed. "Then burn in it."

Her burst of Krono energy vaporized the creature in mid-air.

She fell to her knees, breathing hard. "I… can't hold this much longer…"

🧬 Scene 3: The Bloodline File

Deeper in the vault, Zake watched from a holo-feed at home, fingers flying across cracked keyboards.

He decrypted another file—the final journal entry of their mother, hidden inside a genome-locked protocol.

Her words came through in a whisper:

"Zui's birth was no accident. Neither was Zeron's. They were designed—one to hold Krono, one to channel it. A weapon… and its ignition."

"And Zake… you are the failsafe."

Zake blinked. "Me? But I don't even have Krono…"

The file continued.

"Your power is not Krono. It's the code behind it. And one day, you'll need to choose who lives—and who awakens the Mecha Core."

🩻 Scene 4: Zui Syncs With the Key

Back in the vault, the Astral Key hovered mid-air, now fully linked to Zui's mind.

"Don't do it!" Zeron shouted.

But it was too late.

The Key spun wildly, pulling in data, light, memories. Zui's body floated inches off the ground. Her eyes turned completely white.

From her lips came a voice not hers:

"Initiating Gate Sequence. Krono Source Detected. Syncing Host: Lucid Spark Alpha."

The room trembled.

Pillars collapsed. A rift opened above, showing stars—not from this galaxy.

Everyone was thrown back, except Zui.

She glowed like a star, and from her chest… something ancient stirred.

A symbol. Etched in circuits, burning purple.

Rin gasped. "She's not just a Lucid Spark…"

"She's a dormant Krono Core."

⚡ Scene 5: Return of the Phantom Unit

Just as Yurei raised his blade for a final strike—

A sharp whistle cut through the noise.

Then, a spear flew from the darkness, pinning his arm to the wall.

Emerging from the shadows came a squad dressed in cloaks of camo-metal. Silent. Deadly.

The leader removed her mask.

A woman with scars over both eyes, and a broken guild insignia on her neck.

Rin's eyes widened. "That's… Commander Nyza. The Phantom Unit was wiped out five years ago!"

"Not wiped," Nyza said, voice rough. "Betrayed. By Yurei."

She turned to Zeron. "The Council put a bounty on you. But I see now… you're not the threat. You're the reset."

🔓 Scene 6: The Gate Begins to Open

The Astral Key, now tethered to Zui, opened the first layer of its program:

"One of three planetary gates unlocked."

Above them, the ceiling cracked.

A beam of Krono light shot skyward—cutting through the planet's clouds—and echoed across the galaxy.

Thousands of alien machines turned toward the light.

So did something darker, deeper… sleeping beneath the planet's crust.

Yurei laughed even as he bled.

"You fools. You think you're heroes? You just woke up the original war machine."

"The First Mecha. The Devourer of Systems."

🔮 Preview – Chapter 9: "The First Mecha Awakens"

With one planetary gate now open, Zui's body begins to destabilize under the Key's pressure.

Phantom Unit helps the team retreat, but they're hunted by Oblivion Core's elite generals. Meanwhile, ancient mechs buried under the capital city start rumbling—one of them bearing the name Project Omega: Alpha-Kai…