Metaverse of Mechas

📘 Chapter 86

⚡ Scene 1: Secrets Beneath the Dust

Location: Sector 3 – Forbidden Canyon Vault

Zeron, Kael, and Zake arrive at a desolate site, where ancient Builder ruins lie buried under layers of tech debris. Guided by the decrypted coordinates from Raina's warning, they descend deep into the vault.

A hidden panel scans Zeron's Krono signature. Surprisingly, it reacts—not to his Purple Krono—but to something older, embedded deep within him.

The vault opens, revealing a dormant mecha sealed within obsidian crystal: Astrael Vortan — a prototype from the Pre-Builder Era.

Kael mutters, "This… isn't just alien. This predates the Krono system."

A mental echo speaks to Zeron as he approaches:

"I was forged to stop gods."

🧠 Scene 2: The Mind Core & Zui

Location: Temporal Chamber - Core of Sector 0

Zui is placed into the Mind Core, a spherical AI network that spans dimensions. Her body twitches. Voices bleed from her lips, switching between alien dialects and robotic binary.

Inside her consciousness, Zui stands in a shattered dreamscape, surrounded by reflections of herself—hundreds of Zuis, each from a different timeline.

One steps forward, cloaked in Void Light.

"You were not meant to survive. But now, you're the anchor. The bridge between organic and synthetic time."

Zui screams as her mind expands—her thoughts now linked to the Krono Web across planets.

Outside, her vitals stabilize.

But her eyes glow with blue fire.

⚔️ Scene 3: The First Real Fight with an Apostle

Location: Eastern Wastes – Atmospheric Rift Zone

Velven of the Veil returns—this time leading a synthetic plague to consume ecosystems. Resistance mechas are deployed, but they're too slow. Time-lagged.

Zeron, Kael, and Zake arrive.

Kael stays back to contain the plague. Zake distracts Velven's drones.

Zeron charges in with the newly reawakened Astrael Vortan, but it resists his control. It activates a mind-trial defense system, pulling him into a simulated battlefield.

There, he must face illusions of his past: his parents' deaths, Raina leaving him, Zui being taken.

"Do you deserve power?" the illusion asks.

"I never wanted it," Zeron replies, "But I won't run from it either."

He passes the trial.

Astrael Vortan fully activates.

Time around him slows—not just for enemies, but for everything… except him.

He slashes through Velven's chrono-bubble, damaging her true form. For the first time, an Apostle bleeds.

Velven retreats, leaving behind a piece of her Chrono Lens.

🧩 Scene 4: The Resistance's Division

Location: Resistance HQ, Obsidian Hold

With Zeron growing stronger, not all Resistance leaders are pleased.

Councilman Verik and General Stross propose detaching from Zeron's command, fearing he's become too close to alien tech.

A vote is cast. The decision?

Split the Resistance into two factions.

Zeron's unit is now "Echo Blade Unit", a black-ops autonomous cell.

Kael tells him:

"They trust you… but they fear what you're becoming."

Zeron replies quietly,

"So be it. Let fear be the weapon they forge their faith with."

🕳️ Scene 5: A Tear in Reality

Location: Western Skies – Orbiting Rift Moon

Raina, now healed, travels to an abandoned orbital research facility to learn more about Dextra's sabotage.

There, she finds a rift in space-time — and a floating fetus-sized entity pulsing with raw Krono.

It speaks:

"The Chronarch is not one. It is many. I am what he discarded. A fragment of sanity."

The entity shows her visions of worlds already consumed. And a future where Zui becomes the host of planetary Krono control.

"If Zui becomes the Core Sovereign, this world will stop rotating—literally. Stuck in an eternal moment."

She escapes with a new mission: save Zui before her mind breaks.

💔 Scene 6: Dextra's Trap

Location: Sector 9 – Gravity Wells

Dextra lures Kael into a trap, using false Krono signals to simulate a core breach.

She captures him using quantum-shift cuffs—an untraceable lock created from alien alloy.

But before leaving, she warns Kael:

"Zeron thinks the Chronarch is the final enemy. He's wrong. The Chronarch is just a servant."

"Then who's the master?" Kael growls.

"You'll know… when the stars begin to blink out."

🔮 Preview – Chapter 87: The Raining Code

The world begins to experience "Chrono-Rain," a mysterious digital downpour that rewrites technology.Zeron begins unlocking Astrael's hidden weapon—the Epoch Cannon.Raina returns and confronts Zui—who no longer remembers her own name.Zake's mecha gains sentience.The Chronarch sends Apostle III – Lurin the Loopmaker – a time-distorting being who resets entire battlefields.