Metaverse of Mechas

📘 Chapter 97

🌑 Scene 1: The Hollow Core Awakens

Beneath the charred remains of Sector-3's Training Dome, something ancient stirred.

The underground trembled—lightless, cold, humming with forgotten Krono. Embedded in crystalline restraints, a massive Core pulsed—its outer shell covered in fractal runes, its interior... hollow. A living absence.

The moment Zake activated the Seed Override Key, a signal traveled through quantum veins buried in the crust.

The Hollow Core responded.

From the shadows, a voice echoed—not through sound, but through instinct:

"I remember you... Zake. Born from me. Forged in my fracture. Return."

⚠️ Scene 2: Zake's Origin Unlocked

Zake stared at the holographic projection flickering from the override key. It showed a birth pod—a laboratory drenched in purple and silver glow. Inside it, a baby... with heterochromatic eyes.

One eye blue. One eye blank.

A voice echoed: it was his mother's. Younger. Afraid.

"Zake is the prototype. The Aether Split worked. But... if the Hollow Core ever wakes, his link might activate."

Then another voice cut in—his father's.

"We'll bury it. We'll hide everything. The war can't reach him."

Zake collapsed to the ground, gripping his head.

"Am I... even real?"

Ash's voice echoed from memory: "Tell Zeron... I'm sorry I couldn't protect her."

Zake gasped.

"Her…?"

He looked up, eyes wide.

"Zui."

🧬 Scene 3: Ira's Mirror Shatters

Atop her dorm roof, Ira watched the sunrise, the Mirror Blade laid beside her.

But today, something cracked.

Her reflection… moved without her.

"You're not ready," the reflection whispered.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the you who let him die."

Ira lunged, grabbing the blade, slicing the air. Reality warped.

Suddenly, she was back in Timeline 47C—watching Zeron, older and stronger, battling the Emissary and falling.

"Why are you showing me this?!"

The reflection touched her forehead.

"So this time, maybe... you'll make the right choice."

Her body convulsed—and a Violet glyph erupted from her chest.

🛰️ Scene 4: Zui and the Aether Vault

Zui and Shade reached the hidden Aether Vault, nestled beneath the crater ruins of an ancient Krono mining city.

But guarding the vault was something neither expected—a Mecha-Beast, part alien, part AI, powered by a shard of Hollow Core itself.

"We fight together?" Zui asked.

"We survive together," Shade replied.

They launched a synchronized assault. Zui triggered her Bloom Protocol, vines of light weaving into an armor shell. Shade's arm turned into a pulse cannon.

But the Mecha-Beast adapted, hacking their Krono mid-fight.

"It's rewriting our commands!" Zui screamed.

Suddenly, Zui's suit short-circuited. The beast lunged—

—and was blasted back by a high-pitched pulse.

Shade stood in front of her, shielding her with his body. Sparks rained from his chest.

"Don't… let them… take you…"

He collapsed.

Zui's scream echoed through the ruins.

⚔️ Scene 5: Zeron and the Dream Invader

Zeron returned to his quarters after the battle with Kynar. Exhausted. Bloodied. But something felt wrong.

He blinked.

He was suddenly standing in a field of sunflowers.

His childhood home.

"No…"

A figure walked toward him. His mother. Alive. Smiling.

"Wake up, Zeron."

"You're not real!"

"But I feel real, don't I?"

Suddenly, the world glitched.

The First Emissary walked forward, peeling the skin off the illusion like paper.

"Welcome to Dreamburn, Zeron. Let's see how many times I can make you beg."

The sky turned violet-black. A storm of thoughts and false memories slammed into him.

He screamed—but his voice echoed back in alien language.

🧠 Preview – Chapter 98: The Mind Fracture Protocol

Zake descends to the Hollow Core—where a horrifying truth awaits.Ira's glyph triggers a secret inheritance from a timeline long erased.Zui enters the Vault—and what she finds about their mother could change the war.Zeron is trapped in a false loop designed to corrupt his will. But someone from his past appears inside the dream.The Emissary reveals its second form: a vessel made from 1 million minds