Chapter 379: City Reaction

For several seconds, nobody spoke. The words still hung above the ancient machine.

CANDIDATE IDENTIFIED.

"Candidate?" someone whispered.

A Hunter turned to look at Kai. "It means him, right?" When nobody answered, he pointed at the thousands of kneeling machines. "Who else would it mean?"

That was enough to break the silence. Voices rose all around them, some insisting they had known it all along, that the ruins had recognized him from the beginning, while others asked whether it really explained anything at all. Some sounded excited, some nervous, and a few sounded almost afraid.

Kai stood in the middle of it without moving.

Sera didn’t look excited. She looked worried. "Kai." When he didn’t answer, she stepped closer. "You’re thinking."

"Yes."

"About the message?"

"Yes."

Lily was already in front of the construct, sweeping her scanner across it. "This is incredible."

Sera glanced at her. "That’s your response?"

"The machine just identified something called a Candidate, using the same ancient language we found in Aegis, and you’re asking why I’m excited?"

Sera stared at her. "I’ve decided I’m never asking you that question again."

Lily ignored her and zoomed in on the projection. "The wording is strange."

Kai finally looked at her. "How?"

"It doesn’t say who the Candidate is."

A few nearby Hunters overheard, and one of them frowned. "What do you mean?"

Lily pointed at the message. "It’s two words. Candidate identified. It never actually says Kai is the Candidate."

The Hunters around them went quieter.

"That sounds like the same thing," someone said.

"Not necessarily," Lily said, her eyes still on the symbols.

Gabriel stepped forward. "What are you suggesting?"

"The system could be identifying a role, not a person."

Gabriel’s expression turned serious. "A role?"

"Possibly."

Kai looked at Lily, because that was exactly what he had been thinking. The message didn’t name him, and it didn’t say confirmed or even detected. After everything he had learned in Aegis, he couldn’t believe the vague wording was an accident.

Sera caught his expression. "You agree with her."

Kai didn’t answer right away.

One of the Nexus Hunters spoke up. "So what does Candidate mean?"

"We don’t know," Lily said.

Another Hunter laughed nervously. "Then we’re right back where we started."

"No," Gabriel said, looking over the ancient machines. "We know more than we did before. The ruins recognize Kai, the machines recognize Kai, and now they’ve identified something called a Candidate." Her expression grew uncomfortable. "We just don’t know whether those things are connected."

Another wave of whispers passed through the crowd. By now, every major network in Nexus was broadcasting the same footage, thousands of kneeling machines with CANDIDATE IDENTIFIED floating above one of them and Kai standing in the middle, and the headlines were already changing.

KAI: THE ANCIENT CANDIDATE?

WHO IS THE CANDIDATE?

WHY DID THE ANCIENT MACHINES KNEEL BEFORE KAI?

Kai looked up at a screen mounted on a nearby building, where his face was filling the display again, and he sighed.

Sera followed his gaze. "I’m not going to say it."

"You just did."

She smiled, but Kai knew what she meant. This wasn’t about his strength anymore, or being Rank One, or surviving three Disasters. People now believed he might be tied to an ancient role that existed before modern civilization, and that was something else entirely.

A Church official approached Gabriel. "Archbishop, we need to move Kai somewhere secure."

Kai looked at him. "Why?"

The official hesitated and gestured at the Hunters around them. "Because the situation is becoming unstable. People are asking questions."

"They always ask questions."

"This is different." The official lowered his voice. "If Kai really is the Candidate, then every ancient ruin on the continent may react to him."

Kai frowned. "May?"

The official realized his mistake. "We don’t know."

"Exactly," Kai said. "So don’t treat a theory like a fact."

The official nodded. "Understood."

A second official stepped forward. "But we can’t ignore the possibility."

"I didn’t say ignore it." Kai pointed at the machine. "Study it. Find out what Candidate means."

Lily nodded immediately, and Gabriel did the same. "We’ll do that."

The first official still looked uneasy. "And if the ancient records confirm that Kai is the Candidate?"

"Then we’ll deal with it," Kai said before Gabriel could answer.

Sera glanced at him. "You make everything sound simple."

"It isn’t. That doesn’t mean panicking will help."

"Easy for you to say," a Hunter nearby said. When Kai turned, the man looked nervous, but he kept going. "If those machines are following you, what happens if they attack another city?"

Kai didn’t get defensive. "I don’t know."

"And if the next ruin recognizes you?"

"I don’t know."

"And if this Candidate thing is real?"

Kai paused. "I don’t know." The Hunter looked surprised, and Kai looked around at the kneeling machines, then at the ancient tower. "I don’t know what the ruins want, and I don’t know why they recognize me. I don’t know what a Candidate is." His voice stayed calm. "But I intend to find out."

The Hunters around them went silent. Some looked reassured, others still looked suspicious, and a few simply stared at him.

Sera smiled slightly. "You’re getting better at speeches."

"I wasn’t giving a speech."

"That’s why it worked."

"Kai," Lily called, still bent over the construct. "I found something. The machine’s internal records."

Kai walked over. "Can you read them?"

"Some of them." She brought up a string of ancient symbols. "This construct was designed to recognize specific individuals. Possibly more than one."

Sera stepped closer. "What does that mean?"

"I don’t know yet." Lily pointed at a group of symbols. "These seem to represent different Candidates. I can’t translate the exact terms, but the structure repeats."

Kai’s eyes narrowed. "How many?"

Lily zoomed in. "Three."

Kai went completely still.

"Kai?" Sera said.

He didn’t answer, because his thoughts were already somewhere else. If Candidate was a role instead of a name, a position passed from one civilization to the next, then the ruins hadn’t been waiting for him. They had been waiting for a Candidate, anyone who met the conditions. And the Candidate who had guided Mythal through the Disasters, who had watched civilization after civilization rise and fall in his vision, might have held that same role once.

When Kai had read The next Candidate has arrived on the door in Aegis, he had assumed it meant him. Now he wasn’t so sure. If there had been Candidates before him, then the real question wasn’t why the ruins recognized Kai. It was what made someone a Candidate in the first place.

He let out a slow breath.

Sera was watching him. "You know something."

It wasn’t a question, and Kai met her eyes. "I know a few things."

"That’s not the same answer."

"No."

She studied his face. "Are you scared?"

Kai thought about it. "No."

"Worried?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Kai looked at the ancient machines. "Because I think we’ve been asking the wrong question. It’s not whether I’m the Candidate. It’s what a Candidate actually is."

Lily looked up. "That’s exactly what I want to know."

"Then that’s where we start," Gabriel said.

Before anyone could say more, the construct let out a sharp beep, and everyone turned. The projection above its core flickered.

"Wait," Lily said.

The old message disappeared, and the symbols rearranged themselves into a new line. Lily translated it, her voice growing quieter with each word.

CANDIDATE STATUS: UNCONFIRMED.

Sera slowly turned to look at Kai, and Gabriel’s expression became impossible to read. Lily stared at the machine while the Hunters looked at one another.

Kai just stared at the message. For the first time, even the ancient ruins weren’t certain whether he was the Candidate, or whether they had mistaken him for someone else.