Chapter 389: Not for the Disasters

The crystal went dark, and nobody moved. The last words still seemed to echo through the chamber.

But not for the Disasters.

Kai stared at the empty space where the projection had been. Sera slowly lowered her sword, but Lily didn’t wait. She was already holding the crystal in both hands, turning it over and over. "There has to be more."

She ran her scanner over it, then again, then connected it to the Church’s translation system, and nothing came back. She frowned. "Come on."

Aren looked over her shoulder. "That’s it?"

"That’s the entire record," Lily said.

Sera looked at the crystal. "They really knew how to make a dramatic statement and leave."

Aren laughed. "Ancient civilizations apparently had terrible cliffhangers."

Gabriel didn’t laugh. She was still staring at where the words had been, and Kai noticed. "Gabriel. You understand what that means."

"I understand what it could mean."

"That’s different."

"Very."

Lily finally set the crystal down. "We need to go through everything again." She opened the recovered records, and one ancient image after another appeared around them, the dragon, the six Calamities, the figure beneath the sky, the fourth door, the launch system, the distant signal, and the broken circle of the Candidate.

"The System was created to prepare the world," Lily said, pointing at the first three records, "but not for the Disasters."

Kai nodded. "Then we’ve been thinking about the Disasters completely wrong."

Aren crossed his arms. "How?"

Lily brought up the First Disaster, and an image of Tiamat filled the space, massive and terrifying, surrounded by storms and black fire. "The first Disaster nearly destroyed everything, and Mythal survived because it adapted." She switched to the Second, the six Calamities circling the city, followed by images of Hunters, engineers, healers, and civilians working side by side. "Nobody could have survived the second on their own. Everyone had to work together."

"The city changed," Kai said.

"Exactly." Lily brought up the Third Disaster and paused in front of Bahamut’s image. "And the third was different. The Aegis records called it a judgment." She looked at Kai. "You were tested."

Kai didn’t answer. He remembered the frozen world and the ruined Mythal, and the version of himself that had already lost everything, and the moment he had chosen to keep going anyway.

"The first tested whether civilization could survive," Lily said. "The second tested whether it could survive together, and the third tested whether it could keep going when survival wasn’t guaranteed."

Aren slowly lowered his arms. "They’re different tests."

"Not random disasters," Lily said.

"Stages," Kai said.

Gabriel nodded. "Stages of preparation."

Sera looked at her. "For what?"

Nobody answered, and Kai felt Tiamat stir inside him. He closed his eyes.

You knew.

Tiamat was silent, and Kai waited. Don’t do that. Don’t pretend you don’t know.

After a pause, she answered. I know.

Around him, the others were still talking, and none of them noticed the conversation happening inside his head.

What were the Disasters really for?

Preparation.

For what?

You are still not strong enough.

Kai’s jaw tightened. Then give me something.

Tiamat was quiet for a long moment. The Disasters are not the destination.

Then what are they?

A filter.

Kai froze. For what?

That is one of the answers you must earn.

Kai looked away. He wasn’t angry with her, not really. He understood now that she wasn’t hiding things because she enjoyed being mysterious. She knew something far bigger than he could imagine, and she believed he wasn’t strong enough to carry it yet.

You know what comes after, he thought. You know what the System is preparing us for.

Yes.

And you still won’t tell me.

Not yet.

Kai was silent, and then he smiled faintly. Fine. I’ll just get stronger.

Tiamat laughed quietly. That is the answer I expected.

Her presence settled beside his own again, still watching and still protecting him, even when she couldn’t give him the answers.

Kai opened his eyes, and Sera noticed. "You disappeared for a second."

"Thinking."

"About?"

Kai looked at the crystal and stood up. "The System isn’t preparing humanity for the Disasters. The Disasters are how the System prepares humanity."

Everyone looked at him, and Lily’s eyes widened.

"Training," Gabriel said slowly.

"Exactly," Kai said.

Aren frowned. "Training for what?"

"We don’t know."

"I don’t think the System is directly controlling every Disaster, though," Lily said, looking at the records.

"Probably not," Kai said.

"Then how does it fit?" Aren asked.

Kai looked at the images of the first three stages. "It may not be creating them. It may be using them."

Gabriel’s expression turned serious. "As stages of development."

Sera looked at the dark crystal and asked the question nobody wanted to ask. "Then what are we training for?"

Kai looked at her, then at Lily, Gabriel, and Aren, and at the ancient records all around them. He thought of Mythal and the people who had rebuilt it, the family waiting for him at home, the civilizations that had failed, and the one that had survived and vanished into the stars, where something was now watching from beyond the planet.

His expression hardened. "That’s what I intend to find out."

Sera smiled. "I figured you’d say that."

"Of course he would," Aren said with a laugh.

"Wait," Lily said suddenly, picking up the crystal again. "There might be something else."

She turned the crystal, and a faint line appeared along its base. When she scanned it, the crystal responded, and a hidden compartment opened in the archive floor. A small black object rose out of it and floated into the air, and when Kai reached for it, it dropped into his hand. Blue lines spread across its surface the moment he touched it.

Lily’s eyes widened. "It’s a relic."

Aren leaned closer. "What kind?"

"I don’t know yet."

Sera looked at Kai. "Can you use it?"

"Don’t," Lily said immediately.

Kai stopped. "Why?"

"Because I haven’t finished scanning it."

Kai looked at the object. "Fair."

Lily ran every scanner she had, and the relic projected a simple identification.

ANCIENT RELIC.

DESIGNATION: STARBREAKER.

CURRENT STATE: DORMANT.

COMPATIBILITY: UNKNOWN.

PRIMARY FUNCTION: UNKNOWN.

Aren stared at it. "That’s vague."

Lily glared at him. "Ancient technology doesn’t come with instruction manuals."

"How strong is it?" Sera asked.

"I don’t know."

"Can Kai use it?"

"I don’t know."

Kai looked at Lily. "You say that a lot."

Lily frowned. "Because nobody knows anything."

Aren laughed. "She’s got you there."

Kai turned the relic over in his hand. It was smaller than his palm, almost like a black crystal core, but it felt heavy in a way that had nothing to do with its weight. It felt dense, old, and powerful. When Distortion moved around it, the relic reacted, and a thin blue line traced itself across its surface.

"Wait," Lily said, leaning in as the line formed a symbol, then another, and then a series of coordinates. Her expression changed, and she pulled up a map.

"Where is it?" Kai asked.

Lily zoomed out. "It’s not a location. It’s a direction." She pointed straight up, and everyone looked at the ceiling.

Sera blinked. "You’re saying this thing points at the sky?"

"More than that." Lily brought up the data from the launch system and laid it beside Starbreaker’s readings, and the two patterns lined up perfectly. Her eyes widened. "They’re connected."

Kai stepped closer. "To the launch system?"

"Yes."

Gabriel stared at the relic. "Did Aegis build both?"

"No," Lily said, studying the data. "The same civilization built both, and it wasn’t Aegis."

Aren’s expression changed. "The civilization that left the planet."

Nobody spoke.

Starbreaker pulsed, and a beam of light shot straight up through the archive ceiling without leaving a mark. The Church’s ancient network came to life, and three lines appeared across a holographic display.

FIRST PHASE: SURVIVAL.

SECOND PHASE: COOPERATION.

THIRD PHASE: JUDGMENT.

Kai stared at it.

"There should be a fourth," Lily said, stepping closer.

The display flickered, and a fourth line appeared. Everyone expected it to say TRANSITION, but it didn’t.

FOURTH PHASE: UNLOCKED.

Sera’s expression changed. "Unlocked?"

Lily checked the ancient records as another line appeared.

REQUIREMENT: SURVIVE THE THREE TRIALS.

Kai stared at the words. The First Disaster, the Second, and the Third Judgment. Mythal had survived all three.

STATUS: QUALIFIED.

Sera turned to Kai. "Qualified for what?"

For several seconds, the display showed nothing. Then another message appeared.

PREPARATION COMPLETE.

Lily went pale, and Gabriel stared at the screen while Aren slowly stepped back. Then the final line appeared.

NEXT PHASE AVAILABLE.

The room went completely silent. Kai stared at the words. The fourth stage wasn’t coming. It had already been unlocked, and whatever the System had been preparing humanity for, they had finally reached the point where they were allowed to find out.

He closed his hand around Starbreaker. For the first time, he wasn’t wondering whether humanity could survive the next Disaster. He was wondering what the System believed humanity would need to survive once the Disasters were over.