Chapter 399: The World Saw It

The activation had never been meant to stay underground.

When the seven ancient signals synchronized beneath Nexus, the effect had rippled through the entire city and into the sky.

For several seconds, every light in Nexus had gone out. Streetlights flickered, buildings went dark, and airships froze mid-route as their pilots switched to emergency controls.

Then the seven points of blue light had appeared, too bright and too large to be stars, spread across the sky in a perfect pattern.

People had stopped on the sidewalks, cars had pulled over, and Hunters had stepped out of buildings to stare. Even the busiest districts went silent. Then the ancient structures had started to glow all across the city.

A tower buried beneath a shopping district lit up, an old arch in the western district released a pulse of blue light, and a massive stone structure outside the Hunter Association began rotating for the first time in thousands of years.

Nobody knew what any of it meant, but everyone had seen it.

Within minutes, every news network was broadcasting the same footage, filmed from rooftops, from an airship cockpit, and from security cameras across the city, and the same question filled every screen.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO NEXUS?

A reporter stood outside the Hunter Association headquarters, with Hunters and emergency vehicles crowding the street behind her. "Authorities have confirmed that the phenomenon began shortly after Mythal’s City Leader Kai, Archbishop Gabriel, and their expedition team returned from the underground ruins."

The screen cut to Kai’s face, then Sera’s, Lily’s, and Gabriel’s.

"Officials have not confirmed whether the expedition triggered the activation," the reporter continued as the seven lights filled the screen. "However, sources inside the Hunter Association say at least seven major ancient sites are now active, and several governments have already requested access to them."

New headlines scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS DEMAND RUIN ACCESS.

NEXUS CHURCH REFUSES OUTSIDE ENTRY.

MYTHAL CITY LEADER KAI RETURNS FROM THE RUINS.

Sera stared at the screen. "They’re fast."

"Very," Kai said, standing beside her in the Hunter Association’s emergency conference room.

Lily sat at the table with ancient records spread out in front of her, and she hadn’t looked away from them in almost ten minutes. "How are they already reporting this?"

Gabriel gave her an amused look. "Nexus has several hundred news organizations."

Lily blinked. "Several hundred?"

"More or less."

Lily looked back at the screens. "That’s excessive."

Sera smiled. "You’ve been underground too long."

"I was busy."

"You were touching ancient machinery."

"It was important."

Outside, the crowd behind the reporter kept growing, Hunters, civilians, officials, and researchers, all of them wanting answers.

Kai sighed. "They’re going to want me out there."

"Yes," Gabriel said.

"How bad is it?"

Gabriel checked the incoming requests on her tablet. "Thirty-two governments so far, and those are only the ones that contacted us directly."

Kai stared at her. "Thirty-two?"

Lily finally looked up. "How many researchers?"

"One hundred and eighty-seven. And twelve major Hunter organizations."

Kai leaned back. "Everyone wants the ruins."

"And everyone thinks whoever controls them first will gain an advantage," Gabriel said.

Kai understood immediately. If even one ancient weapon or scrap of lost knowledge existed beneath Nexus, governments would fight over it, and the fact that none of them knew what the ruins actually held only made it worse.

Sera crossed her arms. "So what’s the plan?"

Kai looked at Gabriel. "What does the Church want?"

"To keep people alive," Gabriel said without hesitation.

Kai nodded. "Good."

"And I want access to the seventh site," Lily said.

Sera sighed. "Of course you do."

"It’s important."

"You said that about the last twelve things."

"They were important."

"One of them was a door."

"A very important door."

Kai almost smiled, and then the conference room door opened.

"City Leader Kai," a Hunter Association official said. "The media conference is ready."

Kai stood. "Let’s go."

The Association’s main entrance had been turned into a temporary press area, with cameras packed along the street, news drones hovering overhead, and reporters crowding behind the barriers. Some had flown in from other cities the moment the activation started.

The noise exploded as soon as Kai stepped outside. Reporters shouted his name and fired questions at him, asking whether he had found an ancient civilization, whether he had activated the ruins, whether another Disaster was coming, whether the Church had known, and whether other cities would be allowed in.

Kai stopped at the center of the platform, and the crowd slowly quieted, not completely, but enough.

Hundreds of cameras were pointed at him, and for a moment, Kai considered telling them everything, about the seventh gate, the worlds beyond it, the System, the trials, and the message that the world had been prepared. But he couldn’t, not yet. He didn’t understand it all himself, and telling millions of people something they couldn’t understand would only cause panic.

So he kept it simple, the same way he had on the street. "We found something."

The shouting started again, and one reporter raised her microphone. "What?"

"Proof that our history is much older than we thought."

The crowd grew quieter.

"How much older?" another reporter asked.

Kai paused. "We don’t know."

That surprised a lot of them, and someone immediately followed up. "Are you saying the Church doesn’t know?"

Gabriel stepped forward. "We know some things," she said, looking into the cameras. "But not enough."

Another wave of questions broke over them, asking whether it was a civilization, whether it was connected to the Disasters, whether there were weapons, and why the ruins had activated now.

Kai raised one hand, and the crowd gradually settled. "We don’t have all the answers."

That sentence spread across the networks almost instantly.

KAI: WE DON’T HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS.

Some people seemed disappointed, but others looked relieved. At least he wasn’t pretending to know everything.

Then a reporter asked the question everyone had been waiting for. "Is Nexus in danger?"

Kai went still. The cameras zoomed in, and even Sera watched him closely. He knew enough to answer. The ancient network had activated, the seven ruins had synchronized, something beneath Nexus had moved, and the seventh gate had shown them a universe beyond their own. He couldn’t tell them any of that yet.

So he chose his words carefully. "Not immediately."

The crowd went silent, and the reporter slowly lowered her microphone. "Not immediately?"

"That’s what I said."

"What does that mean?" another shouted.

"It means Nexus isn’t under immediate attack."

"Then what are the ruins doing?"

Kai looked toward the skyline, where one of the ancient towers was still glowing. "I don’t know."

Somehow, that made the crowd even quieter.

"But we know something is happening," Kai continued, "and we know the ancient structures are connected. Until we understand what they’re doing, nobody should interfere with them."

Near the back of the crowd, a government representative frowned, and a reporter noticed. "Are you saying other governments should stay away?"

Kai looked at the man. "I’m saying nobody should touch something they don’t understand."

The representative stepped forward. "We have the right to investigate historical sites within Nexus."

Gabriel turned to him. "Historical sites that have just activated after thousands of years."

The man hesitated. "Yes."

Gabriel smiled politely. "Then you understand why we need caution."

He didn’t answer.

Kai turned back to the reporters. "We’re going to investigate the seven sites."

"Who is ’we’?" a reporter asked immediately.

Kai glanced at Gabriel, then at Sera and Lily. "The Nexus Church, the Hunter Association, and Mythal."

That drew a different reaction. The crowd wanted to know why Mythal was involved, whether Kai was taking control of the ruins, and whether Mythal would be sending Hunters.

Kai shook his head and looked straight into the cameras. "Mythal isn’t here to take anything. We came because Nexus helped us before." Gabriel looked at him, but Kai didn’t look back. "We’re returning the favor."

For a moment, nobody said anything. Then a reporter called out, "Are you forming an alliance between Mythal and Nexus?"

Kai considered it. "Not officially."

"Unofficially?"

Sera hid a smile behind her hand.

"We’ll see," Kai said, and that was enough to set off another storm.

By the time Kai made it back inside, his face was everywhere. The lobby screens were replaying the conference, with his words printed beneath his image.

WE FOUND SOMETHING.

OUR HISTORY IS MUCH OLDER THAN WE THOUGHT.

NOT IMMEDIATELY.

Sera looked at the last one. "They’re going to obsess over that."

"I know," Kai said.

"What exactly did you mean by it?" Lily asked, walking beside them.

Kai looked at her. "You heard the same things I did."

"That’s not an answer."

"I know."

She narrowed her eyes. "You really don’t know what’s going to happen?"

Kai was quiet for a moment, and then he answered honestly. "No."

Lily looked surprised, but Sera didn’t. "You really don’t."

Kai shook his head.

Sera smiled. "Good."

Kai looked at her. "Good?"

"It means you’re finally acting like a normal person."

"I’ve never acted like a normal person."

"Fair."

Gabriel laughed quietly as they reached the elevator. Before the doors closed, Kai glanced back at the giant screens, where the seven blue signals still hung above the city. The entire continent was watching now, and everyone wanted to know why the ancient network had woken up.

Then the doors slid shut.

...

Far beneath Nexus, something moved again. A massive structure shifted beneath the ancient roads, stone grinding against stone as thousands of years of dust fell from its surface.

A light appeared, then another, then another, and a circular mechanism slowly began to turn.

No one above saw it or heard it. Not yet.

At the center of the mechanism, a single symbol appeared, the Candidate’s broken circle, three sections dark and one empty. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the final section began to glow, and blue light spread through the ancient structure. A message appeared, not on a screen or in the sky, and not through the System, but carved directly into the mechanism itself.

PHASE FOUR: ACTIVE.

The mechanism kept turning as another line appeared.

EXTERNAL PREPARATION: BEGINNING.

Far above the city, one of the seven lights shifted. It was no longer pointing down at Nexus. It was pointing up, toward the sky, and toward something beyond it that had not yet arrived.

Not immediately.

But that didn’t mean Nexus was safe. It only meant they still had time.