Chapter 453: Archive’s Own Safeguards

Damon followed the narrow corridor, tracking the red filaments running through the gaps between the stone blocks. They weren’t all moving at the same speed. Some advanced toward the biological laboratory, while others remained attached to the inscriptions on the walls, pulsing as they received new commands. When he reached the first fork, he noticed that the largest concentration of filaments came from a passage on the right, partially blocked by a metal structure.

He approached and examined the obstacle. The modern construction had been installed directly over the ancient passage, but there was a gap of approximately half a meter between the original wall and the insulating panel. Damon placed his hand on the metal and felt a constant vibration.

"Aria, can you hear me?"

The answer came a few seconds later through the small communicator Varos had given him before he entered the passage.

"I can. Did you find something?"

"A metal wall with an absurd number of red wires running behind it. The archive might be on the other side."

"Describe the inscriptions."

Damon examined the ancient blocks. There were three circles connected by straight lines and, in the center, a symbol similar to the one found on the Scarlet Order’s chains.

"Three circles, lines between them, and a mark in the middle."

"That doesn’t help much."

"I’m doing my best."

"Can you hold the communicator near the inscriptions?"

Damon complied. The device emitted a small light that Aria could use to examine the surface through the observation link established between the two devices. After a few seconds, she replied.

"It’s a maintenance passage for the original archive. The metal structure was installed later to prevent access."

"Can I open it?"

"Don’t break the wall."

"I’m starting to think nobody trusts me."

"Because we’re trying to keep twenty-four patients alive."

Damon took his hand off the metal.

"Fair point. How do I open it?"

Aria explained that the ancient passage had three release mechanisms distributed among the circles. Originally, they allowed technicians to remove parts of the archive without affecting the rest of the facility. The modern structure had covered two of them, but the third remained accessible.

Damon found a small recess between the blocks and pressed the indicated symbol. A mechanical noise came from behind the wall, followed by the movement of a metal component.

The insulating panel shifted a few centimeters.

"It worked."

"Now look for a lever near the bottom."

Damon crouched, found the mechanism, and pulled. The metal structure slid into the wall, revealing a long room illuminated by small crystals installed in the ceiling.

Unlike Vermillion’s modern rooms, this one had no tables, containers, or surgical equipment. There was only a central structure made of stone blocks and ancient metal. Hundreds of small plates were fitted into individual supports, connected by narrow channels running across the floor.

The red filaments emerged from a modern machine installed on top of the original structure.

Damon approached but kept his distance from the connections.

"I found the archive."

Aria answered immediately.

"Can you identify the modern part?"

"A red machine attached on top of everything. The wires are coming out of it and going into the walls."

"Don’t touch it yet. I’m looking for the maintenance diagram."

Damon examined the equipment. Four transparent tubes were connected to its base. Two contained a dark substance, while the others carried red filaments that split into dozens of branches.

One of the tubes began to vibrate.

Damon followed the movement until he realized the structure was drawing material from a small container installed at the bottom of the machine.

Inside was a root.

It was much smaller than Liora’s or Neria’s roots, but it had the same greenish coloration beneath its surface.

"Aria, I found a sample of Eir."

"Is it connected to the machine?"

"Yes."

"Then it might be used to recognize Liora. If we remove the sample, the system could lose the reference."

Damon examined the container.

"Could?"

"I can’t guarantee it."

He exhaled and returned his attention to the channels. The container was held in place by three mechanical supports. None of them appeared to conduct energy, but a small red indicator remained lit at the top.

Before he could ask about it, the communicator activated again.

It was Ester.

"Damon, we found Liora."

He immediately became alert.

"Is she all right?"

"For now. Roots started coming out of the floor near Neria’s cylinder. The guards managed to get Liora onto a table, but the filaments are still trying to reach her."

"Did they touch her?"

"No. Neria noticed them approaching first."

Damon looked at the container.

"I’m standing in front of the machine that’s doing this. Aria thinks I can interrupt the search by removing a sample."

"Then remove it."

"She isn’t sure it’ll work."

Ester remained silent for a moment.

"Can you tell whether the sample is connected to the patients’ nourishment systems?"

"It doesn’t look like it. It’s in a separate machine inside the ancient archive."

"Then find out what keeps that container running and shut down only that part."

Damon smiled.

"You just gave me permission to tamper with a machine."

"Don’t push it."

He put away the communicator and examined the supports again. He found a small plate fastened by two screws on the side of the container. When he removed it with the tip of his sword, he discovered a series of locks holding the tubes connected to the sample.

The problem was the red indicator.

Damon brought his hand close to one of the locks, and the light grew brighter.

He pulled back.

"Of course. That would’ve been too easy."

In the biological laboratory, Ester had found a way to keep Liora away from the filaments without interrupting Neria’s nourishment. The guards moved one of the instrument tables from the center of the room and positioned it on four metal supports insulated from the floor. Liora remained seated there while Xue Mei watched the roots beginning to emerge from the gaps between the ancient blocks.

Varos examined the door.

"Are these structures coming from Level Zero?"

Aurelia crouched near one of the roots.

"They’re using the ancient maintenance channels. The modern facility wasn’t built to prevent movement inside the original walls."

"So closing the doors won’t help."

"No."

Neria was still leaning against the cylinder, with the last red filament attached to the base of her spine. She watched the roots grow and noticed a difference between them and Eir’s natural structures.

"Liora, don’t try to control them."

The girl looked at her sister.

"I’m not trying to."

"They can recognize your circulation and make you believe they’re part of Mom."

Ester turned.

"Can they imitate a natural connection?"

"They can imitate a reference," Neria replied. "Serik spent years studying that. He doesn’t need to reproduce Eir’s entire structure. He only needs to make my body or Liora’s recognize the pathway as familiar."

Aurelia understood.

"Then the filaments don’t need to grab her. They only need Liora to accept the connection."

Liora moved her hands away from the edge of the table.

"I won’t touch them."

Varos looked at Serik, who remained bound to a chair on the other side of the room. Two guards watched him while the implant in his neck remained blocked by Ester’s needles.

"You built a system capable of recognizing a manifestation and establishing a connection without authorization."

Serik answered without raising his voice.

"I built a system capable of recovering information necessary to prevent the degradation of species."

"By using a girl who’s just come out of a cage."

"There is no need to cause permanent harm to the second manifestation."

Liora looked at him.

"You don’t know whether this will hurt me."

Serik remained silent.

Neria held her sister’s hand.

"He doesn’t know."

Aurelia turned her attention back to the roots. One had reached the base of the table and was beginning to climb the metal support.

"We need to interrupt the reference before the system finds another way to reach her."

Ester picked up the communicator again.

"Damon, how are things down there?"

Damon had managed to remove the container’s side cover, but the internal structure remained locked. When he heard Ester, he brought the communicator closer to his mouth.

"I found the safety mechanism. If I try to release the sample, the system reacts."

"Can you interrupt its power supply first?"

"Maybe. I need Aria to identify what each tube does."

Aria herself answered.

"I can see it now. The first carries preservation material. The second sends the reference to the filaments. The other two are safety circuits."

"Can I disconnect the second?"

"Not directly. If the machine detects an interruption in transmission, the safety circuit might try to reconnect everything using the stored reference."

Damon looked at the tubes.

"Then I need to disable the safety system first."

"Yes."

"And where is that?"

Aria remained silent for a few seconds.

"Underneath the structure. There should be a maintenance panel."

Damon crouched and found a plate fastened to the floor.

"There is."

"Open it."

He inserted the tip of his sword into the gap and lifted the plate. Beneath it were two circular mechanisms, each with three possible positions. The first was marked with the same symbol used on the black chains. The second bore the identification of the original archive.

"I found two mechanisms. One ancient and one modern."

Aurelia took over the communication.

"Don’t touch the ancient one. The first probably controls preservation in the original archive. The modern one must have been added to keep Serik’s system connected."

Damon placed his hand on the indicated mechanism.

"Current position?"

"Fixation."

"Other two?"

"Maintenance and release."

He slowly turned the mechanism to the middle position.

The container’s red indicator dimmed.

"Maintenance."

Aria checked the records on Level Zero.

"The search is still active, but the safety system has stopped responding automatically. You can interrupt the transmission now."

Damon reached for the second tube and released its lock. The material inside stopped circulating.

The effect was immediate.

The red filaments around the machine lost some of their mobility. Some withdrew into the ancient blocks; others remained motionless in the gaps.

"Aria?"

"The transmission has stopped. I’m checking whether the search has ended."

Damon waited.

A few seconds later, Ester’s voice came through the communicator.

"The roots have stopped climbing."

He looked at the sample in the container.

"Then it worked."

"Not completely," Aria replied. "The archive still has a stored reference. It can’t reach Liora now, but it could try again if someone restores the connection."

Damon examined the machine.

"Then we remove the sample."

"Yes, but preserve the container. We need to find out what was done to that material."

He released the three mechanical locks. This time, no indicator reacted. The container detached from its support, and Damon managed to remove it without damaging the small root.

He carefully placed it in an empty instrument case he found near the entrance.

"I have the sample."

"Good. Now we need to prevent the protocol from carrying out another search."

Damon looked at the ancient archive.

"Can you do that from there?"

"No. The command is stored on one of the internal plates. We need to identify which one."

"How many plates?"

"I don’t know."

Damon quickly counted the rows.

"More than a hundred."

Aria sighed.

"Then don’t start pulling them out one by one."

"You take all the fun out of everything."

On Level Zero, interrupting the search allowed Aria to return to examining the six patients who had undergone the procedure. Mereth had stabilized the three most serious cases with Ester’s help before Ester returned to the upper laboratory, but their bodies still depended on the equipment.

Aurelia examined one patient’s record and noticed that the installed alteration hadn’t been completed.

"The system opened new channels, but fixed only some of them."

Aria studied the representation.

"So circulation is trying to use pathways that don’t exist yet."

"Exactly."

Mereth approached.

"Can we reverse the alteration?"

"Not safely while the stabilizers are active," Aurelia replied. "But turning them off now could also cause circulatory collapse."

Aria enlarged the record.

"There’s a suspension function."

Mereth looked at the panel.

"It doesn’t appear on my controls."

"Because it’s part of the original archive. The modern facility only uses the execution and fixation options."

Aurelia’s expression grew serious.

"If the original archive already had a way to interrupt procedures without destroying the structure, we need to recover it."

Aria activated the communicator.

"Damon, I found something."

He answered almost immediately.

"Another machine I’m not allowed to break?"

"An ancient suspension function. We need you to look for a plate with two circles separated by a horizontal line."

Damon examined the rows.

"I found three."

"Great."

"Doesn’t seem great to me."

Aurelia moved closer to the communicator.

"See if any of them is connected directly to the channels leading to Level Zero."

Damon examined the plates for a few seconds.

"One is. The other two lead to the opposite wall."

"Then use the communicator to capture an image of the inscription."

He brought the device close to the indicated plate. Aria received the image and compared it with the panel’s records.

"That’s the one."

Damon placed his hand on the plate.

"What do I do?"

"There’s a small slot at the bottom. Press it until you hear two clicks."

He obeyed.

The plate moved a few millimeters.

On Level Zero, a new option appeared on the main panel.

SUSPENSION OF STRUCTURAL MODIFICATIONS.

Aria examined the full description before touching the command.

The function would interrupt new alterations without reversing the structures already fixed and without affecting medical nourishment. The patients would remain dependent on the machines, but they would undergo no further modifications while the team investigated a safe way to help them recover.

Mereth read the description twice.

"This would have prevented the six from ending up in this condition."

Aurelia nodded.

"Yes."

"Why didn’t we have access to it?"

Aria examined the modification log.

"Because the function was disabled when Serik integrated the modern protocol into the archive."

Mereth closed her eyes for a few seconds.

Then she authorized suspension for the six patients.

The modification indicators went dark, but the maintenance equipment continued operating. One of the patients showed a change in circulation, and Mereth immediately adjusted the spiritual nourishment to compensate.

Aurelia monitored the vital signs.

"Stabilizing."

Aria confirmed that the suspension had also been applied to the eighteen patients who hadn’t yet undergone the procedure. None of the chambers could initiate an alteration without new individual authorization.

"Damon, we managed to stop the modifications," she reported.

"Are the six all right?"

"They’re still alive. Three remain completely dependent on the machines, but they aren’t getting worse."

"Good. And the archive?"

Aria looked at the representation.

"We’re still looking for the record that executes reinitialization. But now we know the original structure has mechanisms Serik wasn’t using."

Damon examined the hundreds of plates.

"Then maybe we won’t need to destroy anything."

"Maybe."

He remained silent for a few seconds.

"Aria."

"Yes?"

"Serik created this modern protocol using the ancient records, right?"

"Right."

"And these plates existed before him."

"Yes."

"Then why are we looking for the reinitialization command among them?"

Aria didn’t answer immediately.

Damon approached the modern machine he had just disabled.

"If the part searching for Liora was installed later, maybe the rest of the protocol is here too."

Aurelia heard the conversation through the communicator.

"Damon, examine the base of that machine."

He crouched again and found a small red structure attached to the central support. Unlike the tubes and chains, it was connected directly to the ancient plates by filaments similar to those found in Serik’s body.

"Found it."

Aria asked him to bring the communicator closer.

When she received the image, she immediately recognized the pattern.

It was the same structure installed in the seventeen bearers of the preservation protocol.

The difference was that, inside the archive, it wasn’t connected to an organism.

It was connected to the facility’s functions.

"Serik installed a copy of his own protocol in the archive," Aria explained.

Damon examined the filaments.

"A complete copy?"

"I don’t know. But it seems to contain the priorities and procedures needed to execute reinitialization without receiving orders from him."

"Then we can separate that part."

"If we interrupt all the modern connections to the original archive, yes."

Damon examined the support. There were six connection points, each linked to a different row of ancient plates.

"There are six."

Aurelia replied:

"Don’t remove any of them yet. We need to know which functions each one uses."

Damon sat on a stone block.

"I wasn’t going to remove them."

"You were thinking about it."

He looked at the communicator.

"It’s getting very difficult to work with you people."

Aria started laughing but stopped when a new message appeared on the Level Zero panel.

CENTRAL CONTROL UNAVAILABLE.

INITIATING LOCAL PRESERVATION PROCEDURE.

She examined the indicators and realized that the copy of the protocol had recognized the loss of communication with Serik and the Eir sample.

Instead of continuing to try to reach Liora, it was beginning to protect its own structure.

The six modern connections Damon had identified entered a state of fixation.

Aria brought the communicator closer to her mouth.

"Damon, don’t touch anything. The protocol has realized we’re isolating the archive."

He stood.

"What’s it going to do?"

"It’s trying to prevent the connections from being removed."

Damon watched the red supports.

The filaments began to contract around the ancient plates.

The structure wasn’t trying to attack the patients or reach Liora at that moment. It was fastening the modern protocol to the original archive to prevent anyone from separating the two.

Damon looked at the machine and then at the inscriptions on the wall.

"Aria, that suspension function you found..."

"Yes?"

"Can it be applied to the archive itself?"

There were a few seconds of silence.

Aria returned to examining the ancient records.

Aurelia approached her.

Together, they found a section that hadn’t appeared in the modern controls: the original maintenance procedure allowed any set of instructions installed after the archive’s creation to be suspended, provided its removal wouldn’t compromise basic preservation functions.

Aria read the description again.

Then she smiled.

"Damon, I think we’ve found a way to shut down Serik without shutting down Vermillion."

He looked at the machine.

"Great. Tell me what to do."

Aria placed her hands on the panel and began identifying the six connections.

This time, they wouldn’t need to restore the entire facility, destroy the records, or put the patients at risk.

They only needed to return control of the archive’s maintenance functions to the archive itself.

And remove the instructions Serik had added to it.