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128 : The First Memory
Huling Na-update:
2025-04-18 10:10:04The fire had long burned out, leaving behind the scent of smoke and ash that clung to the cabin walls. The night was quiet but dense, almost watchful. Somewhere beyond the forest, the stars blinked in silent witness.
Inside, a soft hum broke the stillness.
Damien inserted the memory chip into his encrypted slate. The device flickered once, recognizing the code sequence almost instantly. He glanced at Aurora, who nodded silently beside him, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
Together, they watched as the screen came to life.
The first image was blurred—shaking, almost frantic. But then it steadied.
A lab.
Kaugnay na kabanata
Broken Vows, New Promises 129 : Eve’s Silence
The road to the lab was not marked on any map.It wove through the highlands of Eastern Europe, hidden beneath moss-covered paths and forgotten coordinates—buried deep in the wilderness like a secret no one dared to speak aloud.Damien stood on the edge of the ridge, his breath clouding in the morning air. Below, partially obscured by a wall of evergreens, was the bunker Eve had vanished into years ago.The entrance was cracked open—metal warped from time and weather, but not time alone.Something else had been here.“They’ve already found it,” Aurora said quietly, stepping beside him. Her voice barely carried through the damp hush of the forest.
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-18Broken Vows, New Promises 130 : The Edge of Awakening
The air outside the bunker shifted.Not just with wind, but with tension—like the forest itself was holding its breath.Damien adjusted the straps around the transport case, its internal systems humming softly. Inside, Subject Sigma remained suspended in stasis, her presence eerie and serene. A mirror of Eve, or some remnant of her—the lines were blurred now, and questions loomed heavier than the fog.“We move fast,” Damien said, voice clipped. “North ridge leads to a concealed path down the mountain. Our evac team’s scheduled to reach the base point in twenty-two minutes.”Aurora tightened the grip on her rifle, her eyes scanning the tree line. “And if Monroe’s people reach us firs
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-18Broken Vows, New Promises 131 : The Choice of Shadows
The storm was coming.Not the kind that whipped through the trees with howling wind or crackling thunder. This storm was born of choices—of old wounds reopening and futures clawing at the horizon, desperate for resolution. Damien could feel it in the air as he ran, sweat stinging his eyes, muscles burning with each stride. The weight of the case, the responsibility of keeping Sigma safe, and the burden of what he had just uncovered—everything settled in his chest like a rock, unshifting, unyielding.But there was no room to stop. Not now. Not with Aetheris so close.Aurora’s steady pace kept beside him. Despite the urgency, she was calm, too calm for someone with so much on the line. Her presence steadied him. He could feel her focus, that quiet strength that didn’t waver even as the woods around them seemed to come alive with something darker.Behind them, the muffled sounds of pursuit grew louder—agents, more of them. Not just the physical ones they had already dispatched, but somet
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-22Broken Vows, New Promises 132 : The Aftermath
The silence in the cave was suffocating.Damien’s ears rang, his breath coming in ragged bursts as his heart pounded violently in his chest. The ground still hummed with the energy of Sigma’s actions, but the sense of finality hung heavy in the air. He had watched the system crash, the remnants of Aetheris’s grasp collapsing into nothing. But what came after?Sigma’s eyes flickered briefly, still alive but weakening, as if her very essence was unraveling with the price of her sacrifice. Her shoulders slumped under the weight of exhaustion, and Damien rushed to her side, instinctively reaching out to steady her.“Sigma… stay with me,” he said, his voice hoarse with the realization of what she had done. What she had given up for them.“I’m… fine.” Her voice was thin, strained, but she was trying to remain steady. Her gaze shifted from Damien to Aurora, standing just behind him. Aurora’s face, usually so composed, was twisted in quiet worry.“What now?” Aurora asked, her voice low, yet l
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-22Broken Vows, New Promises 133 : Dawn of Reckoning
The first light of dawn crept through the thinning mist, painting the sky in pale hues of rose and amber. Damp grass clung to Damien’s boots as he stepped outside the cave, the cool air prickling at his skin. The storm that had crashed around them last night felt like a distant memory—yet its echoes still reverberated in his bones.Aurora was already awake, kneeling beside Sigma, whose breathing was steadier but shallow. Null hovered nearby, his expression anxious and uncertain. For a moment, Damien paused at the threshold, taking in the fragile tableau: their makeshift family, bruised but unbroken, bound together by choices that had cost them everything.He cleared his throat softly. “We need to get moving.”Aurora looked up, meeting his gaze. “We’ll leave in ten,” she said. “Let me help him.”Damien knelt beside Sigma and offered a hand. “We’ll take her in the case for now,” he said. “There’s a med station at Sanctuary—Eve’s old infirmary.”Sigma managed a faint nod. “You’ll know wh
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-22Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 134 :The Heir of Memory
The morning light fell softly into the hidden chamber, illuminating the smooth steel walls and the rows of sealed data drives. But all eyes were on the small, gold-flecked pod where Eve’s successor—this new life—had just awakened. Damien, Aurora, and Null stood in a half-circle, heartbeats synchronized in anticipation.The man on the table drew a tremulous breath, his chest rising and falling with the mechanical hiss of the life support. His dark hair clung damp to his brow, auburn in the dawn glow, and his eyes—those startling amber eyes—opened slowly. Recognition and confusion warred in their depths.He sat up, instinctively wiping a finger across the condensation on the pod’s transparent wall. “Where am I?” His voice was soft, layered with a timbre that echoed Eve’s gentleness.Damien stepped forward, offering a steadying hand. “You’re safe,” he said, though the word sounded fragile on his lips. “I’m your son.”The man’s brows drew together. “Your… son?” He patted his chest, as if
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-22Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 135 : The Storm Approaches
The cold air cut through the trees as dawn's light broke over the horizon. In the stillness of the forest, the world felt suspended—an uneasy calm before the storm. The forest was alive with the quiet rustle of leaves, the occasional snap of a twig beneath the feet of the four figures moving in tandem.Damien, Aurora, Null, and Elias advanced through the underbrush, their movements careful but swift. There was no room for hesitation, no luxury of second thoughts. The mission ahead would require precision and unity, and all of them were determined to see it through.The ruins of the monastery rose in the distance, an ancient silhouette against the fading stars. Once a place of worship, it now stood as a silent monument to secrets buried deep beneath the earth. Beneath those ruins lay the heart of the Aetheris network—the data nexus they had to breach to cripple Monroe’s final stronghold.Elias walked in the lead, his posture tense but resolute. The weight of his purpose was heavy on hi
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-22Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 136 : Echoes of the Fall
The chamber erupted into chaos.Sparks showered from ruptured conduits, casting flares of blue and red across the stone walls as metal clashed with willpower. The Aetheris drones moved with terrifying efficiency—each strike calculated, each motion a product of cold programming and flawless design. They weren’t built to hesitate. They weren’t built to lose.But neither was Damien.“Hold the left flank!” Damien shouted, ducking behind a fallen support column as plasma fire grazed the wall behind him. He turned, fired two clean shots, and dropped a drone mid-lunge. “Aurora—status?”“Pinning them down, but not for long!” she called back, crouched behind a console, reloading. Her chest rose and fell with measured breath, hair falling into her eyes as she fired again—clean, controlled. Her aim was surgical.Beside her, Elias moved like a silent storm, slamming one drone against the wall with the sheer force of a kinetic baton. His movements were more fluid now, more focused. His mother’s tr
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-23
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Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 149 : Ashes of the Failsafe
Silence pressed against their ears as they approached the lowest chamber. The air was heavier here—thick with ozone and dread, as if the facility itself exhaled the weight of its own malice. Damien’s flashlight beam danced across the walls, revealing veins of circuitry pulsing beneath steel plates. Each step echoed like a verdict.Aurora’s grip on her rifle tightened. “This corridor leads straight to the core. Seraph must be close.”Asher flanked Damien’s other side, unblinking in the dim light. Though forged in Monroe’s broken crucible, the boy’s courage was pure—a reminder that hope could grow from ashes.Null’s voice crackled in their earpieces. “I’m seeing systems coming back online. Ten minutes before full lockdown. We need to move.”Elias checked his watch. “Understood.”They rounded the final corner and stopped.A vaulted chamber yawned before them. In its center, illuminated by a ring of harsh white light, stood Seraph. Taller than a child but smaller than an adult, she was fr
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 148 : The Sleeper Below
The silence grew heavier the deeper they went.Null’s map guided them through a maze of subterranean halls—some cold and sterile, others torn by time and disuse. The smooth hum of generators still echoed in places, interspersed by flickering emergency lights that bathed the world in sickly red pulses.Damien led the way with Aurora and Asher close at his heels. The boy in the containment pod had given them everything—coordinates, access routes, and warnings. Seraph wasn’t like Daemon or Omega.He was worse.“Bio-signature locked,” Null murmured, eyes on the scanner as they reached another sealed door. “There’s something down there. No readable vitals, but movement… constant. Pacing, almost.”“He’s waiting,” Aurora said.Asher’s small voice cut in, soft but certain. “He doesn’t think. He reacts. He was made to become… everything they wanted me to be.”Damien knelt beside him. “You don’t have to face this.”Asher looked up. “I do. If we don’t stop him, he’ll come for us. For others.”Au
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 147 : Into the Heart
The elevator doors closed with a reluctant groan, sealing them in.Inside the narrow shaft, the only light came from their tactical gear—soft glows against skin and metal. Aurora stood beside Damien, her hand brushing against his, an anchor in the silence. Asher stood between them, staring straight ahead, lips pressed into a thin, focused line.The descent felt longer than it should have. As if the very walls were stretching around them—preparing to swallow them whole.Then the lift jolted to a stop.A hiss of depressurization followed. The doors slid open with a groan, revealing a corridor bathed in cold white light. Clean. Too clean. The sterile scent of disinfectant and ozone clung to the air like a ghost.“This is it,” Null said quietly. “The Core Lab.”They stepped out as one.Unlike the upper floors, this level was pristine. Not abandoned. Not even neglected. Lights functioned. Doors responded to biometric scans. Cameras followed their every move, some still tracking with soft c
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 146 : Before the Storm
The sun dipped low, setting fire to the horizon in hues of crimson and ash. From the ridge above the temporary camp, Damien stood alone, watching shadows stretch over the forest like fingers reaching for something they could never quite hold.Below him, the others prepared in near silence. The kind of silence that didn’t come from fear—but from knowing. From understanding just how close they were to the end.The wind curled around him, carrying the scent of pine and steel and something colder. A storm was coming. Not of weather—but of reckoning.“You always find the highest place when you need to think.”He didn’t turn. He didn’t need to.Aurora’s voice always settled beneath his skin like a familiar hum—gentle and steady.She stepped up beside him, hands tucked into the sleeves of her jacket, her gaze following his to the horizon.“You used to be quieter,” he said. “Before all this.”“I used to have more to be afraid of,” she replied, half-smiling. “Now I just have more to lose.”He
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 145 : A Name Among the Ashes
The boy didn’t speak of the dream again.But something in him shifted after that night. His steps were a little steadier. His gaze no longer darted to the exits first. He stayed near Damien, yes, but not like a shadow clinging to light. Now, it felt like a tether, an anchor—not dependence, but choice.Damien noticed it when they trained in the clearing behind the safehouse. The boy followed directions without flinching, without looking over his shoulder every five seconds like he expected Monroe to appear from behind the trees. And when Kai handed him a blade—not sharp, just a practice knife—he held it with the curiosity of someone discovering a piece of themselves.“What do we call him?” Eli
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 144 : Echoes in the Light
The morning sunlight felt wrong.Too bright. Too open.After days in the Hollow’s synthetic twilight, Damien squinted at the skyline like it was some forgotten relic. The world outside was still broken, scarred by everything Monroe had built, but out here—beneath real sky—it felt like breathing for the first time in weeks.They moved through the forest trail in silence, Aurora walking beside Damien, the child—now clothed in a borrowed jacket and boots too large—staying close to Damien’s side like a shadow tethered to light.No name.No past.
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 143 : The First Breath
The air inside the chamber thickened as the hum of the cryopod deepened, soft lights tracing across its surface like veins awakening after a long slumber. Damien stood with his hand hovering just above the control panel, eyes locked on the boy within. A-00.The child who shouldn’t exist.The child who had been discarded—forgotten—yet had outlived the project meant to replace him.Aurora touched Damien’s arm gently. “Are you ready?”He didn’t answer right away. His gaze was still fixed on the boy’s face. So young, so still. Yet somehow, it felt like staring into a mirror that refused to reflect.
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 142 : Into the Hollow
The helicopter blades sliced through the Ural sky like a warning.Beneath them, the forest spread like a sea of frozen pine and fractured stone, untouched and unwelcoming. The coordinates Null had provided pointed to a narrow canyon—its jagged sides veined with ice and shadow—where no human path should've ever led.Damien sat beside Aurora, eyes locked on the narrowing terrain below. The cold had begun to seep in through the insulated layers, but it wasn’t the temperature that clenched his gut.It was the silence.Even at this altitude, the absence of wildlife was unnerving.As if nature itself refused to brea
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 141 : Fractures Beneath the Surface
The wind had changed by morning.Geneva’s neutral calm felt different now—like something sacred had been disturbed beneath its manicured stillness. The team gathered in the briefing room of the underground complex, still shaken from what they’d uncovered the night before: Damien’s prototype—Subject A-01-D—and the fractured remnants of Monroe’s last vault of secrets.No one spoke for a long while.Elias was the first to break the silence. “So what now? We’ve seen the start of it. That clone—your prototype—it changes everything. Doesn’t it?”Null nodded slowly, pacing. “It suggests Monroe’s e
