Chapter 13: A Machine?

Dylan's eyes fluttered open.

For a second, he just laid there, staring at the stone ceiling. The air was still, the ruin silent.

Then, without thinking, he shot up to his feet.

And damn—he felt good.

Not just good. Powerful.

His body was weightless, his muscles fluid, his mind sharper than ever. No stiffness, no fatigue. His thoughts raced, yet they were crystal clear—like his brain had become a black hole for knowledge, ready to absorb and understand everything.

No grogginess. No morning sluggishness.

Just pure, raw energy.

He couldn't sit still. He had to move.

Dropping down, he planted his hands against the cold stone floor and started pushing.

One. Two. Three.

Each rep felt effortless.

Fifty. Seventy. One hundred.

His arms burned—but it wasn't pain. It was a thrill, a fire inside him, pushing him forward.

One-fifty.

He finally stopped, rolling his shoulders.

Damn. That felt good.

Still buzzing, his mind wandered back to the place where he found the Echo Shard.

Something felt... off.

Now, with his senses heightened, the feeling was even stronger.

So he went back.

---

The room was just as he left it.

Massive. Ruined.

The broken pedestal still stood there, surrounded by debris. Dust swirled in the dim light.

Dylan stepped closer, his eyes scanning the details he hadn't noticed before. He knew he was missing something.

Then he saw it.

Conduit cables.

Thin, numerous, running from the pedestal, disappearing into the walls.

Cables?

This was supposed to be a temple.

Yeah, sure, the carvings hinted that the monks used some tech, but what the hell was the Echo Shard doing here?

Was it... a battery? A power source?

That didn't make sense.

And yet...

Dylan hesitated, then slowly placed a finger into the hollow space where the Shard had been.

And then—

VRRRRRRM!!

A deep rumble shook the entire ruin.

The walls vibrated like a machine waking up. The floor trembled beneath his feet.

Then—lights.

A pulse of energy surged through the walls. The ancient carvings lining the room glowed, faint at first, then brighter, stronger—like they had been waiting centuries to come back to life.

Dylan jerked his hand back.

The glow faded. The rumbling stopped.

Silence.

His heart was pounding.

What. The. Flipping. F*ck.

He stood there, stunned.

It was like chilling in your house and suddenly realizing...oh yeah, the whole thing is a freaking spaceship.

This was not just some ancient ruin.

This place was a machine.

And Dylan had powered it.

What kind of machine?

There was only one way to find out.

Without hesitation, he phased through the wall, following the conduit cables.

The next room was wired to hell.

Countless cables ran through the walls, all linked back to the pedestal. The Echo Shard was the main power source.

Dylan phased again.

This time, he found himself in what looked like a—

Gymnasium?

What the hell?

Old wooden training dummies stood frozen in time, covered in dust and decay. The ground was cracked, weeds growing through the tiles. Rodents skittered between the equipment.

He turned around, scanning the room.

This wasn't just a machine.

This was a freaking city.

Phasing through more walls, he entered a marketplace.

Stalls stood empty, abandoned. Rusted coins littered the ground. Tables were still set up, as if the people here had just... vanished.

But they hadn't just vanished.

Something happened here. Dylan moved on, exploring deeper.

He found homes. Schools. Halls of governance. This was an entire civilization buried underground.

It had once been alive.

Thriving. Advanced.

Far beyond the outside world.

And yet... it was gone.

Why?

He already knew the answer.

The same thing that had made this place so powerful...

Was the same thing that had destroyed it.

The Echo Shard.

The adrenaline was gone.

His energy? Vanished.

Now, he just felt... cold. Fear clawed at his chest. His mind was screaming—

"What if I lose control?"

"What if I go outside and cause mass obliteration?"

"Could I accidentally wipe out human civilization—just like this place?"

He clenched his fists. His breathing was heavy.The Echo Shard was inside him.

An agent of mass destruction was inside his body. And he was damn scared.