Saypen1

In a world divided by power and inequality, ancient cults threaten to bring chaos once more. Unbeknownst to most, one young man holds the key to stopping them—his forgotten lineage linked to a past where heroes saved the world. As dark forces close in, he must uncover the truth of his heritage before it’s too late.

End Of Days: Genesis

The city of Veridion Prime gleamed like a star among ash. Towering spires of crystalline glass rose toward the sky, covered in animated displays and solar shrouds. Magnetic highways zipped across rooftops, ferrying commuters in soundless speedpods. From above, it looked like utopia.

Mike stood on the balcony of the CPOA headquarters, staring out over the horizon. In the distance, hidden beneath a shimmering barrier wall, was District Blackfall—the slums.

A place they never show in brochures.

Eleanor stepped beside him, her coat still dusty from the Castle mission. Her gaze followed his.

"Just thinking," Mike said. "We flew out of a haunted castle, fought off a cult scouting party, and found something ancient calling my name… and somehow, this place still feels worse."

She sighed. "That's because the ghosts here wear suits."

The CPOA HQ was a fusion of old war architecture and new tech—thick steel columns reinforced with reactive alloys, and corridors lit by floating energy nodes. Transparent screens hovered in midair, displaying cult activity, breach points, and abnormal energy patterns.

Lucas leaned against the wall near their command room, munching on synthetic jerky.

"You guys hear about what they pulled outta Sector 11? Another cult nest. Full-on larvae bloom this time."

Eleanor winced. "That's the third this month."

Mike didn't speak. His mind was elsewhere.

After the mission, he'd snuck a data chip from the altar site. It wasn't much—a set of coordinates, fragmented glyphs… and an encrypted file titled "Project Aegis."

Agent Diren—bald, severe, and half-cybernetic—strode in with a presence that killed small talk instantly.

"We've confirmed the Black Star fragment you retrieved was a beacon. It wasn't powering anything—it was calling something."

"We're trying to trace the signal, but its origin predates known civilization. Possibly pre-cataclysmic."

Eleanor raised an eyebrow. "You're saying it's… pre-Collapse tech? That's thousands of years old."

Diren nodded grimly. "The cults are digging up the past for a reason. Whatever's buried... they want it awake."

His eyes landed on Mike a moment too long.

The room was small, clean, and lifeless. He inserted the stolen chip into a private terminal, masking it with a dummy diagnostics scan.

Lines of code flickered. Then—a pulse of light. A message decrypted.

Lineage: Unknown Heroic Lineage (Classified – Flamebearer)

Status: Active. Suppressed memory protocols intact.

Key Trait: Immune to Hive Linkage. Potential Override Catalyst.

He didn't know what it meant. But something inside him did. Like a door creaking open in the dark.

"You are not broken, Michael. You are sealed."

His fingers trembled. This wasn't just about cults anymore.

Chapter 3: Ashes Beneath Marble