In the darkest hour before dawn, the members of the Vault gathered silently within the subterranean conduit network of Astralis Prime. Thirty soldiers divided into three squads, each draped in "Silent Shrouds" custom-made by Ben. Woven from the neural fibers dropped by the Corrupted Artificer, these cloaks could temporarily bypass the city's AI surveillance.
Liam stood at the vanguard. His Attack Speed had climbed to 2.63, and his Maximum HP had surpassed 1,500. He looked at Silas. "Are you ready?"
Silas nodded, his cybernetic arm flickering with a blue interface light. "The firewall keys for the Lifeline Nodes are injected into your HUD. But remember—once a node self-destructs, it generates a Data Storm. You'll only have 12 seconds to extract."
"That's enough," Liam signaled. "Execute!"
The squads vanished into the city's veins like ghosts.
The first node was located in the Old Energy Hub. Ben led the diversion, throwing interference grenades to draw away the sentries. Liam slipped into the core chamber and embedded an antimatter shard into the central control pillar.
"Triggering self-destruct."
Countdown: 10… 9… 8…
He turned and bolted, leaping from the building a second before the blast. Behind him, fire surged into the sky, and the Oath's sirens wailed in agony.
The second node lay within the Central Data Tower. Silas hacked the biometric locks, opening the path for Liam. The process was unnervingly smooth.
"Too fast..." A warning bell rang in Liam's mind, but time was a luxury he didn't have.
The third and most vital core node was hidden beneath an auxiliary sanctuary of the Oath. When Liam stepped into the vault, he found the guards cleared out and the path wide open.
"Something's wrong." He stopped. The premonition from the Codex of Fate flashed in his mind—the image of a dagger rising behind his back.
He spun around!
Empty.
But the moment he turned, the floor erupted in golden runes—a high-tier System Lockdown Array.
"I've been waiting for you, Snow Emperor," the voice of Kaelen the Pure echoed from every corner. "You thought Silas was truly a traitor? No... he was the 'Destiny Bait' I planted at your side."
The ceiling slowly retracted. Silas stood on a hovering platform, the remorse gone from his face, replaced by a cold, hollow loyalty.
"I'm sorry, Liam," Silas whispered. "Kaelen promised that if I delivered you, he would return my daughter's deleted consciousness data."
Liam's heart sank. From the moment at the Forgotten Docks, he had been walking into a meticulously designed cull.
"So, the three nodes... they were all fake targets?" Liam asked, his voice low.
"No, they were real," Kaelen emerged, clad in star-woven robes and holding a shimmering silver scroll—Codex of Fate: Fragment II. "But destroying them triggered a chain reaction that permanently anchored your coordinates to the All-Seeing Judgment Field. And this... is where you are deleted."
Twelve High Apostles stepped from the shadows. All were Level 15, their gear glowing with the radiance of Epic-tier loot.
A dead end.
But Liam's lips curled into a defiant smirk. "Kaelen, you made one fatal mistake."
"Oh?" Kaelen raised an eyebrow. "Enlighten me."
"You trust the Codex too much." Liam slowly drew his longbow. "You forgot that a Genesis-tier Talent does not belong to destiny."
He suddenly activated Sculpt Flesh!
But not on an enemy—on himself. [Cost: 1 Point of Permanent Max HP] [Effect: Convert 50% of current HP into a 'Phase Shield' for 10 seconds.]
This was the hidden application he had discovered the night before—using his own life force to create a window of invincibility.
A golden shield enveloped him! The Apostles unleashed their skills, but the barrage was swallowed whole by the barrier.
Liam charged like a bolt of lightning toward Silas!
"He doesn't have your daughter's data!" Liam roared as he sprinted. "He's lying to you! The Infinite Labyrinth intel shows her consciousness was reclaimed by the Overmind three years ago to build the Cataclysm Warning Model!"
Silas froze, his eyes flickering with a violent struggle.
In that split second, Liam reached the platform and loosed an arrow straight into the control terminal in Silas's hand! -31!
The terminal exploded, and the Lockdown Array flickered.
"NO—!" Silas let out a gut-wrenching scream, whether for the lie or his own stupidity, it was impossible to tell.
Kaelen's face turned ashen. "Kill him!"
Too late.
Liam used the 0.5-second window where the array failed to lunge at the core pillar, slamming the final antimatter shard home!
"Self-destruct active! Everyone out!" he bellowed into the guild channel.
Simultaneously, he used his daily Codex prediction: How do I survive?
The vision showed only one phrase: TRUST YOUR BROTHER.
In the next instant, the ceiling was torn open by sheer force! Ben, piloting a heavily modified skiff, smashed through the dome and dropped a rope ladder.
"Boss! Jump!"
Liam leaped, caught the ladder just as the explosion consumed the vault. Behind them, the sanctuary and the entire block vanished in a sea of white fire.
Kaelen stood at the edge of the crater, clutching Fragment II, his eyes dark with venomous intent. "Snow Emperor... you won this round. But destiny always returns to its tracks."
On the skiff, Liam gasped for air, his HP sitting at a critical 47. But in his hand, he tightly gripped a Data Core he had snatched from the pillar—a core containing the decryption keys for Fragment II.
Ben handed him a potion. "Boss, you're insane! You almost got wiped!"
Liam downed the potion and looked at the rising sun on the horizon.
"The Vault does not die; the Emperor does not fall," he whispered. "Tell the world—we just opened the first wound in the side of the gods."