Chapter 14 – Obsidian Net Activation
> "Crown Alpha to all Obsidian nodes. Code Black. Authorization: Monarch Sigma-7. Engage full blackout protocol."
The command echoed silently across the neural channels of Shayan's hidden network.
Hundreds of agents in suits, shadows, and skull-marked masks stood from where they sat—in lecture halls, courtrooms, slums, skyscrapers. All of them moved as one organism, silently slipping into action. Across every major empire—Valeria, Eronys, The Thousand Isles, and even deep within the Nomad Tech Tribes—Obsidian Net awoke.
And the world didn't even notice.
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Back at the ruined observatory, Shayan ducked beneath a blade of warped black metal—it scraped the wall and sent sparks flying.
The creature in front of him snarled—not like an animal, but like a hole in reality. Its face was unfinished. A blur. He couldn't even remember what it looked like two seconds ago. His mind, as perfect as it was, stuttered every time he stared too long.
Memoryless One's Spawn.
Velka spun beside him, two crystalline daggers forming from her energy. She sliced through one of the spawn, but it reformed midair. She cursed.
"They reset memories in short bursts!" she shouted. "We need to anchor!"
Shayan understood instantly. He reached into his coat and activated a forbidden artifact—the Chrono-Stake. A thin needle of light stabbed into the ground, emitting a low hum.
Instantly, clarity returned. Their minds were now fixed on a ten-second feedback loop—resisting the spawn's effect.
"They don't die," Shayan muttered.
"No. But they remember pain."
Shayan grinned. "Good."
In a blur, he surged forward, unsheathing a blade encoded with mnemonic runes—Tir'Shael, the sword of sealed truths. It tore into the spawn, and unlike before, it screamed in pure static. A sound that seemed to come from inside the skull.
Velka followed, eyes glowing silver, each movement surgical. Together, they fought not just with skill, but with memory. Each strike predicted, each breath calculated.
But as the last of the spawn dissolved, Shayan felt it.
A gap.
A second he could not account for. As if something watched from the blind spots of thought.
Velka stumbled. "It's near."
The real one.
> The Memoryless One had noticed them.
And in that moment, Shayan's communicator sparked again—only it wasn't Eira this time.
A deep, distorted voice echoed through the line.
> "You think memory makes you gods. But I am oblivion."
Shayan's heart stopped for just a second. Not from fear—but recognition.
It wasn't a voice he heard.
It was one he had forgotten.
And that terrified him more than anything else in the world.
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