Chapter 17 – A Name the World Should Not Speak
The cold silence of Vault IX faded as Shayan and Velka ascended back to the surface.
But the air had changed.
Not in the city. Not even in the world.
In the timeline itself.
Time twisted subtly now—traffic lights blinking before the button was pressed, children crying before falling, words forming in mouths that had yet to speak them.
The cost of unlocking Vault IX… was already leaking.
---
Inside the Crown Division's War Room, Seraphis Zaan stared at a screen of red alerts. Data corruption. Memory recursion. AI ghosts rewriting their own code.
"Project Crownfall has triggered the Ashoran Protocol," one of the technicians whispered.
Seraphis stood still. "Contact the Seven Unseen Syndicates. Activate Protocol Silence."
"They won't like that," the assistant muttered.
"They don't have to." His voice turned sharp. "They're already dead. They just don't know it yet."
---
Meanwhile, Shayan returned to the secluded manor on the outskirts of Eronys. It looked like any noble's estate—but it was built atop the largest illegal memory core in the empire.
The moment he entered, hundreds of encrypted neural links flickered to life.
> "Master," a dozen artificial voices echoed, "Welcome home."
Velka stepped in after him, scanning the interior. "How many illegal units do you have working here?"
Shayan gave a small, dark smile. "This is just Sector 4 of 93."
Velka's eyes widened.
> "You're not building an empire… you're building a replacement."
He turned to her, walking toward the central AI node—CRWN.01.
"Yes," he said. "One that will survive what the old world cannot."
He activated a screen. On it appeared an encrypted memory shard—recovered from Vault IX.
It contained only a voice. Not Ashoran's. Not human.
Something far older.
> "Do not speak the name of the First Forgotten," the voice whispered. "For even saying it grants it a shadow to crawl through."
> "Its name was erased from time, but in your tongue, it sounds like—"
The feed cut.
Velka looked at him. "What was it saying?"
Shayan's eyes narrowed. "The name of the first Memory Eater. The one that devoured gods."
---
Far across the world, in a hidden monastery in the Skyein Wastes, an ancient monk awoke screaming.
"The Crown Heir has breached the seal," he whispered in horror. "And now the Nameless walks again."
He reached for a blade—not to defend himself, but to carve warnings into the temple walls before his mind was devoured.
---
Back in the manor, CRWN.01 spoke softly.
> "A foreign signal has breached the simulation barrier. Shall I block it?"
Shayan frowned.
> "No. Trace it."
He leaned in. The screen flickered with coordinates, showing a forgotten city beneath the Southern Empire.
And one word appeared on the screen, burned into the code by an external force:
> "Found you."
Shayan's hand clenched.
The true game had just begun.
---