Chapter 24: The Map of Ghosts
The stolen shuttle floated in deep space, hidden among the shattered rings of the abandoned X-Theta system. Inside the ship, Li Yan sat with a heavy book—etched with alien symbols and glowing ink.
Bai Ling pressed her fingers against a circular holo-disc embedded in the wall. "This map only appears to Starcore bearers. My mother gave it to me. She said it leads to the Voidkeepers."
"Who are they?" Li Yan asked.
Bai Ling hesitated. "The ones who made the Starcore… or what's left of them."
Suddenly, the disc pulsed, projecting a strange constellation. A forgotten star system.
Li Yan stared. "That's… not on any chart."
Bai Ling nodded slowly. "Because it's been erased."
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Chapter 25: Planet Vireal
Their journey took them to the Vireal Expanse, a place wrapped in plasma storms and magnetic fields that ate unprotected ships. With Bai Ling's shielding code, they punched through.
There, cloaked by dead moons and toxic fog, floated a lone world—Vireal. Covered in ice, black mountains, and glowing monoliths.
Li Yan felt the pull before they even landed.
"It's calling me," he whispered.
Bai Ling looked away. "It called my mother too. She never came back."
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Chapter 26: Shadows of Memory
As they stepped onto Vireal's cracked surface, the air shimmered. Li Yan froze as a familiar voice whispered his name.
He turned—and saw his father.
"Dad…?"
But his father had died when he was six.
"Li Yan… come home…"
He stumbled forward, breath caught in his throat.
Bai Ling pulled him back. "It's not real! Vireal uses your mind against you!"
But the illusion fought back—his father screamed, his mother wept, his past clawed at his sanity.
Li Yan clutched his head.
"Let go," he begged.
Then his arm burned.
The glyphs on his skin pulsed and shattered the illusion in a flash of white light.
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Chapter 27: The Guardians' Tomb
Deep in the mountain core, they found it.
A temple of obsidian and stars—walls moving like water, filled with echoes.
Bai Ling walked carefully, eyes wide. "This was built by the First Ones."
Statues lined the corridor—alien, majestic, many-eyed beings cloaked in celestial light.
In the center chamber, an orb floated—pure crystal, shifting with time and gravity.
Li Yan stepped toward it.
The orb spoke—not in words, but in emotion.
Grief. War. Death. Creation.
Then it whispered: "You are the final echo of the Starcore."
Li Yan fell to his knees.
"What does it want from me?"
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Chapter 28: Bai Ling's Secret
That night, inside a cavern lit by bioluminescent frost, Bai Ling sat alone.
Li Yan approached. "You knew more than you said."
She didn't answer immediately.
"My mother was a Voidkeeper," she finally whispered. "And my father… was a Federation assassin sent to kill her."
Li Yan stared.
"She spared him. They fell in love. But he betrayed her for glory. She died protecting the last fragment of the Void Codex."
Li Yan sat beside her, quietly.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm not," Bai Ling said. "She gave me purpose. And now I give it to you."
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Chapter 29: The Codex Speaks
Li Yan held the orb again, and this time it showed him the past.
The Starcore wasn't a weapon—it was a lock.
A lock on something ancient. Something the First Ones feared.
And now… it was weakening.
He saw a black sun. A colossal being made of tendrils and void. Its eye opened—and entire galaxies screamed.
Li Yan pulled away, panting.
"What… is that?"
Bai Ling looked terrified.
"The thing the Starcore was designed to hold. The Devourer of Skies."
"And now," she whispered, "it knows you exist."
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Chapter 30: Echoes of Fate
They left Vireal as quietly as they came. But nothing felt the same.
Li Yan stood in the cockpit, staring out.
"I'm not a hero," he said. "I'm a fuse."
Bai Ling shook her head. "You're a choice."
"To save everything… or end it."
They didn't know that far across the stars, the Federation had formed a secret alliance—with Vorr leading the assault.
And even farther still, beyond all known space… the black sun smiled.
Because the Starcore was waking.
And so was it.