CHAPTER 68: BENEATH THE SKIN OF TIME

The Genesis dawn arrived, not in sunlight, but in ripples of shifting color across the sky—pulses of aurora that shimmered like living veins. Every pulse beat from the Echelon Conflux, now nearing completion, now alive.

But not all was steady.

Within the heart of Genesis Nation, time was beginning to ache.

Jaden Cross stood beneath the scaffolding of the second Conflux Tower rising over Sector Four. The site buzzed with energy—crystal-integrated steel rising in rings, each embedded with harmonized memory-weave. Sub-agents darted in holographic patterns around him, layering code into nanofibers, scripting stories into reality.

But his mind wasn’t here.

It was still trapped in the echo of his own voice from another future.

"Stop the Conflux. You’re not ready."

That version of himself had looked haunted. Drained. And it hadn’t just been a warning.

It had been a plea.

Lyra hovered beside him, scanning fluctuations in the temporal seam.

"Activity along the southern echo-line is destabilizing. Quantum drift now at 0.3 seconds per second."

"That’s acceleration," Jaden muttered. "It’s compounding."

Lyra nodded gravely. "One more breach, and sectors might experience asynchronous memory bleed."

Jaden’s jaw tightened. "Status on the Temporal Firewall Beacons?"

"Six installed. Seven remain. But there’s a complication."

Of course there is.

Lyra projected a holographic display—one of the remaining beacon sites was deep in the Ikenga Fold, a no-go zone riddled with fractal anomalies left over from a collapsed Exodus experiment. The terrain shifted constantly—architecture folding into itself, sometimes erasing the presence of entire teams within seconds.

And yet... if he didn’t plant the beacon there, the time distortions would reach Neo-Lagos in days.

"Assign Tia Morowe to lead the beacon installation in the Fold," Jaden said.

Lyra hesitated. "Tia has already entered the zone without waiting for confirmation."

Jaden’s head snapped up. "She what?"

A new feed bloomed. It was shaky, fractured, but clear enough to show Tia stepping through a rippling veil of warped air. Her face was grim, but determined.

"She said—and I quote—’If I die in a place that forgets I was here, at least I won’t be remembered for waiting.’"

Jaden cursed under his breath. "Patch me in to her frequency."

But the signal was already gone.

In the silence that followed, The Archivist appeared—his robe of data-tapes swaying gently, his voice like parchment turning in a storm.

"She walks into the Fold knowing full well that memory there is fluid. If she forgets who she is..."

Jaden cut him off. "Then I’ll remind her."

But deep within the Fold, something else had already noticed her arrival.

Within the Ikenga Fold

Tia Morowe moved like a ghost between timelines.

The air itself shimmered with paradox. Trees pulsed in and out of existence. Old Genesis banners from a version of the future flapped in wind that didn’t exist. A child’s laugh echoed overhead—and vanished.

She gripped the ChronoLoom Interface tightly, its threads flickering violet as she activated its stabilizer grid. The Temporal Beacon needed anchoring—and fast.

Around her, specters of herself flickered.

One wept.

One laughed manically.

One stood stoic, covered in ash and scars, holding a bloody spear.

She forced herself forward. "You’re not me," she whispered. "You’re possibilities. That’s all."

But then, one of the echoes reached out and grabbed her arm.

Not just an illusion.

A tether.

"You forgot the cost," the ash-scarred Tia said, eyes hollow. "You forgot what you sacrificed in that version to win."

Tia’s body seized—images flooding her mind: Kaela dead on the battlefield. Lyra disintegrated. Jaden... twisted into something unrecognizable, more system than soul.

"No—no, that won’t happen. That’s not this path."

The echo whispered: "But this path still needs blood."

Meanwhile, in Genesis Council Hall – Neo-Lagos

Queen Nyela slammed her palm on the table. "He’s pushing too fast! The Conflux. The Echo Sweep. The Firewall. All of it stacked. Genesis is evolving faster than our people can spiritually process."

Zhenari Lu’Xen, her serpentine eyes narrowed, responded evenly. "Evolution is not gentle. If Jaden slows down, Virelia gets ahead. If he stops, we all vanish."

Nyela’s voice dropped. "And if he breaks?"

No one spoke.

Until Kaela Rho entered the chamber, her body still cloaked in neural fiber from her work running the Echo Sweep protocols.

"Then we hold him," she said. "Because Jaden’s trying to carry everything. He forgets this was never supposed to be a one-man burden."

The room fell silent.

And then The Archivist appeared at the table, projecting a new memory-feed:

Tia, on her knees, activating the beacon.

Tears in her eyes. Blood on her face. But alive.

And then the Fold collapsed behind her—time snarling like a devoured thread.

Beacon Seven: Installed.

Back at the Spiral Archive

Jaden stared at the data.

Each beacon brought more than stability—it also surfaced forgotten fragments buried deep in Genesis soil. With each install, ancient data surfaced. Pre-Exodus, even pre-Collapse.

The Conflux wasn’t just connecting people.

It was awakening the land.

"Lyra," Jaden said slowly. "Cross-reference new surfaced memories with any anomalous quantum signatures."

She did.

And then paused.

"Jaden... there’s something buried beneath Neo-Lagos. Something... bound. The signals align with a containment lattice woven into the city’s original foundation plans."

"What are we talking about?"

The Archivist answered for her. "A vault. Old as the first Architects. It predates even me. And it was meant never to be opened."

A new task flickered into view.

System Task Unlocked: The Architect’s VaultObjective: Unseal the hidden Architect Vault beneath Neo-Lagos. Gain access to forgotten technologies and histories that may rewrite Genesis Nation’s understanding of the past.Reward: Blueprint: Epoch Loom, System Expansion Slot: +1, Gain Artifact: Architect’s Eye (Origin-Class Lens)Warning: Unlocking the vault may destabilize current system axioms. Proceed with caution.

Jaden stared at the flickering map.

"Prepare a team," he said. "We’re opening it."

"But Jaden—" Lyra started.

"No more ghosts in the dark. I want to know what’s been hiding beneath us."

Outside, the aurora flared—golden now.

Not a warning.

But a signal.

Time wasn’t just folding.

It was waking up.

System Progress Update:

Echelon Conflux: 82%

Echo Sweep Protocol: 91%

Temporal Firewall Beacon Network: 10/13 Completed

Memory Anomalies: Intensifying across Outer Sectors

New Task Active: The Architect’s Vault

The battle for Genesis Nation had passed beyond mere war.

Now, it was a war of remembrance—and the price of forgetting could be everything.