SWNOVELXO Chapter 67: Episode 66
[SCENE 1 — INT. VAN HQ – LOWER DECK – SIMULATION CHAMBER – NIGHT]
The simulated chamber dims as Astra slams a final solar-spear into a mirrored bot.
Artificial walls dissolve. Sweat drips down her cheek as Lyra shuts off the test from a console, her gravity field gently decompressing the room. Zenari reclines against the far wall, shadow slipping down his arms like ink.
Astra ☀️: "That's the fourth sim today."
Zenari ⚫ (grinning): "We're still breathing. That's called progress."
Lyra 🌌: "These drones are learning. Each one lasts longer than the last."
A door hisses open. Jax enters with his usual swagger, slapping a datapad into Zenari's chest.
Jax ⚡️: "Well guess what, dark-ninja. Time to do it live."
On the display: ALERT – GRAVITY INVERSION SPIKE / GRIDLINE 7C – OUTER FLOATING ISLE
[SCENE 2 — EXT. SKYVAULT PERIMETER – GRIDLNE 7C – FLOATING ISLAND: "OCTANT RIDGE"]
Hovercraft cuts through midnight mist.
The Vanguard trio touches down on a neglected isle — a half-collapsed research outpost, drifting at the edge of the city's orbit. Its gravity pylons flicker in and out of sync, making the terrain rise and fall in pulsing waves.
Zenari flickers into shadowform before landing.
Lyra: "No recent activity. This place was decommissioned years ago."
Astra: "Then why is the gravity still bleeding?"
They advance past bent towers and overgrown conduits. Strange glyphs glow faintly along the walls, etched in a pattern that feels more ritualistic than technical.
A sudden pulse — like a heartbeat through metal — shakes the isle.
Zenari: "That wasn't a drone."
Lyra (concentrating): "The core's off. It's not pulsing out — it's pulling in. Something's feeding on gravity."
They reach a collapsed observatory, where the ground inverts completely — like a whirlpool, spiraling downward into a cavity of floating debris. Hovering above it, tethered by arcs of plasma, is a shard of the shattered drone from the previous episode — now mutated, fused with black tendrils.
The shard begins to speak in a distorted voice:
Distorted Drone: "...Vanguard... Adaptation noted... Initiating memory extraction..."
Suddenly — the shard projects a hologram.
[SCENE 3 — MEMORY ILLUSION – KAEL'S PAST – NIGHTMARE SIMULATION]
Kael appears — younger, bloodied, gripping a half-melted Inferblade. A burning city surrounds him. His old squad lies motionless.
Young Kael: "I made a choice. I failed them."
The trio sees this illusion from a distance, unable to interact — mere spectators in his memory. Kael drops to his knees, his fire flickering.
Astra (stepping toward it): "This… this isn't a sim."
Lyra: "It's pulling his guilt from the Oath Core network."
Suddenly — the projection warps, and the memory version of Kael lifts his head, eyes hollow and glowing with the same red as the shard.
Kael's Clone: "You inherited a broken flame."
The clone attacks.
[SCENE 4 — COMBAT — SHATTERED OBSERVATORY]
The trio splits:
Zenari uses shadowform to flank the clone, striking from angles its AI struggles to predict.
Lyra anchors floating debris midair, creating stepping paths and redirecting gravity pulses to shield Astra.
Astra charges her solar nodes with rising heat and casts mirror-flares to blind the clone before delivering a heatwave blast that disrupts its projection.
But the clone adapts. Its flames turn violet, fusing with data from the drone. It mimics Kael's fighting style perfectly.
Lyra: "This isn't just memory. It's evolving into a new host."
Just before it overwhelms them—
[SCENE 5 — INT. VANGUARD HQ – COMMS BRIDGE – SAME TIME]
Kael stands before the holographic city grid. His eye twitches as he feels it — a tug in his Oath Core.
Kael 🔥: "...No. That flame is mine."
He slams his hand on the comms pad.
Kael: "Override lock. Direct ignition jump. Drop me in."
Yuna: "Wait—Kael, you can't—!"
He's already gone.
[SCENE 6 — EXT. OCTANT RIDGE — OBSERVATORY – SECONDS LATER]
A burst of red plasma sears across the sky.
Kael lands in a shockwave, his coat flaring, Inferblade roaring to life.
Kael: "I didn't give you permission to wear my scars."
The clone falters. It recognizes him — and begins to scream in binary.
The real Kael charges, blade colliding with its twin. The air burns.
Together, with Lyra pinning its movements, Astra destabilizing its core, and Zenari intercepting its predictive logic, they unmake the phantom.
It dissolves, not in fire — but in memory shards. Each flickering moment vanishes like ash.
Silence falls.
[SCENE 7 — INT. HQ – DEBRIEF ROOM — HOURS LATER]
Kael sits before a round table with the trio.
Kael: "That clone… it wasn't built. It was drawn from me. Something out there is feeding on who we were."
Yuna (studying the data): "Whatever's building these trials isn't just testing your strength. It's collecting your weaknesses. It's feeding on the emotional residue in your Oath Cores."
Jax: "It's not tech. It's something older. Wrapped in circuits."
Lyra turns to the glowing shard Astra recovered.
Lyra: "There was a glyph. Before it cracked. I traced it."
She brings up a sketch: a spiral inside a broken eye.
Zenari: "I've seen that before."
They turn to him.
Zenari (quietly): "In the lower vaults. Long ago. Before I joined you… I was trained by a silent sect. They warned of a watcher in the rift. Something ancient. Hungry."
Kael: "Then it's time we learn its name."
[SCENE 8 — EXT. SKYVAULT CITY – DAWN]
The storm breaks. SkyVault begins to shimmer in golden hues.
But far above the skyline, in the shadow of the city's ring…
A massive eye-shaped satellite opens — quiet, patient.
A distorted voice returns.
Unknown Voice: "Six vanguards will not be enough."
The glyph pulses.
[TO BE CONTINUED]