The heat of the Empty Zone's desert sun scorched Kael's back more fiercely with every passing moment. Fine white grains of sand whipped through the air on powerful gusts, striking the exposed side of his face and leaving a stinging sensation like tiny knife cuts. His throat felt parched, as though all the moisture in his body had been sucked dry by the arid air beyond the city. Yet he did not slow his pace for even a second. In his mind, an internal compass powered by Omega-class data continued to pulse, providing a constant pull that told him his final destination was very close.
Ahead of him, the landscape of the ancient city's ruins began to change shape. The concrete buildings that had once been scattered at random now appeared to form an orderly geometric pattern—a massive plaza surrounded by colossal pillars of faded black granite. At the center of the plaza stood a towering central archive spire, though its peak had collapsed and crashed down over half the structure.
The tower looked like a mourning monument from a lost civilization, a silent witness to the cataclysm that had erased the entire collective memory of the past.
Kael quickened his pace, crossing the open expanse buried beneath mounds of sand until he finally reached the tower's base. There, between piles of massive concrete blocks and twisted steel frames, was an underground entrance protected by a thick, rusted steel plate. The door was sealed tight, buried beneath a meter of sand deposits.
He knelt before it and brushed away the sand with his bare hands, revealing the steel plate's surface, decorated with ancient mathematical symbols—the exact same symbols he had seen inside the Omega data storage container and within the holographic memories of scientists from the past.
Kael pulled the lead container from his coat pocket, then drove it into a specialized port slot hidden beneath the engraved symbol panel.
*Click.*
The ancient locking mechanism shifted inside the thick concrete wall, emitting a low-frequency hum that immediately resonated with the neural implant behind his ear. A moment later, a small indicator light on the side of the steel plate, previously dark, suddenly lit up bright blue.
*Zzzzt... hummm...*
The massive steel plate shook violently, releasing a thick cloud of dust trapped there for thousands of years, then slowly slid aside with the ear-splitting scrape of old metal. Beyond the door, a vertical staircase made of dark metal descended into dense darkness, exhaling a stream of cold air scented with clean ozone and a freshness he had not felt in a long time.
Kael stood still for a moment and glanced back to make sure no surveillance drones or anyone else had been following him from a distance. The desert beyond looked deserted, touched only by the whisper of wind and the blinding shimmer of sunlight. Safe. For now, he had made it farther than anyone from the Lower Sector who had ever tried to escape.
He drew a deep breath, pulled the lead container from its slot, tucked it back into his coat pocket, then began steadily descending the metal steps one by one.
As soon as he reached the bottom, the steel plate overhead slid shut automatically with a heavy mechanical thud, severing all connection with the outside world and enveloping Kael in absolute silence. The only illumination in the underground passage came from rows of pale-blue emergency indicator lights along the walls, which flickered on automatically to welcome his arrival.
Kael activated optical-scanner mode on the small device in his hand, then continued along the long corridor sloping downward. The corridor walls were made of a specialized composite material that showed no signs of decay, far more advanced than the concrete used to build New-Aethelgard in the present day.
The deeper he went, the stronger the Omega data's vibration became within his nervous system. Rooms began appearing on either side of the corridor—abandoned research laboratories, dead quantum-server storage chambers, and rows of enormous monitor screens displaying diagrams of human consciousness anatomy alongside energy-growth curves for *The Core*.
At the end of the main corridor, a massive domed door five meters in diameter awaited him. Above it, an ancient inscription was clearly carved in metallic letters that emitted a soft glow: **MAIN ARCHIVE: SOURCE OF COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS**.
Kael approached the main console beside the domed door. His heart pounded—not from fear, but from the realization that whatever lay beyond this door would change the course of human history forever. He placed his hand over the console's biometric sensor panel, allowing the Omega-class data within him to fully synchronize with the facility's central system.
The console screen suddenly blazed to life, projecting millions of golden holographic data lines that spiraled around Kael's body. A calm synthetic voice, utterly unlike the cold, emotionless voice of *The Core* in New-Aethelgard, echoed softly through the room:
*"Access granted, Archaeologist. Welcome back to the source of truth. The system is ready to upload the entirety of lost history. Are you ready to open a new chapter for humanity?"*
Kael stared sharply at the holographic projection, then slowly nodded. He drew a deep breath, placed his fingers on the main execution button, and pressed the final confirmation that would unleash a shock wave of information across the entire world.