The staircase stretched downward, spiralling endlessly into the dark, like the ribcage of some dead giant coiling into the earth. Each step they took sent faint echoes ricocheting off the unseen walls, the sound swallowed almost instantly by the heavy, suffocating air.
Kai's boots scraped against the cold stone, his knuckles white as he tightened his grip on his sword. He felt the hum of energy still lingering from the Guardian's defeat but it wasn't comforting. If anything, the silence made him more tense.
"Why do I feel like we just went from the frying pan into the actual, literal hellfire?" Juno muttered, holding her rifle close. Her visor flickered faintly, struggling to track the environment in the absence of light.
"Because you have good instincts," Mira replied, her tone clipped but steady. She walked slightly ahead, blades drawn, their faint blue glow the only real illumination. "Stay sharp. Something's wrong with this place. It feels… off."
"How off?" Reiss asked from behind, his console slung over one arm. He'd been muttering to himself ever since they left the chamber, scanning signals that weren't supposed to exist. "You mean like the weird time anomalies?"
"No." Mira paused for a moment, tilting her head as if listening to something none of them could hear. "…Like it's watching us."
Kai slowed his steps, unease prickling along his spine. He glanced up the staircase, and it was gone. Or rather, it dissolved into shadows, as though it had never existed at all.
"Reiss," Kai said sharply. "Tell me you can map this."
Reiss looked pale, his fingers dancing nervously over the console. " I-I don't know how to explain this, but the readings don't make sense. This isn't just underground. We're… somewhere else."
As they descended further, flickers of light began to appear on the walls. Not torches, not technology but images.
Kai stopped when he realised what he was seeing: memories.
The walls pulsed with shifting scenes, like a film reel playing in reverse. A younger Kai, standing over Lyra, blood on his hands. A version of Mira training alone, her face grim and tired. Juno curled up in a hospital chair, tears streaking her face. Reiss in handcuffs, his trial projected in brutal clarity.
"Okay, what the actual hell is this?" Juno hissed, spinning to look at the others. "Please tell me this isn't some freaky haunted wall nightmare."
Reiss swallowed. "It's not… haunted. These are temporal imprints. The Spiral Core isn't just a structure, it's a memory coil. It's recording us. Maybe it's been recorded by everyone who's ever set foot here."
Mira didn't look away from her projection. She watched the version of herself in silence, lips pressed tightly together. "This is a warning," she said finally. "This place is alive."
"Alive?" Juno scoffed. "Great. So now the architecture itself wants us dead. What's next? Murderous floor tiles?"
Kai's projection shifted suddenly, and he froze. It wasn't Lyra anymore. It was his older, harder, his golden eyes glowing like the Guardian's.
"Keep moving," Kai muttered, shaking it off. But his heart pounded in his chest, and the whisper of a voice his voice, but not murmured at the edge of his thoughts.
They reached a vast circular chamber at the base of the spiral. The air here felt heavier, like breathing through water.
In the centre of the chamber stood an enormous clock, far older and more intricate than the Fractured Clock they had just seen. This one wasn't broken, it was pristine, its golden gears turning slowly, steadily. But its face had no numbers, only a shifting pattern of symbols none of them could read.
"Is that… another clock?" Juno asked, stepping forward cautiously.
Reiss stared, transfixed. "No. This isn't just a clock. It's… the Clock. The Spiral Core is connected to the First Cycle, the beginning of everything. I think this is where time itself was first… born."
"Born?" Mira repeated, her voice sharp with scepticism. "Reiss, are you saying time is alive?"
Reiss hesitated. "Alive might not be the right word. But intelligent? Aware? Maybe. Look at these symbols…" His eyes widened as he realised something. "They match the warning we saw. The Architect's language."
Kai's jaw tightened. "Ozymandias."
The name echoed across the chamber, as though the walls themselves whispered it back.
The clock face glowed suddenly, flooding the chamber with blinding light.
"YOU STAND IN THE SPIRAL CORE," a voice boomed, resonating through every inch of the room. It wasn't a voice that came from any one direction it was everywhere, inside their heads and in the very vibrations of the air.
"THE FIRST CYCLE BEGINS ANEW. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN."
Juno staggered back. "Okay, nope, I'm out. I'm not talking to some creepy cosmic clock ghost today!"
Kai raised his sword. "Show yourself!"
The light condensed, forming a towering silhouette. It wasn't human, more like the outline of a robed figure, faceless, its body shifting like sand in an hourglass. Golden threads ran through its form, connecting it to the massive clock.
"I AM THE ARCHITECT," the voice intoned. "THE DESIGNER OF ALL CYCLES. AND YOU… YOU ARE OUT OF PLACE."
"Out of place?" Kai growled. "What the hell does that mean?"
"YOU HAVE STRAYED FROM YOUR DESIGN. YOUR PATH WAS TO END LONG AGO. BUT YOU DEFY TIME ITSELF A BLADE AGAINST THE THREAD."
Mira stepped forward, her blades flashing. "Then rewrite our 'design.' Or get out of our way."
The Architect tilted its faceless head.
"REWRITE? YOU CANNOT CHANGE WHAT IS WRITTEN. EVEN NOW, YOUR DEATHS ARE CARVED INTO THE NEXT CYCLE. WOULD YOU SEE?"
Before they could respond, the chamber warped.
Kai blinked and saw himself lying dead on the ground, his blade shattered. Mira was pinned to the wall by chains. Juno's visor cracked, and her rifle was in pieces. Reiss was screaming as time itself consumed him.
"Stop it!" Juno shouted, firing at the apparition. The bullets passed through harmlessly.
Reiss's face was pale as paper. "These… These are possible futures. It's showing us how we die."
Kai clenched his jaw, forcing himself to look away. "I don't care what it shows us. We're not dying here. Not to some… thing."
He lunged at the Architect, but his blade struck only light. The force threw him back, slamming him into the ground.
Mira darted forward, her attacks precise and relentless, but every strike passed through as though she were fighting mist.
"YOU CANNOT STRIKE THE AUTHOR OF YOUR STORY," the Architect said calmly. "YOU ARE CHARACTERS. SHADOWS ON A WALL."
"Yeah?" Juno shouted, tossing a grenade. "Well, I've blown up bigger walls than you!"
The grenade detonated, but the explosion froze in midair, the flames curling backwards before vanishing entirely.
"Okay, that's new," Juno muttered.
Reiss's console beeped frantically. He ducked behind a column, scanning the Architect's energy signature. His eyes widened.
"It's not invincible," Reiss called out. "It's projecting itself through the Core Clock. If I can sever its connection even for a moment we can hit it!"
"Then do it!" Kai shouted, blocking a wave of temporal energy that rippled toward them. The force sent cracks spiderwebbing across the stone floor.
"I'm trying!" Reiss's fingers flew over the console. "But this isn't just code. It's… language. The Architect's language. I need to translate enough of it to rewrite its commands."
"You've got one minute," Mira snapped. "Or we're all dead."
The Architect raised one hand, and golden chains erupted from the floor, snaring Mira's legs. She slashed furiously, but the chains tightened like serpents.
Kai sprinted to her side, his blade slicing through one chain, then another. But each time he cut one, another appeared.
"YOU CANNOT FIGHT THE THREAD," the Architect intoned. "EVERY CUT YOU MAKE IS ALREADY MENDED."
Kai's anger surged but then he heard Lyra's voice in his mind again.
"Don't let it control you."
He took a deep breath, forcing the darkness down. He didn't need that power. Not now.
"Mira," he said, cutting her free. "We make our own path. No one writes our story but us."
"Done!" Reiss shouted suddenly. "I've got a window! Hit it, NOW!"
The Architect froze, its form flickering.
Kai didn't hesitate. He charged, his blade glowing with silver light. Mira followed, their strikes synchronised, crossing in a perfect arc that slammed into the Architect's chest.
For the first time, it staggered.
Juno opened fire, each shot striking with explosive force. "Oh, hell yes, we're doing damage!"
The Architect's voice cracked with static.
"YOU… DEFY THE CYCLE…"
"Reiss!" Kai shouted. "The Core Clock can we destroy it?"
Reiss hesitated. "If we destroy it, we could unravel this entire timeline. We'd be gambling with everything."
Kai glanced at Mira, then Juno. Both nodded without hesitation.
"Do it," Kai said.
Reiss swallowed hard then inputted the final sequence. The Core Clock's gears screamed, golden light spilling out as the entire mechanism began to tear itself apart.
The Architect howled not in pain, but in fury.
"YOU CANNOT KILL TIME. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME. I WILL SEE YOU IN THE NEXT CYCLE."
The figure exploded into shards of light as the Core Clock shattered.
The ground shook violently. Cracks opened in the chamber floor, light and shadow pouring out like liquid.
"Time to go!" Juno yelled, grabbing Reiss by the collar and dragging him toward the spiral staircase.
Kai and Mira followed, the world collapsing around them.
They stumbled out of the Spiral Core, but they weren't where they started.
The sky above them was wrong, fractured into pieces like broken glass. A vast, golden hourglass hung where the sun should be, its sand dripping slowly into the void.
Reiss looked at his console, his face pale. "We didn't just break the Core. We broke the barrier between cycles."
Kai tightened his grip on his blade. "Then we finish what we started. Whatever this Architect is planning we stop it."