The rain poured like liquid metal on cracked concrete, turning the city's neon glow into bleeding colors. São Paulo had always been vibrant, but now, under the shadow of the Reset, it pulsed with something darker. Surveillance drones clattered in the skies like insects. Roads flickered with corrupted advertisements. Holograms glitched. Something was wrong here—terribly wrong.
Rael stepped off the stealth dropship into ankle-deep water, his boots absorbing the vibration of distant gunfire. Kesi, Seraphim (linked remotely), Jaxon, and Avery followed in silence.
"This isn't just a corrupted signal," Kesi murmured, her visor scanning the skyline. "It's a dead zone. Timeline resonance is fractured across the entire city grid."
[Node Ping: RESISTANCE NULL | Resetter Codename: VANTA | Status: Unknown | Signature: Corrupted]
Rael tightened his jaw. "We'll go in quiet. Recon only. If he's truly gone rogue, we'll need to find a way to bring him back… or take him down."
Two Hours Later – Underground Transit Hub Zeta-3
The once-bustling metro lines were eerily silent, now consumed by roots of metal and synthetic vines. Entire train cars hung suspended in midair, frozen by some kind of anti-gravity flux. The team advanced through corridors lined with pulsating walls—walls that breathed.
"Organic tech," Seraphim said through the earpiece. "Not Varkel, but heavily modified. Vanta has fused timeline entropy into machine matter."
Jaxon readied his rifle. "That's not a Resetter. That's a goddamn technomancer."
Suddenly, a scream echoed from the tunnel ahead—then laughter, distorted and mechanical. It wasn't human.
[Signal Interference Detected – Local Reality Folding: 12%]
Kesi froze. "Reality is breaking here. This place isn't just dangerous—it's contagious."
They pressed on, following a faint resonance signal into what used to be a control tower. At the heart of the chamber, surrounded by floating shards of broken time, was a throne of wires and glass. And in it sat Vanta.
Encounter: VANTA
His body was covered in neural webbing. His eyes glowed black. A thousand timelines flickered through him at once.
"I see you, Rael," he said without turning. "I saw you in the version where I died. I saw you in the version where I killed you."
Rael stepped forward. "We don't want to fight."
Vanta turned slowly. "But I do. You don't understand, do you? Time is broken. It cannot be saved. Only rewritten."
[Resonance Check Failed – VANTA Node Unstable]
[Warning: Hostile Conversion Detected – Phase Level: ∆Omega]
He raised a hand—and the tower pulsed with power.
Avery was flung back. Jaxon's weapon melted in his grip. Kesi screamed as timeline data tried to rip itself from her body.
Rael activated a failsafe protocol.
[Command Override – Reset Anchor Engaged]
A shockwave blasted outward, freezing everything.
Except Rael and Vanta.
Inside the Anchor Realm
The world fell away. Rael stood in a void of infinite possibilities, each version of himself fractured around him. Vanta stood at the center, untouchable.
"Here," Vanta said, "we are true."
Rael stepped forward. "If you were really true to your purpose, you wouldn't be twisting time to your will. You'd be protecting it."
Vanta's voice became a whisper and a roar. "Time doesn't need protection. It needs freedom."
[Combat Protocol Engaged – Anchor Duel Initiated]
Rael moved like lightning, his blade forged from system code clashing with Vanta's entropy scythe. Each blow sparked with diverging fates. Each block changed the nature of their shared future.
But Vanta was faster. He landed a strike.
Rael screamed as a piece of his memory was sliced clean.
[Memory Core Integrity – 84%... 72%... 66%...]
"You're not strong enough," Vanta said. "Because you still believe in salvation."
Rael's eyes burned.
"No," he said. "Because I believe in my team."
Reality Restored – Intervention Team Arrives
In the real world, Kesi activated a reverse polarity anchor. Jaxon, bloodied but alert, threw a disruptor core at the tower's heart.
Seraphim, even from orbit, pulsed a stream of quantum interference that slowed Vanta's grip on reality.
Together, their actions synced.
[Node Sync Established – Emergency Conversion Protocol: ACTIVATE]
[Hostile Override Success: 63%... 82%... 99%... COMPLETE]
Vanta screamed—not in pain, but in release.
The throne shattered.
He collapsed.
Rael caught him as the light faded from his eyes. But something else returned.
[VANTA NODE – RESTORED]
[Skill Acquired: Entropy Control Lv.1]
Vanta blinked slowly. "I remember now. I'm… sorry."
Rael helped him sit up. "Then help us fix what you almost broke."
Aftermath and Mission Update
The team spent the next hours purging the corrupted systems in São Paulo's mainframe. Kesi uploaded stability protocols. Seraphim deployed entropy dampeners from orbit. Hina remotely cleaned signal crosstalk from Nairobi.
For the first time in weeks, São Paulo felt… clear.
[Node Network Stabilized – Tier IV Achieved]
[New Target Identified: MUMBAI – Resetter Codename: LUCID]
[Risk Level: SEVERE | Status: Dual-Timeline Presence Detected]
Rael stood on the rooftop of the former throne tower, looking out over the recovering city.
"We saved one," Avery said beside him.
Rael nodded. "And now we face two timelines at once."