Beneath the Forgotten Bridge
The expedition stood before the enormous circular door buried beneath the broken bridge.
No one spoke.
Beyond it stretched a road that should not have existed.
Ancient lights awakened one after another, disappearing into the darkness below.
At the center of Sorion's bronze compass, the word remained:
ORIGIN
Lirion slowly lowered his scanner.
"This infrastructure is older than anything we've encountered."
Eara Voss stepped beside him.
"Older than Borealis?"
"Possibly."
Dorion looked toward the darkness.
"Then we shouldn't assume it's safe."
Sorion nodded.
"We don't."
He looked back toward the expedition.
"We go carefully."
The great door began closing behind them.
BOOM.
The sound echoed through the underground passage.
The expedition was now sealed inside.
The Road Beneath the World
The ancient highway descended gradually.
Its surface was made from a strange dark metal covered with bronze lines.
Every few hundred meters stood enormous pillars containing dormant crystals.
Lirion approached one.
He touched it.
The crystal illuminated.
Then another pillar awakened.
Then another.
A chain of light traveled into the distance.
Bardin looked around.
"Well..."
He smiled nervously.
"At least we know the road still works."
Dorion laughed.
"That's one way to look at it."
The expedition continued.
Their footsteps echoed through the enormous tunnel.
Above them was thousands of tons of rock.
Yet the road remained perfectly stable.
It was as though the entire underground structure had been designed to survive the destruction of the world above.
A City Beneath
Several kilometers deeper...
the road opened into an enormous cavern.
Everyone stopped.
Below them was a hidden settlement.
Not ruins.
Not an abandoned city.
A machine city.
Ancient towers rose from the darkness.
Massive conduits crossed between buildings.
Suspended platforms moved silently through the air.
Technomagik crystals illuminated entire districts.
But there were no people.
Dorion looked down.
"How long has this been here?"
Lirion shook his head.
"Long enough for the surface world to forget it existed."
Sorion felt something.
He placed his hand against the railing.
A memory entered his mind.
People walking through the city.
Children running beneath glowing towers.
Technomagisters carrying tools.
Airships descending into underground hangars.
Then...
the memory broke.
Everything disappeared.
Sorion pulled his hand away.
"It was evacuated."
"Why?" Dorion asked.
Sorion stared into the darkness.
"I don't know."
The Silent Machines
The expedition descended into the city.
At first, the machines ignored them.
Ancient maintenance drones continued repairing walls.
Small mechanical creatures carried materials between buildings.
One crawler passed the expedition without even noticing them.
Lirion smiled.
"These aren't corrupted."
He approached one.
Its battery was almost empty.
He opened his equipment case.
"Let's see if we can help."
The Ironhide engineers joined him.
Within minutes, the machine's power cell was restored.
Its eyes brightened.
It looked at Lirion.
Then bowed.
Everyone laughed.
Bardin pointed at it.
"I think you just made a friend."
Lirion smiled.
"I'll take that over another Memory Reaver."
The little machine continued its work.
The First Warning
Then...
every machine in the city stopped.
The expedition froze.
One by one, the ancient constructs turned toward Sorion.
Their eyes changed from blue...
to violet.
A voice echoed through the city.
"MEMORY RESONANCE DETECTED."
Lirion immediately raised his weapon.
The machines did not attack.
Instead, they stepped aside.
A pathway opened.
At the end stood a massive tower.
Its doors slowly opened.
Sorion stared.
"Something wants us inside."
Dorion answered:
"Then we find out what."
The Archive of Origins
Inside the tower was a circular chamber.
Thousands of crystal tablets surrounded the walls.
Each contained recorded memories.
Lirion scanned one.
His expression changed.
"These aren't ordinary archives."
Eara stepped closer.
"What are they?"
"Foundational records."
He looked around.
"This place recorded the development of Orinthal civilization."
Sorion approached the central crystal.
It activated before he touched it.
A figure appeared.
An ancient Technomagister wearing ceremonial armor.
The recording spoke:
"If you are seeing this, then the surface civilization has forgotten us."
The expedition listened.
"We built the roads beneath the world because we knew war could destroy the cities above."
Images appeared.
Underground transportation networks.
Emergency shelters.
Hidden energy stations.
Secret archives.
"The Twelve Cities were never isolated."
A map appeared.
Twelve cities connected by glowing lines.
Then a thirteenth location appeared beneath them.
THE ORIGIN NETWORK
Lirion whispered:
"The cities were all connected."
The recording continued.
"If the Machine Core awakens, the Origin Network will awaken with it."
Everyone looked at one another.
The recording suddenly distorted.
A second message appeared.
"But beware the Guardian of Nihyra."
Sorion's eyes narrowed.
The name appeared in ancient script.
NIHYROS NULLIS The Guardian of Nihyra
The recording showed Nihyros before his corruption.
He stood among the people of Nihyra.
He wasn't a monster.
He wasn't an enemy.
He was a guardian.
A protector.
A voice from the archive explained:
"Nihyros was entrusted with the preservation of memory."
Another image appeared.
A massive dark energy source beneath Nihyra.
The archive labeled it:
OBLIVION
The room became silent.
Lirion stared at the recording.
"So that's where his power came from."
Sorion watched carefully.
The recording continued.
"Nihyros connected himself to the Oblivion source during the final catastrophe."
Images of destruction flashed across the chamber.
People fleeing.
Machines exploding.
Technomagik towers collapsing.
Nihyros standing in the center.
Then...
memories disappearing.
One after another.
The recording ended.
The Road Is Not a Road
Suddenly the entire chamber shook.
A warning appeared.
ORIGIN NETWORK REACTIVATION: 7%
Lirion's eyes widened.
"That's not good."
Dorion looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because we're standing inside it."
The entire underground city began awakening.
Lights appeared across the horizon.
Machines activated.
Ancient elevators began moving.
Far above them, the expedition's crawlers started receiving signals.
Eara looked at the readings.
"The Network is connecting to the cities."
Sorion understood.
"This isn't just a road."
He looked toward the enormous map.
"It's a nervous system."
A Message From the Twelve
The map suddenly changed.
One city after another appeared.
BOREALIS — ONLINE
LYRATHIS — ONLINE
VEIL NETWORK — PARTIAL
AETHER ROUTES — ONLINE
UNKNOWN CITY — OFFLINE
UNKNOWN CITY — OFFLINE
The expedition watched as more locations began illuminating.
Then another signal appeared.
Not from the underground network.
From the surface.
Lirion checked his scanner.
"Someone is transmitting toward Aurion."
Dorion frowned.
"Who?"
Lirion enlarged the signal.
It wasn't a machine.
It was a city.
A distant civilization had detected the activation.
And they were responding.
A message appeared:
"To the Citadel of Aurion..."
The transmission continued.
"We have received the ancient signal."
"We believed your civilization was lost."
"We are sending an expedition."
Everyone stared.
Another Lost City was coming to Aurion.
The Expedition Splits
Dorion looked at the map.
"We can't stay here forever."
Lirion nodded.
"We have two choices."
"Return to Lyrathis."
"Or continue deeper."
Sorion looked at the unknown sections of the Origin Network.
"There are still cities waiting."
Eara studied the map.
"And some of them haven't awakened."
Dorion smiled.
"Then we keep going."
Bardin lifted his violin.
"Good."
He looked toward the endless underground road.
"I was beginning to think this expedition needed more walking."
Everyone laughed.
The Awakening
As they prepared to leave...
the enormous city beneath them finally awakened completely.
Ancient towers illuminated the cavern.
Airships emerged from hidden hangars.
Veil Gates began charging.
Technomagik plants unfolded from underground gardens.
Mechanical guardians resumed their centuries-old duties.
The city was not dead.
It had simply been waiting.
Sorion looked back one final time.
"Someone built all this because they believed the world would forget."
Lirion answered:
"And they were right."
Sorion looked toward the road ahead.
"But they were wrong about one thing."
"What?"
Sorion smiled.
"The world can remember."
Ending
Far away...
in a city suspended above the clouds...
a colossal Technomagik tower awakened.
Its citizens gathered in fear and wonder.
A young Technomagister looked at the ancient signal.
"Our network is receiving something."
The city elder approached.
"What?"
The young engineer looked toward the horizon.
"Aurion Citadel has awakened the old world."
The elder stared at the glowing sky.
After centuries of isolation...
the floating city began preparing its airships.
Meanwhile, beneath the earth...
another forgotten city received the same signal.
Then another.
Then another.
Across the Lost Cities...
the ancient civilization was beginning to move again.
And somewhere beyond the reach of the expedition...
a faint violet light appeared inside an ancient sealed chamber.
A voice whispered:
"Memory returns..."
A pause.
"...and so does Oblivion."
End of Episode 60