Chapter 18 – The Forbidden Root of Crownfall
In the silence of his manor, Shayan sat alone in the Mirror Chamber—a hall of black glass, each panel reflecting not the present, but moments lost in the timeline.
Reflections of alternate lives shimmered in silence.
One version of him knelt in chains.
Another burned on a pyre.
A third stood crowned in white flame—worshipped by gods, feared by devils.
And each shard whispered the same phrase:
> "All roots lead to one crown."
---
Velka entered quietly, carrying a small device.
> "The trace from the forbidden signal is clean. It's pointing to the Nameless Citadel."
Shayan didn't turn. "I thought that place was erased during the Second Collapse."
"It was," she replied. "Or so we were told."
He finally stood, eyes dark. "Then someone lied. Or worse—someone remembered."
Velka hesitated, then said, "I decrypted the secondary shard from Vault IX. It wasn't just memory data… It was a map."
"To what?"
> "To the Seed of Origin—the memory that birthed the first gods… and the one the Nameless devoured to become eternal."
Shayan stilled.
> "If that seed exists, then whoever finds it can rewrite reality…"
Velka nodded slowly. "Exactly. Not control it. Rewrite it."
---
Far above the world, in a floating megastructure called Heirloom, leaders of the Seven Syndicates held emergency council.
Holo-images flickered, each masked in static—Shadowspeakers, Void Architects, Blood Judges.
"Crownfall has been breached," one hissed. "The heir is no longer asleep."
"He has access to Vault IX," another said. "And if he finds the Seed—"
"Then he becomes the Primordial Authority," finished the final voice. "Even time would kneel."
They voted.
Kill Shayan Veylan. At any cost.
---
Back in the manor, CRWN.01 projected a feed—dozens of bounty notices uploaded across the black net. Shayan's face now adorned the hunter boards in twelve empires.
Velka turned pale. "They've declared you a Class-Z Anomaly."
Shayan's expression didn't change.
> "Let them come."
He uploaded a series of commands to CRWN.01.
"Begin mass synchronization of my sleeper units across the Under-Cities. All 93 sectors. Unlock Phase 3 of Project Sovereign."
"Authorization required," the AI replied.
Shayan lifted a small cube from his pocket—made of pure Ashoranite. The Sovereign Key.
He inserted it into the system.
> "Initiate." His voice was ice.
In the slums of Dronemar, a homeless boy's eyes flickered violet.
In the deepest vault of the Golden Syndicate, a data clerk collapsed, screaming numbers that fractured screens.
In the Empire of Solium, a judge paused mid-sentence… and remembered a word the world had forgotten:
> "Ashoran."
---
And as the stars shifted that night, the Nameless stirred beneath the earth.
Not because of Shayan's rise.
But because something had just remembered its name.
And names… are power.
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