Code Ascendant: The Soldier Who Leveled Past Reality
Chapter 23 – Lunar Grave
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"The moon was never a rock. It was a memory. We buried gods there. We forgot why."
—Commander Zerin Velian, Deep Codex, Luna Protocol Alpha
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[Codex Flagship – Vanta Halo | Earth Orbit]
The Vanta Halo slid into Earth's orbit like a ghost returning to a haunted house. The planet below turned slowly in hues of blue and green, beautiful and unaware. But Aaron Velcris wasn't looking at Earth.
He was staring at the Moon.
Or rather, what was no longer just the Moon.
A jagged scar now split across the lunar surface like a surgical wound. Deep fissures glowed with ethereal violet light, spiraling toward a massive, biomechanical structure embedded beneath the crust—a Lunar Crypt Nexus.
> [Reality Sync Alert]
▸ Anomalous Activity Detected: Lunar Subterranean Rift
▸ Signal Type: Unknown, Non-Stellar, Non-Temporal
▸ Energy Signature: [PRIMOGEN | Divinity-Class Artifact]
▸ Codex Alert Level: BLACK
Ilsa's voice came through the neural link, thick with tension. "That's not a base. It's a sarcophagus."
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Lunar Descent – The Forbidden Orbit
Zerin Velian stood at the front of the war-room, dressed in high-pressure descent armor.
"We sealed it three hundred years ago. Project GRAVEMIND. Banned even in Codex black logs. What you're seeing down there isn't just alien. It's ours."
Aaron turned. "We buried something… from Earth?"
Zerin nodded grimly. "Something that rewrote entire cities into memories. Something that turned wars into dreams. Something we couldn't kill—so we locked it beneath our own Moon."
Vira raised an eyebrow. "And now it's waking up?"
"No," Zerin said. "It's calling someone. Or something."
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Mission Brief: Operation Lunar Grave
> ▸ Target Zone: Sector 09 – Tycho Rift
▸ Objectives: – Penetrate crypt perimeter
– Locate core node ("Divine Spindle")
– Recover or destroy source of Reality Bloom
▸ Threat Status: Unmeasurable
▸ Reality Sync Stability: < 9%
▸ Mental Degradation Risk: HIGH
▸ New Protocol Unlocked: [MYTHOS VEIN – Celestial Archetypes]
Ilsa handed Aaron a vial—black liquid with swirling gold inside. "Take this before we enter. It'll buffer your brain from legacy code hallucinations."
"What is it?" he asked.
"Compressed memory strands. Old Codex operatives who died in the Grave. Their knowledge... and their last thoughts."
Aaron swallowed it.
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The Descent Begins
A trio of drop-pods launched, burning through lunar vacuum, the ship rumbling as gravitational inconsistencies warped time and motion.
Inside the pod, Aaron's RS-I began vibrating violently.
> Warning: Temporal Drift Detected
> Sub-Reality Detected: "MYTHOS LAYER_1: THE HOLLOW GODS"
Neural Contamination Risk: CRITICAL
Injecting Counter-Sync...
The landscape twisted.
What should've been cold lunar rock became… marble ruins. Statues of colossal beings stared into the sky—half-human, half-concept.
They weren't just in the Moon.
They were in its memories.
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The Hollow Ones
Vira stepped forward into a courtyard of impossible architecture—pillars taller than Earth's atmosphere, ceilings composed of solar dust trapped in time.
And waiting for them… were the Hollow Ones.
Each was a corpse-wrapped god, wearing battle armor made of regret, armed with weapons built from metaphor.
They didn't attack immediately.
They sang.
> "We are echoes of Man's first thoughts."
"We are the bones of belief."
"We wait for the final Memory to awaken us."
Aaron felt a tug—like something inside him remembered them.
Ilsa's readings confirmed it. "They're not hallucinations. They're made of psychic residue… from us."
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Codex vs The Grave Choir
When one of the Hollow Ones raised a broken harp forged from spinal bone and sang, the Moon itself screamed.
> [Reality Bloom Triggered – Mental Arena Constructed]
> You are now in: [THE CHAMBER OF FIRST FALL]
The terrain shifted. Aaron's body was his—but also not. Armor woven from divine thread clung to him.
Vira transformed into a being of entropy and flame.
Reen had wings made of blood and data.
They weren't just fighting.
They were myths—personas shaped by archetypes buried in Earth's forgotten psionic layer.
Aaron activated the Stormborn Seed inherited from Jupiter.
> Ability Activated: Eye of the Storm
→ Mindfield stabilized
→ Hollow Song dampened
They battled the Grave Choir for hours—or seconds. Time was fluid. Weapons clashed in both thought and reality.
Each Hollow One slain screamed out a name Aaron didn't recognize—yet felt deep in his bones.
> "AARON, YOU ARE THE LAST THREAD."
"YOU ARE THE ONE WHO DIDN'T FORGET."
"REMEMBER US!"
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Divine Spindle – Awakening of the Core
At the end of the hall lay the Divine Spindle—an enormous structure built from overlapping mirrors, ancient wood, and lunar bone. In its center spun a crystal, humming in twelve frequencies at once.
> Codex Archive Entry:
Name: LUCEM PRIMA
Classification: [PRIMOGEN – Genesis Thoughtform]
Status: Dormant
Effect: Converts Memory into Mass | Belief into Code | History into Power
Aaron reached out.
The Spindle opened like a blooming flower. Light—no, story—poured out.
And inside the story… was a memory.
His memory.
Of a life that never happened.
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Aaron's Echo: The Life That Could Have Been
He saw himself as a boy… not a soldier, not a killer.
A student. A brother. A son. A friend.
He laughed. He cried. He lived.
Then a world-ending light came.
And he made a choice:
> "I will go back. Even if it breaks me."
> "I will become the blade. The system. The Codex."
Aaron fell to his knees.
"I was… created?"
Zerin's voice came in over the neural link.
> "You weren't created, Aaron. You were chosen to carry our failure forward."
> "Lucem Prima gave you what we couldn't. A second chance."
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System Update: Lucem Integration
> You have absorbed the Divine Spindle's core
▸ Mythos Layer Added to RS-I
▸ New Archetype Class: GRAVEBORN WARDEN
▸ Mythic Abilities Unlocked: – Echo Blade: Weapon formed from potential timelines
– God-Silence: Nullifies memory-based attacks
– Chrono Aegis: Reflects narrative alterations
Aaron stood, his eyes glowing not with data—but with remembrance.
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Return to Orbit – New Truths
The Vanta Halo retrieved them. Earth loomed larger.
Zerin didn't speak for minutes. Then he turned to Aaron and said:
> "You've awakened the Grave. Now every god we ever buried is listening."
> "And one of them… is missing."
Ilsa turned. "Missing?"
Reen whispered. "Then who opened the Moon from the inside?"
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Next Chapter Tease – Chapter 24: The Forgotten Sovereign
The Earth is no longer safe.
A signal rises from deep below its crust—a voice claiming dominion over memory, matter, and myth.
And in the ruins of an ancient city long lost, Aaron will meet the one he thought was gone forever: the Sovereign of Silence.
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>End of Chapter 23 –