Kiran woke with a sharp gasp, his eyes snapping open. The peaceful warmth of his dream was gone, replaced by the cold, metallic smell of the Codex Containment chamber. His head throbbed, a drum beating against his skull, and every inch of his body ached. The cracks on his skin, left by overusing his power, felt like burning lines. He pushed himself up, groaning, his muscles screaming in protest.
"Kiran! Are you okay?" Elena's voice was filled with worry as she knelt beside him. She looked pale, her hair messy, but her eyes were sharp and fearful. She had been tending to him, trying to stop the strange glow from the cracks on his skin. He saw the shimmering, ghostly Eclipse Codex still pulsing faintly on its stand, a silent, powerful presence. And just a few feet away, Dr. Koval lay still, slumped against the pedestal, unconscious. Her breathing was shallow but steady. Kiran had hit her hard.
"The dream..." Kiran mumbled, his voice rough. He remembered it all clearly: his happy family, the sudden disaster, the blinding light, and the terrifying seed entering his body. It felt too real to be just a dream. He looked at his hand, then his chest, feeling for any physical sign of the seed, but there was nothing. Just the painful cracks.
Elena followed his gaze to Dr. Koval. "She started talking before you hit her. About Liam. She said he… he 'opened himself.' She called him a 'pure vessel.' She said you and I are 'prime candidates' too, for something called 'ascension.' It was terrifying, Kiran. She's completely devoted to these... Eldritch." Elena's voice trembled with disgust and fear. The words echoed Koval's chilling beliefs, laid out by the Eclipse Codex. Kiran felt a strange thrumming in his chest, a new, subtle feeling that wasn't pain. It felt like a faint, deep hum, like an engine running quietly inside him, tied to the memory of the seed. He pushed it down, focusing on the immediate danger. Koval was down, but what if this was just another one of her tricks? The quiet hum of the Codex artifact felt stronger, drawing him in, promising answers to the strange seed within him.