Codex of the Forgotten

CHAPTER 5 - FIRST CRACK

CHAPTER 5 - FIRST CRACK

---

Ethan followed, his steps were careful. Around it, the aisle lights blink. The walls are full of graffiti - a part of an inverted eye symbol, a typical sign of obscura. 

Suddenly, the sound of a small laugh echoed. Children? 

No. Not ordinary human laughter. Sounds like a distorted engine echo. 

Dante pulled his weapon, a short blade of a blue rune. "They know we come."

From the darkness, three robbing figures emerged. But unlike the shadow in exercise, their bodies are real, layered with mild armor with radiant veins under the skin. 

One of them - a woman with short silver hair and black eyes like a baseless hole - forward. 

"Welcome, Codex heir," he said in a double echoing voice. "We've been waiting for you."

Ethan strengthened the blue seal in his hand, ready to fight. But the woman raised her hand. "Not tonight's fight. Not yet. We just want to introduce ourselves."

Dante emphasized his position. "Who are you?"

The woman smiled a little. "My name is Ardyn. I am one of the bearers of the cracks from Obscura. And the boy," he pointed at Ethan, "... is the first core fragment heir. We were sent to see it directly."

Ethan advanced one step. "If you want this fragment, you have to fight me."

Ardyn chuckled. "Brave, but not ready. We did not take fragments by force. We waited until the users were damaged."

He stepped back, and the shadow around them began to move. The aisle wall stretched - not illusion, but a kind of bending space. 

"What's this?" Ethan murmured, his eyes enlarged. 

"The fifth fragment resonance," Dante answered quickly. "They use terrain distortion to manipulate local reality!"

Ethan felt a great pressure. Ardyn's face began to fade, then disappeared - together with two other figures. 

In an instant, the hallway returned to normal. Electricity lights up. The sound of the train from a distance was heard again. 

Ethan was panting. "It's not just an illusion."

"Right," Dante answered. "That's a message. They don't come to attack. They want to show that they are closer than we thought."

---

At the third division headquarters, Lucille received a signal from Dante. Visual recording is played on the main screen. Everyone was silent when he saw Ardyn's face. 

"We are in trouble," whispered Lucille. 

"He is an active user of the fifth fragment," said the Head of the Technician. "Fragments that we cannot solve, even the original location we don't know."

Lucille stared at the data that kept rolling. "They want Ethan. But not to take his fragments."

"But to lay it from the inside," he murmured. 

He stared at the observation room where Ethan stood, his face was tired but his eyes remained sharp. 

That night, Lucille knew one thing for sure - the view had begun. And their enemies are not only fragments users, but also ancient history and secrets that have long been forgotten by the world. 

Drizzle rain wet the window of the observation room. Ethan sat under the glass, his eyes staring blankly outside. In his hand, a small cube made of dark blue metal throbbed slowly - the fragmen that became the center of all. 

Since returning from District 17, something has changed. Not only outside, but inside him. 

Sound - or a whisper? - Continued in between silence. Not a human voice. Not his own conscience. 

Something deeper. 

Older. 

Wilder. 

"Do you feel different?" asked Lucille who came quietly and sat opposite him. 

Ethan turned around, then nodded slowly. "This fragment is like life. I used to throb. Now he spoke."

Lucille looked at him seriously. "That means fragments begin to form permanent resonance with your awareness. Usually, this happens gradually. But you accelerate it."

Ethan's face is no less serious. "Because I use it too often?"

"Yes. But also because your fragments are not ordinary fragments, Ethan." He stopped for a moment, then said softly, "That is a core fragment. One of the seven that forms the main codex. And the only one that is not yet known."

Ethan frowned. "Seven?"

Lucille nodded. "Seven core fragments. Six are known to be located by the Council. And stored under strict supervision. But the seventh, suddenly appeared in you. We suspect it is not a coincidence."

Ethan looked down. "Then ... the voice I heard?"

Lucille hesitated for a moment, before answering, "The first crack. Usually small. But it can enlarge. If you can't distinguish what you are and what is not."

---

That night, Ethan returned to the division's break room. He tried to sleep, but failed. The voice - a must, whispered, like ancient songs - continued to bother him. 

Then, when his eyes closed, he fell into a dream that was not a dream. 

He stood on the empty plain, no sky, no land. Only void and spark of blue light floating in the air. 

Someone stands before him. The figure of a man face like a mirror. Reflection itself, but older. Colder. 

"Don't believe them," said the figure. 

"Who are you?"

"I am you ... when cracks become a door."

Suddenly, fragments of light floated to form codex symbols in the air-but in blood red. 

"What they call Codex is prison," continued the figure. "And you, is a loose key."

Ethan felt his body split. The voice was not only in the head. But in the heart. In the blood. 

"I don't want to be a tool!" he exclaimed. 

But the voice just laughed. "You are not a tool. You are a door. And the door, sooner or later will be opened."

"Will open!" He repeated, "Hahaha!"

---

Ethan woke up with breath gasping, his body was sweating cold. But the most terrible is not his dream. 

But the fact that the fragments in his hand - which previously only throbbed blue - now radiated a faint red light. 

---

In the command room, Lucille looked at the screen. Ethan resonance graphs increase. The cracks on the mental graph began to appear. 

"He experienced a level three contact," said one technician. 

Lucille stiffened, before finally asking, "Meaning?"