Chapter 128: The Creator’s Recording

The crimson warning lights gradually dimmed across the ceiling, leaving the laboratory bathed in a soft, pale golden light.

Rhaevia stood steadily before the enormous holographic display, her gaze fixed on the emerging image of herself as it stabilized from the distortion.

The recorded woman looked almost identical to her current reflection, yet there was something distinctly different in her golden eyes, a weariness that seemed to have accumulated across countless lifetimes.

Raevor stood beside her, his silver eyes scanning the projection with an unusually solemn expression.

“Can the recording interact with us directly?” he asked, his voice low and measured.

“I don’t know,” Rhaevia replied, studying the flickering edges of the light projection. “But it was specifically designed to recognize my Sovereign creator signature, so perhaps it anticipated that I would eventually return.”

She turned toward the central terminal, resting her hand near the glowing interface.

“Continue the recording,” she commanded smoothly.

The hologram flickered once before stabilizing into a crystal-clear projection.

Ancient Rhaevia stood in the center of the vast laboratory floor, surrounded by floating diagrams depicting intricate star networks, biological structures, and energy pathways extending across galaxies.

“If this recording has been activated,” the woman began, her clear voice echoing softly throughout the chamber, “then the Sovereign preservation protocol has succeeded, or the civilization that once maintained it has collapsed beyond recovery.”

Her expression hardened slightly, her golden eyes flashing with intensity.

“Either possibility means the original research program can no longer remain classified.”

Rhaevia’s fingers curled slightly into a fist at her side as she listened.

How many times did you prepare for your own disappearance from history? she wondered in silence.

The recording continued without interruption.

“Project Genesis was never designed merely to preserve a physical body,” the voice explained.

“Its primary objective was to maintain sovereign continuity across the collapse of civilizations, ensuring that the essential structure of a sovereign soul could survive even when the surrounding universe could no longer sustain it.”

A complex, glowing diagram expanded behind the ancient woman’s figure.

Rhaevia recognized the golden geometric patterns immediately, as they mirrored the internal energy pathways that had awakened within her own body after returning to this life.

“However,” the recording continued, shifting to display new data streams, “Genesis was only one individual component of a much broader scientific initiative.”

Seventeen distinct glowing symbols materialized in a precise circular formation.

“Each division served a separate, vital purpose,” the woman detailed. “Some studied consciousness and reincarnation, while others investigated biological adaptation, civilizations, spatial structures, and the fundamental relationship between higher-order authority and cosmic energy.”

Rhaevia’s eyes narrowed as she processed the vast scale of the blueprint.

The seventeen research divisions Project Genesis had identified earlier were not separate laboratories conducting isolated experiments.

They were interconnected pieces of one single, enormous undertaking.

“Were all seventeen divisions successful?” she asked out loud, knowing the ancient echo could not answer.

The ancient woman continued her monologue uninterrupted as the hologram shifted to project a new diagram.

A vast field of stars appeared before them, connected by luminous, thread-like conduits. At the absolute center floated an unfamiliar, radiant sphere that emitted light containing every color of the spectrum simultaneously.

Even through the artificial projection, Rhaevia felt a sudden, powerful stir deep within her consciousness.

Her sovereign energy responded instantly to the sight.

It did not flare with the familiar warmth of her golden light but rather with an instinctive, profound recognition so overwhelming that her breath caught in her throat.

Raevor noticed her sudden stillness immediately, stepping closer to her side.

“Rhaevia?” he asked, his silver eyes full of silent concern.

“I’m fine,” she murmured, keeping her eyes locked on the glowing core. “I just felt something strange through the resonance.”

The recording’s ancient Rhaevia raised one hand, enlarging the image of the radiant sphere.

“This energy source was discovered long before the establishment of the modern Sovereign hierarchy,” the recorded voice explained. “Its existence predates the modern systems used to classify Guides, Sentinels, and other higher-order lifeforms.”

Additional analytical diagrams unfolded around the sphere, detailing how the unknown energy interacted with physical matter, living consciousness, and spatial structures.

“It cannot be measured using conventional energy scales,” the ancient version of herself stated flatly. “It does not behave like stellar radiation, biological energy, or the power generated by standard Sovereign authority.”

The woman paused briefly, letting the weight of her words linger in the air.

“Instead, it appears to be directly connected to the underlying structure from which all these phenomena originally emerge.”

Rhaevia took a slow step closer to the edge of the platform.

“Connected to the origin of everything?” she whispered beneath her breath.

The recording flickered slightly, briefly displaying a rapid series of sealed mathematical calculations. Most of the complex data remained heavily encrypted and inaccessible, but one single conclusion appeared clearly across the interface.

[ENERGY CLASSIFICATION: UNRESOLVED.]

[ORIGIN: UNKNOWN.]

[RELATIONSHIP TO SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY: CONFIRMED.]

Rhaevia’s pulse quickened as the text burned into her vision.

If her civilization had discovered an energy source that existed beneath the very foundations of sovereign power, the political and scientific implications would have been immense.

It could explain the planetary core’s immediate recognition, the sudden awakening of this subterranean city, and perhaps even the true underlying mechanism behind Project Genesis.

But why had such a monumental discovery been sealed away so thoroughly?

And why had she gone to such lengths to prepare a recording specifically for her future return?

The woman on the screen slowly lowered her raised hand.

“There is one discovery that surpasses all our previous scientific findings,” she said, her tone tinged with gravity. “If my calculations are correct, understanding this energy may reveal not merely how a Sovereign survives the end of a civilization, but why Sovereigns exist at all.”

A profound silence descended over the sprawling laboratory.

Even the low sounds of the surrounding machinery seemed to settle down as the recording reached its final segment.

The ancient Rhaevia looked directly into the recording lens, her golden eyes filled with a subtle, complex emotion that her present self could not fully decipher.

“Everything we have built leads back to this single source,” she declared firmly.

A final, massive diagram expanded behind her figure, filling the entire room with brilliant light as the luminous sphere enlarged to cover the screen.

Then, the ancient woman spoke its formal name.

“Origin Energy.”

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