NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 70: EPISODE 70 — “Echoes from the Core”
"When the spell broke, the silence began to speak."
Previously:
Nullpriest was defeated, and Kai — the forgotten spell-child — was freed.
But the truth runs deeper. Nick Fury confirms this is only the beginning.
Someone is reactivating forbidden systems buried beneath Tokyo, and Kai's existence was just one fragment of something ancient:
Project SHINING CORE — a rogue S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance project banned decades ago… now resurfacing as magic-tech hybrid warfare.
🎬 [ACT I — Dig Site Zero]
Scene: Beneath Shibuya Station – Hidden Excavation Zone
Kuro, Onmyo Flare, Nekoburst, and Scarlet Onna descend into a sealed underground facility revealed by Nullpriest's collapse — a broken access tunnel marked with old S.H.I.E.L.D. insignias and cables that hum with dead electricity.
ONMYO FLARE (reading the runes):
"This isn't tech. This is binding script… but digital."
SCARLET ONNA (touching the wall):
"The machines are built to remember. Like Null… but passive."
NEKOBURST:
"Memory machines? Seriously? Tokyo's getting creepier every arc."
Suddenly, the tunnel reacts to Kuro's presence. The lights flicker.
They activate a data core that speaks in a child's voice — identical to Kai's.
DATA CORE:
"SHINING CORE // Status: Fragmented // Reboot: 47%"
KURO:
"It's waking up."
The walls begin to glow with pulsing runes — and a 3D image of Tokyo overlaps with sigil maps. Areas marked in red begin to flicker: Ginza, Ueno, Akasaka.
🎬 [ACT II — Starwave's Search]
Scene: Downtown Mall – Late Evening
Starwave (Riko), now back to her idol routine while secretly investigating the city's energy disturbances, is mid-performance when her heels suddenly tremble.
Her sound resonance becomes distorted mid-kick — creating a flashwave that knocks the entire lighting rig down.
She barely catches it with a sonic shield — the audience never sees the panic behind her smile.
STARWAVE (muttering, offstage):
"That wasn't me… something's interfering."
Heartlight meets her outside. His wings flicker unnaturally, almost glitching.
HEARTLIGHT:
"Something's trying to overwrite us."
STARWAVE:
"Not just erase... like a remix."
They check their communicators. Their names briefly scramble into symbols. Even Heartlight's aura changes color for a moment — from pink to grey.
HEARTLIGHT (tense):
"They're testing this on us."
🎬 [ACT III — Kai's Vision]
Scene: Inside S.H.I.E.L.D. Sanctuary Quarters
Kai now lives under watch at a secure facility, trying to adapt. But he's… glitching. Mirrors flicker. Paper curls. Time loops on his wristwatch.
He draws a picture of himself — but every time he looks away, the drawing shows a different face.
KAI (quietly):
"They're not done with me."
He sleepwalks to the center of the facility, where a fountain pulses with faint null energy.
KAI:
"They're looking for a new core…"
He collapses — entering a vision:
A massive satellite rises from beneath Tokyo — covered in vines and mechanical scrolls, powered by lost memories.
In its core: a rotating eye of pink and black.
🎬 [ACT IV — The Return of the Operator]
Scene: Rooftop – Shadowed Meeting
Nick Fury meets in secret with an old figure from the original SHINING CORE team — codenamed The Operator — a grizzled woman with cybernetic eyes and spell-marked hands.
THE OPERATOR:
"You thought killing the project ended it.
But the Core wasn't just a machine. It was seeded into the city's spells."
NICK FURY:
"So even magic obeyed the network."
THE OPERATOR:
"And now someone's rebooting it. But not to watch…
To rewrite."
She hands Fury a drive labeled:
"Core Host: Prototype X."
🎬 [ENDING SCENE — The Eye Opens]
The final shot: deep underground, in a sealed vault no one remembers, a child's body floats inside a containment pod surrounded by chanting data-cultists.
The same sigils from Nullpriest's mask spin across the chamber.
The eye in the pod flickers open.
UNKNOWN ENTITY (whispers):
"Bring me the forgotten child… and the pink-winged spark."
💠 END CARD — TOKYO AVENGERS
EPISODE 70: "Echoes from the Core" — END
📡 Next: Episode 71 – "Prototype X"
Who is the forgotten host in the chamber? What was SHINING CORE really built for? And what do they want with Kai… and Heartlight?