The truth felt like a spider, spinning a web inside Aris Thorne's head, messing with his thoughts.
The lab was small and noisy, filled with the smells of old coffee and ozone. Aris sat there, hands pressed against his eyes, trying to stop the headache. These weren't just headaches anymore; they were full-blown attacks. He saw patterns in his head, sharp and clear, not just shapes, but like structures. It felt like he was getting data streamed directly into his brain. Between the waves of pain, he saw quick images of a huge network under the ground, like a glowing grid spreading out like tree roots.
"It's building something," he mumbled, his voice rough. "Down there. It feels… almost like crystal."
Across the table, Kaito looked up from his tablet. He was usually excited, but now he just looked worried. "The scans show some kind of structure. It's not random. The spheres are in specific spots. It's like a perfect, balanced design."
"A power thing," Felix said. He was the team's tech guy, and he turned in his chair, all jittery. He pointed to the sound monitors, typing on the keyboard. "I think I found the sound it's making." He handed Aris a headset. "Listen to this, I took out the background noise."
Aris hesitated, then put on the headset. As soon as it was on, the humming in his head matched the recording. It was a clear, simple sound, ancient and strong. But under that, almost hidden, was a steady beat.
"It's… like a code," Aris said. His headache eased a bit because the sound gave his head something to focus on.
"It's more than that," Felix said, eyes wide behind his glasses. He showed an analysis on his screen. The sound waves were complex, but there were math numbers on top of it. "See this part repeating? The sound levels? It's phi. The Golden Ratio. 1.618. It's hidden in the sound. This isn't just random noise. It's… a mark. A key part of how it's built."
Kaito was next to him instantly, staring at the screen. "Phi… That's how things grow best, how things fit perfectly. It's in sunflowers, galaxies… and now, in this." He looked from the screen to Aris, looking shocked. "It's not just making a grid, Aris. It's growing an antenna that can suck up energy forever."
Things made sense all of a sudden. Aris stood up, not tired anymore because he understood what was happening. He went to the big screen and pulled up the map Kaito had made. The spheres glowed.
"Connect them," Aris said, voice tight.
Kaito typed it in. Lines of light shot out from each sphere, connecting to the others in a swirling pattern like the Fibonacci sequence. The result was a huge, pretty, and scary web that covered the whole area.
"A web that pulls in energy," Kaito said quietly. "The thing Elara talked about… it's not just sending out a signal. It's pulling in energy. Everything here becomes like a battery, and the Obelisk is the charger. The energy from every plant, bug, and animal is tuned to the same frequency, ready to be taken."
"It's planned," Aris said, feeling crushed by the truth. "It's not just taking energy. It's harvesting. A farm. It picks a place, gets it ready, plants, and takes care of it. The quiet, the spinning, the rain… it's all part of it. A perfect process that happens over and over."
He thought about Elara's scars—proof that she was connected to this web. He thought about his own visions—like his brain was leaking information from the system. They weren't survivors; they were like things plugged into the main computer by mistake.
Felix leaned back. "So we're not being invaded. We're being… farmed."
That word hung in the air, scarier than a war. An invasion meant fighting, someone winning and someone losing. This meant something else: that people, and everything on Earth, was just something to use, a burst of energy to be taken by something old.
The door opened. Commander Rostova stood there, having heard everything. Her face didn't show anything, but she looked focused. She had come in ready to talk about bombs. Now, she was dealing with math.
"A pattern means it's predictable," she said, looking at the glowing pattern on the screen. "If it's a process, it has steps. A weak spot."
Aris looked back at her, still seeing the patterns in his head. "Every system takes something in and gives something out. Even this one. We're not looking for armor anymore. We're looking for a mistake in the code."
The forest was a field. The Obelisk was the machine. And for the first time, they knew what was really happening.