The sun was a distant smear of red against the ashen sky, casting long shadows over the wasteland. Jagged ruins clawed at the heavens, their edges broken like shattered swords. Lin Xuanyuan trudged across cracked earth, sweat beading down his spine.
The AI's voice guided him, soft and precise, threading calm through the chaos around him.
> "Proximity alert. Energy fluctuations detected. Source: metallic. 63 meters northeast."
Lin narrowed his eyes and adjusted the tattered cloth shielding his face from the dust-choked wind. "What kind of energy?"
> "Unknown signature. Comparable to imperial relics. Resonance pattern… similar to your core."
He picked up his pace, feet crunching over broken stone and dry bone. He scaled a collapsed slope, fingers raw and bleeding, and paused as he crested the rise.
Below, half-buried in the remains of a satellite wreck, stood a sword.
Its blade was cracked, blackened, and corroded by time, yet it pulsed faintly—like a dying heart refusing to go still.
A broken starship pod lay nearby, its surface scorched with claw marks. Whatever had brought this down hadn't been gravity alone.
Lin slid down the slope, drawn to the weapon like it was calling his name.
As he approached, the AI's voice sharpened.
> "Caution. Relic-class artifact. Possible remnants of Sky-Iron alloy. Origin: Heaven's Armory, Cycle 117."
His fingers hovered over the hilt, hesitant. "What if it's trapped?"
> "Scans indicate dormant sentience. Fragmented… but not hostile."
He wrapped his hand around the hilt.
The world screamed.
A shockwave of light and heat exploded outward, flinging him backward. His body slammed into rock. His vision blurred.
And then… he saw it.
Visions again—fragments of memory not his own.
An armored knight wielding the same blade, standing atop a golden fortress as meteors fell from the sky.
A roar of dragons.
A throne that burned.
Then—darkness.
Lin gasped, his hand still wrapped around the blade. The sword had bonded to him.
> "Integration successful. Weapon: incomplete. Adapting to host's core frequency."
He staggered to his feet, holding the weapon. Its edge shimmered now with faint golden veins, mirroring the glow under his own skin.
He barely had time to catch his breath before the ground trembled.
A low, guttural growl echoed across the ruin.
Emerging from behind the wreckage was a beast.
It looked like a wolf once—if wolves had six legs, black chitin armor, and eyes that dripped acid. One side of its body was fused with metal—old tech grafted into flesh. Its maw sparked with static energy as it snarled.
> "Mutation level: 87%. Class: Aberrant Hunter. Danger: extreme."
The beast charged.
Lin's body moved before his thoughts could catch up. He dodged right, blade arcing in a wild swing. Sparks flew. The sword deflected off the beast's hide.
Too tough.
The creature slammed him backward. His ribs cracked against stone.
Blood filled his mouth.
> "Palm Pulse available. Channel core energy through weapon."
Lin gritted his teeth. He pushed.
Energy surged from his chest down his arm and into the blade. The veins lit up like molten gold.
The weapon roared with him.
He rolled under the creature's next strike and slashed upward, energy blasting from the blade in a radiant arc.
The creature howled as its front leg was severed cleanly.
It staggered—but didn't fall.
Lin's vision blurred. His body wasn't ready for this much channeling. He could feel his cells overheating, mutating faster than they should.
The AI's voice was faint now.
> "Warning… Vital signs unstable… Neural stress critical…"
The beast lunged again.
Lin braced himself.
"Not yet," he hissed.
He didn't retreat.
He advanced.
He struck—again and again—each swing laced with raw, unstable power.
The final blow came with a desperate roar. Lin drove the sword through the creature's skull, the energy erupting in a burst of light that turned night to day for a second.
Then silence.
Only the soft crackle of burning metal.
Lin fell to his knees beside the creature's twitching corpse.
He was covered in blood—some his, some not.
> "Threat neutralized. Core sync increased. Blade resonance stabilized."
The sword pulsed softly in his grip, less like a tool and more like a companion.
He looked up at the shattered sky.
And then the AI spoke again—different this time.
Colder.
> "They felt it. The pulse. The empire's scent has returned. Lin Xuanyuan… they will hunt you now."
He didn't speak.
He couldn't.
But inside, something shifted.
He wasn't just surviving anymore.
He had drawn the blade.
He had awakened something ancient.
And now the world would answer.
The wind howled across the wreckage, carrying the stench of scorched flesh and ancient rust.
Lin Xuanyuan knelt beside the corpse of the Aberrant Hunter, his breath shallow, body trembling. The blade in his hand hummed softly—no longer a relic, but a part of him.
> "Neural link stabilizing… Host synchronization at 42%."
The AI's voice returned to clarity, but it sounded distant now. Cold. Mechanical.
His fingers twitched around the hilt. The veins on the back of his hand shimmered faintly with golden light—evidence of the fusion between the blade and his core.
"Why me?" Lin whispered, his voice hoarse. "Why choose me?"
> "Legacy protocol initiated upon genetic match. Lineage fragment detected. Imperial deviation confirmed."
He swallowed hard. "I'm… part of the empire?"
> "Not part. A remnant. A flicker. The empire chose you because you carry its ashes in your blood."
Lin stood slowly, every muscle screaming in protest. The sun had sunk lower now, casting the ruins in deep shadow. He glanced toward the horizon—toward the distant spires of a ruined city, their tips like broken fingers piercing the dusk.
"Then I guess the empire's not as dead as they thought."
The sword pulsed once—like agreement.
Then the tremors began.
Not from the beast. Not from the wreckage.
From the sky.
A crimson streak burned across the heavens, cutting through the atmosphere like a spear of judgment. Moments later, a distant explosion echoed through the wasteland.
Another streak followed. Then another.
> "Orbital scans indicate: hunter probes. Tracing high-intensity energy emissions. Origin: your position."
"They're already coming," Lin muttered. "That fast?"
> "You lit a beacon. The AI's reactivation. The blade's resonance. To them… it's a signal flare in a dead world."
He clenched his fists.
He hadn't just found a weapon.
He'd fired the first shot of a war that hadn't seen a battlefield in centuries.
A war between what once ruled the stars… and what now scavenged its bones.
His legs nearly gave out again, but he forced himself to keep moving.
He couldn't stay here.
Not with orbital hunters inbound.
The AI pinged softly.
> "Nearest safe zone detected. Coordinates: 7.2 kilometers west. Warning: terrain unstable. Host condition: sub-optimal."
Lin gritted his teeth. "Doesn't matter."
He moved.
Step after step.
Each one heavier than the last, but driven by something new. A purpose that burned hotter than pain.
Behind him, the corpse of the aberrant beast began to dissolve into a sludge of acid and broken circuits. The satellite wreck groaned one last time before collapsing fully into itself.
Night fell hard.
But Lin Xuanyuan walked on.
The broken sword on his back glowed faintly, golden veins pulsing like a heartbeat.
Somewhere beyond the horizon, the old powers stirred.
And in their dark palaces, behind shattered moon vaults and dead suns, ancient eyes opened once more.
He had drawn the blade.
He had survived the wasteland.
And now… he would begin the long road back to the empire.
One step.
One war.
One world at a time.