"When gods fall, someone has to clean up the mess. Welcome back to the grave."
The descent was brutal.
No Drift anchor.
No landing clearance.
Just raw space-pull dragging their portal sideways through planetary memory rot.
The sky didn't look like a sky anymore.
It looked like a wound wrapped in silence.
SNARKSTEEL (shuddering as they rematerialized):
"I hate this place.
It smells like history trying to bury itself alive."
REN (tightening his grip):
"Yeah. Feels like that too."
Yxtrielle.
Still dead. Still beautiful. Still watching.
The ground was cracked obsidian veined with drifting glyph-code.
Massive anchor pylons floated in low orbit, constantly humming to keep the planet's dimensional mass from collapsing inward.
And in the distance, beneath a shielded dome of inverted time and reinforced memory-field tech...
The Core City.
Their destination.
They appeared on the edge of the outer platform.
A few sentinels scanned them — recognized Va'theran instantly — and stood down.
Ren saw her before she spoke.
Tall. Armored in layered silver-black. Glyphs etched down both arms like chains she'd chosen to wear. Her hair was longer now. Her aura? Still burned with command.
LIRA (stepping out from the shield dome, flanked by two ghost-tech guardians):
"Of course it's you."
REN (blinking once):
"I see your hospitality has gotten worse."
LIRA (deadpan):
"We're at war. You get sarcasm or bullets. Pick one."
VA'THERAN (stepping forward beside Ren, hands behind his back):
"Hello, Lira."
Her entire face flickered.
For a second, just a second, the leader melted — and a girl who remembered Kaelreth stepped into her place.
Then it was gone.
LIRA:
"I don't have time for ghosts, Vath."
VA'THERAN:
"You always did. You just called them memories."
They stood like that for a beat — history heavy in the air.
Then she turned to Ren.
LIRA:
"You're not here to fight. So why are you here?"
REN:
"Looking for someone."
LIRA (raising an eyebrow):
"On my planet?"
REN:
"Someone who can hold what Kael couldn't."
The words hit like a hammer.
They walked toward the dome together.
Lira spoke without looking back.
LIRA:
"The war started three days ago. Not officially. Just... in blood."
"Solmerea collapsed from the inside.
The Crimson Petal Dynasty turned on House Aurelix.
Now we're looking at a three-empire skirmish with full-scale dimensional warfare baked in."
"Time's fractured over Planet Five.
Threxil's monsters are migrating across the Verge like the laws of physics don't apply."
"And the Core's starting to hum again — but it's twitchy.
It wants to activate… but it doesn't have a name."
REN:
"You mean a host."
LIRA (nodding):
"Exactly. And if it binds to the wrong one—"
SPACE (appearing beside them mid-step, grinning):
"Boom. Universe smoothie."
TIME (spinning into form):
"Or a multiverse quiche. Depends on your taste in endings."
FROST (walking calmly from the shadows):
"He's searching for the Override Soul."
BLAZE (igniting midair like a fucking meteor):
"And we're not going to let Yxtrielle eat him before he finds it."
LIRA (looking at the whole squad, eyes narrowing):
"You brought the whole circus."
VA'THERAN (smiling):
"He brought his family."
The Dome cracked open.
Inside: the heartbeat of a dying world.
Ren felt it before he saw it.
Something buried. Something watching.
The next host was here. Somewhere.
And the clock was breaking.