---
[Scene: Upper Atmosphere, approaching Nir Valis — dozens of ships descend through churning violet stormclouds. Engines howl. Skysteel shimmers like teeth in a god's mouth.]
High Strategist Rhyen (on fleetwide channel):
> "No quarter. The Bound must not reclaim memory. Burn their citadel to shadow."
Corsair Lord Venn:
> "The Dawnburners will breach the spine. Once we open her throat, the Wyrm Engines do the rest."
Aetherian Liaison, Mira Yel:
> "You're setting fire to a mind. Don't expect it to die quietly."
---
[Interior: Nir Valis – Heart Core Chamber]
Kaelen (watching the storm pulse on mirrored walls):
"They're coming."
Bound Prime (calm, resonant):
> "Of course. Destruction is the final refuge of the unbound. Fear writes their truth."
Sylrae:
"If they breach the citadel, they'll collapse the entire vault structure. There won't be a Root to destroy. Or to save."
Myrren (studying the core):
"The Root Memory is nested deeper than the vaults. Below logic, below chronology. To reach it, you'd have to fall through yourself."
Thane (quiet):
"I think we already are."
---
[Scene Shift: Strike Fleet - Dawnburner Class Ship Judicator's Howl]
**Corsair Commander]:
> "Spinal breach in five seconds. All Dawnburner cores green. Releasing Wyrm payloads now."
[Exterior: Crimson lances of searing fire spiral down like living spears. The first Dawnburner strike hits Nir Valis—then vanishes. No explosion. Just… erased.]
Rhyen (shocked):
> "What the hell—"
Sensor Tech:
> "Sir. It's… it's not shielding. It's memory redirection. The citadel is absorbing the attack into past states. They never happened."
---
[Interior: Nir Valis begins to shimmer, unstable. Memories not just from Kaelen—but from the attackers—start bleeding into the air. A Corsair screams as he sees his childhood unravel.]
Bound Prime:
> "They strike at us. So we remember them. Too well."
Kaelen (gritting his teeth):
"Enough. Take us to the Root. Before this becomes a war with no time left to end it."
---
[Interior: An unseen spiral opens—a staircase descending through aether-glass and fragmented sound. Every step flickers with pieces of lives never lived.]
Sylrae:
"This isn't a path."
Kaelen:
"It's a choice. One we have to walk."
---
[Above, chaos. Below, silence.]
[And at the center of the storm, the Root pulses—waiting to be rewritten or broken.]
---
End of Chapter Fourteen