He arrived with no escort.
No banner. No title.
Just a red coat, long as shadow, trailing behind him like a stormcloud.
He called himself Veyr, and he requested audience with no one except me.
"Prince James Vaelstrom," he said with a voice like static in silk, "your world is on the cusp of acceleration. I am here… to offer calibration."
He stood in the Grand Forge's hangar, between mech parts and glowing reactor conduits, like he belonged here. His eyes were a pale silver, almost pixelated at the edges.
I asked for identification.
Instead, he held up a hand—and a hologram burst into existence.
Blueprints.
Schematics I hadn't unlocked yet.
Tech trees buried in sealed system nodes.
"These are Frame Tier IV structures," I muttered. "Off-world weapon arrays. How do you—"
"Because, like you," he interrupted gently, "I was born under the sky of Earth."
I froze.
System immediately flared:
Alert: External Frame User Detected – ID Unknown
Caution: Frame Authority Conflict Possible
User 'Veyr' possesses Independent Frame Core – Divergent Protocol Tree Confirmed
Status: Unclassified / Dangerous / Not Hostile
He wasn't lying.
And he wasn't from this world.
Over tea in the observatory, beneath the starlit dome, he explained.
"I died in 2003," he said. "In Venice. A car crash. When I woke up, I was in the wastelands of what you now call the Hollow Sea Dominion."
"My system is older than yours. Prototype class. I wasn't given a kingdom—I was given a graveyard. I had to build my power from beneath the ash."
He wasn't just another transmigrant.
He was an Architect—a Frame-born sovereign from a lost continent, long buried by myth.
"You work for the Dominion?" I asked, watching his fingers tap against his cup.
He shook his head.
"I built the Dominion. Or at least, its foundations. But I left when they forgot why we started. When conquest became doctrine. When their gods demanded obedience instead of creation."
He looked at me then—really looked.
"But you. You are different. You remind me of how I used to be. Before the Frame changed me."
He offered a gift. A cube.
Inside it?
An AI construct named RIVEN—a sentient design assistant, embedded with Earth's engineering paradigms and Dominion secrets alike.
New Unit Acquired: RIVEN – Architect-Class AI
Capabilities: Co-design sci-fi structures, mechs, weapons, and cities with hyper-efficiency. Adapts to combat zones, planetary logistics, and Frame-tier anomalies.
Note: Personality Profile – Detached, Ruthless, Creative
The moment I installed her into the Forge Core, a calm female voice filled my interface.
"Hello, Sovereign. You're late to your own ascension. Let's correct that."
But trust was dangerous.
I told Veyr plainly: "If you cross my people—if you lay a hand on my sister—I will tear your Frame from its core and forge it into scrap."
He just smiled, sadly.
"Then you are truly the heir I hoped you'd be."
And then, as mysteriously as he arrived, he vanished.
No portal. No airship.
Just gone—leaving only the gift, and the shadow of his presence hanging over the forge.
That night, Elira woke from her sleep screaming.
"The Red Architect… he's not done building…"
"He's making something in the dark. Something that can't be unmade."
System Log Updated:
Subplot Advanced – The Other One: Veyr Identified
Global Threat Map Updated – "Project NOX: Unknown Weapon-Class Worldkiller"
RIVEN Operational – Forge Efficiency +120%
New Stat Boost: +2 Mana, +1 Agility (from AI-linked optimization)
I looked out over my city.
Lights burned in the distance—both hope and warning.
The Forge was ready.
But so was the world.
And some monsters… wore my face.