The sky above the shattered Volkov Citadel was no longer blue or white; it was a fractured mosaic of gold and violet. The Central Authority's High Council fleet massive, hexagonal fortresses of consecrated metal loomed like the descending gods of a dying age. Below them, weaving through the clouds like a swarm of angry hornets, was the Zero-Point Insurgency.
Kenji stood on the hull of the primary Insurgency transport, the Scrap-Venture. His white hair whipped in the supersonic winds, and his iridescent gray eyes were fixed on the lead ship of the Council.
[SYSTEM ALERT: WORLD-EATER BEAM AT 85% CHARGE]
[THREAT LEVEL: EXTINCTION EVENT]
"Kenji, the thermal dampers are holding, but we can't take a direct hit from a Rank 10 weapon!" Commander Kael's voice barked over the deck's resonant speakers. She was in the bridge, her cybernetic eye projecting tactical maps for the entire rebel fleet. "We need a distraction, or the North becomes a crater!"
"I'm not giving them a distraction," Kenji said, his voice carrying over the wind through his new [Resonant Authority]. "I'm giving them a choice."
He turned to Elara, who stood beside him. She was pale, her core still recovering from the tether-strain, but she held a staff of Solid Light she had scavenged from the Glacial Eye.
"Elara, I need you to link the fleet's defensive arrays," Kenji said. "Don't use the Volkov frequencies. Use the Stasis resonance I just unlocked. We aren't going to out-power them; we're going to make them hit a wall that doesn't exist in time."
Elara nodded, her hands beginning to glow with a soft, silver light. "Tethering the fleet. Kenji, if you do this, your core will be the anchor for over a hundred ships. The feedback could atomize you."
"Then make sure they don't miss," Kenji replied.
He reached into his core. The Abyssal Heart and the Stasis Diamond were no longer fighting; they had merged into a swirling nebula of gray energy. He tapped into the [Scrapsmith's Forge] blueprint the gift he had received for showing mercy to Viktor.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: THE FORGE OF THE UNMAKER]
Kenji didn't project a shield. He projected a network.
Thin, violet-gray strands of energy shot out from his chest, connecting to every ship in the Insurgency fleet. To the Central Authority's sensors, the hundred mismatched rebel ships suddenly vanished, replaced by a single, massive energy signature that mimicked the "Singularity" Kenji had used against Viktor.
The High Council's lead ship fired.
The World-Eater Beam was a pillar of black-and-gold light that seemed to erase the sky as it traveled. It struck the center of the Insurgency fleet with the force of a supernova.
But there was no explosion.
The beam hit the "Stasis-Void" network and simply... stopped. It didn't dissipate; it hung in the air, a frozen pillar of world-ending energy, trapped in a moment of zero-time by Kenji's Forge.
"He... he caught it?" Mateo stammered from the bridge. "He caught a Rank 10 beam?"
"He didn't catch it," Kael whispered, watching the readings. "He's recycling it."
Kenji's body was a conduit of agony. Every cell in his body felt like it was being rewritten by the Authority's light. But the Absolute Defense scrap was working overtime, acting as a filter. He was stripping the "Authority" from the beam and turning it back into raw, unranked scrap.
[SCRAP ACQUIRED: 1,000,000 UNITS (CONSECRATED LIGHT)]
[FORGE PROGRESS: 45%]
"Give it back to them!" Kenji roared, his voice cracking with the strain.
He twisted his hands, and the frozen pillar of energy shattered. But instead of exploding outward, the shards were pulled into the Insurgency's weapons systems. Every railgun, every sonic cannon, and every scrap-bolt on the rebel ships began to glow with a searing, white-gold radiance.
The Insurgency fleet fired back.
The sky erupted. The Council's hexagonal ships, designed to withstand any Ranked attack, found themselves being struck by their own "Consecrated" energy, now modified by Kenji's Void-logic. The shields of the lead ships flickered and died.
"All wings, advance!" Kael ordered. "Break their formation!"
As the aerial dogfight began, a smaller, golden craft detached from the Council's flagship. It moved with a precision that bypassed the chaos of the battle. It was heading straight for the Scrap-Venture.
"Kenji, we have an intruder!" Zola yelled, slamming her gauntlets together to form a barrier over the hatch.
The golden craft didn't land; it phased through the hull.
Standing on the deck was a man Kenji hadn't seen in weeks, yet he recognized the energy signature instantly. It was Alaric Vance, but he was changed. His ivory armor was now fused with his flesh, and his eyes were glowing with a terrifying, artificial gold light.
"The Council decided I was too 'human' to kill you, Scrapsmith," Alaric said, his voice sounding like a thousand buzzing insects. "So they upgraded me. I am no longer an Enforcer. I am the System's Will."
[TARGET: ALARIC VANCE (ASCENDED)]
[RANK: 9 (NON-STANDARD)]
"A Rank 9?" Bjorn growled, stepping forward with his axe. "In a body that small?"
"He's not a man anymore, Bjorn," Kenji said, stepping down from the Forge-pod. He felt the Abyssal Heart thrumming in warning. "He's a living program. A patch to fix the error."
Alaric didn't use a sword. He pointed a finger, and a beam of pure, conceptual "Order" shot toward Kenji. It wasn't an attack; it was a command for Kenji's core to shut down.
Kenji used [Void Step], appearing behind Alaric, but the Ascended Enforcer reacted instantly, his head turning 180 degrees to track the movement.
"You move through the gaps in the code," Alaric said. "But the Council has rewritten the code."
Alaric's hand transformed into a blade of liquid gold. He swung, and the blade cut through the air, leaving a trail of "System Text" that sizzled with authority. The blade sliced through Kenji's Absolute Defense shield like it was paper, grazing Kenji's shoulder.
[WARNING: SYSTEM CORRUPTION DETECTED]
[CORE ACCESSIBILITY: RESTRICTED]
Kenji stumbled, his left arm going numb. The "Order" was spreading through his veins, trying to re-impose a Rank on him.
"You're trying to categorize me again, Alaric," Kenji said, his breathing heavy. "But I've been to the bottom of the ocean and the center of the zero-point. There's no Rank for what I am."
Kenji looked at the [Scrapsmith's Forge] interface. He had one trick left. He hadn't just recycled the World-Eater beam; he had saved a piece of it.
"Mateo! Give me a resonant frequency! High-pitch, something that can break glass!"
Mateo didn't ask questions. He leaned into his console, unleashing a [Sonic Shriek] that made everyone on the deck cover their ears.
Alaric paused, his artificial senses trying to filter the noise.
In that split second, Kenji lunged. He didn't use the Void. He used the Consecrated Scrap he had forged from the Council's own beam. He shoved his hand directly into Alaric's chest the glowing heart of the "System's Will."
"Here's a system update," Kenji whispered.
[SKILL: FORGE-BURST - PARADOXICAL OVERLOAD]
Kenji released the recycled light into Alaric's core. It was the same energy Alaric was made of, but it was wrong. It was disorganized, filled with the "noise" of the Scrapsmith.
Alaric's golden eyes flickered. His body began to glitch, his form jumping between his human self and the artificial monster.
"Error..." Alaric's voice distorted. "Incompatibility... detected..."
With a scream of digital agony, Alaric Vance exploded in a burst of white pixels. He didn't die, but his physical form was scattered back into the System's network. He was gone, for now.
Kenji fell to his knees, his core exhausted. He looked up at the sky.
The High Council's fleet was in retreat. Two of their flagships were burning, falling toward the tundra like dying suns. The Insurgency had won the first battle of the Great War.
But as the cheers erupted from the rebel ships, Kenji looked at the holographic map Kael was projecting.
The four remaining Fallen Stars were pulsing faster now. And they were all moving. They weren't waiting to be found anymore. They were converging on a single point in the center of the world: The Tower of Ranks, the capital of the Central Authority.
"They're calling them back," Elara said, coming to Kenji's side and helping him up. "The Council isn't trying to find the Stars anymore. They're bringing them home to complete the God Rank."
Kenji looked at his team Mateo, Zola, Bjorn, Priya, and Elara. They were tired, wounded, and Rank-displaced. But they were the only ones who could stop a god from being born.
"Then we go to the Tower," Kenji said, his violet-gray eyes reflecting the setting sun. "We finish this where it started."
[NEW QUEST: THE ASCENSION OF THE SCRAP]
Objective: Infiltrate the Tower of Ranks and stop the God-Rank Ritual.
Current Rank: 5 (Veteran - Peak)
Next Rank: 6 (Master)
The world was burning, but for the first time, Kenji Tanaka felt like he knew exactly what to do with the ashes.