The heat inside the Forge of Sorrows was not the heat of fire; it was the heat of a pressured mind.
Kenji walked across a floor made of molten glass that reflected scenes from his life not as they happened, but as they could have gone wrong. In one reflection, he saw himself dying in the sewers of Oakhaven, the Harpy Matriarch's claw through his throat. In another, he saw himself as a mindless puppet of the Central Authority, a "Sanitized" Enforcer with hollow eyes.
[WARNING: PSYCHIC STATIC INCREASING]
[CORE RESONANCE: UNSTABLE]
"You think you are special because you found the Heart," a voice hissed.
Kenji stopped. Standing in front of him was a figure draped in violet-black rags. It was him, but his skin was etched with glowing circuitry, and his eyes were missing replaced by two swirling black holes.
[TARGET: KENJI (THE HOLLOWED)]
[RANK: ERROR]
"I am the version of you that tried to hold the Void without the Stasis," the Hollowed said, its voice a dozen whispers at once. "I am the one who let the hunger win. If you want the Recursion, you must prove that you can survive the loop of your own failures."
The Hollowed lunged. It didn't use a weapon; it used a [Void Collapse]. The space around Kenji began to fold inward, trying to crush him into a single point of zero-mass.
Kenji engaged [Stasis Field], but it flickered. Inside the Forge, the laws of the Stars were inverted. The more he fought, the more the Forge fed his opponent.
It's recursion, Kenji realized, dodging a strike that tore the air where his head had been. The loop is feeding on my resistance. The more I try to 'win,' the more I feed the failure.
He took a deep breath and did the one thing the System would never expect.
He let go of his defense.
He deactivated the Stasis Diamond and the Abyssal Heart. He stood there, unarmed and unshielded, as the Hollowed's violet blade descended toward his heart.
"What are you doing?" the Hollowed screamed, the blade stopping inches from Kenji's chest.
"I'm not fighting a version of me," Kenji said softly. "I'm recycling the experience. You aren't a monster. You're just a memory of a path I didn't take. And memories belong in the archive, not on the throne."
Kenji reached out and touched the Hollowed's forehead. He used his [Scrapsmith's Touch], but instead of looking for metal, he looked for the "Code of Grief."
[SKILL: EMOTIONAL RECYCLING]
The Hollowed didn't explode. It began to dissolve into pure, white data-points. The violet rags turned into a soft, glowing light that flowed into Kenji's palms.
[RECURSION PIECE ACQUIRED: 1/7]
[CONDITION MET: ACCEPTANCE OF THE VOID]
The Forge of Sorrows rumbled. The Furnace-Mind's voice echoed through the chamber. "One failure accepted. Six remain. The memories of the wars are next, Kenji Tanaka. Can you carry the weight of the metal that was used to kill?"
The floor shifted, and Kenji found himself standing in the middle of a battlefield from the Third Great War. Thousands of rusted, broken automatons stood around him, their sensors flickering to life. They didn't see a Smith. They saw the "Authority" that had sent them to their deaths.
"Wait," Kenji said, feeling the collective rage of a thousand machines. "I'm not the one who programmed you!"
But the machines didn't care. They began to march.
Outside, at the Scrap-Venture, Elara looked up at the orange sky. The clouds were parting, revealing a fleet of silver, needle-like ships.
"The Authority Cleanup Crew," Commander Kael hissed, drawing her pulse-pistol. "They're early."
"We have to buy Kenji time," Elara said, her eyes turning a deadly, icy blue. "If they enter the Furnace-Mind's mouth while he's inside, the interference will kill him."
"Defensive positions!" Kael ordered. "Bjorn, Zola protect the hatch! Mateo, get the sonic-jamming online!"
The battle for the Iron Graveyard had officially begun on two fronts.