Rai Kuroda collapsed before he spoke.
Not dramatically.
Not loudly.
His body simply… shut down.
The lightning that once clung to him like a living mantle was gone, leaving behind scorched metal and ruptured conduits along his cybernetic arm. The elbow joint had partially fused, slagged shut by overload. His breath came in shallow, uneven pulls each one haunted by images he refused to give words.
Orion Draeven might be dead.
The thought lodged in him like shrapnel, grinding every time he inhaled.
Tessa moved instantly.
She dragged Rai inside the den, hands glowing faintly as she forced his pulse into rhythm, sealing burns, stabilizing feedback loops that threatened to cascade into neural failure. She didn't ask what happened.
The way Rai flinched at every distant sound told her enough.
They laid him on a cot.
He slept like a man still running like the battlefield had followed him into his dreams and refused to let go.
Kael woke before dawn.
No nightmare.
No whispering god.
Just absence.
He dressed silently and left the den, breath misting in the cold air. Running had become the only thing that anchored him. each footfall a reminder that gravity still applied, that the world still accepted his presence.
He didn't notice Darius following.
At first, the jog felt normal.
Then Kael caught his reflection in the river.
It lagged.
Half a second behind.
Kael stopped.
The reflection stopped after him.
His shadow stretched uphill. wrong, defiant, before snapping violently back into place. Kael's breath hitched.
Her name.
He reached for it again. Focused harder.
Nothing.
The pain wasn't sharp anymore.
It was hollow.
Trees along the path began to wilt as his chest tightened. Leaves yellowed mid-branch. Bark cracked, splitting with dry pops. Animals fled before he even saw them.
Kael wasn't using Aether.
Reality was reacting anyway.
A footstep behind him.
Darius emerged from the trees like he had always been there.
"You are no longer leaking power," Darius said quietly.
Kael turned. "Then what's happening to me?"
Darius's golden eyes were grim.
"You are altering probability."
The words landed heavier than any accusation.
"You are not becoming stronger," Darius continued. "The world is adjusting around you."
As they turned back, something peeled inside Kael's vision.
For a heartbeat, illusions thinned. Residual Aether distortions unraveled. False light burned away, revealing fault lines beneath reality itself.
Kael staggered.
Darius caught him instantly.
"Void Vision," Darius said. "An ability of gods. Brief. Dangerous."
Kael swallowed. "Gods?"
"The Forgotten One is recognizing pressure," Darius muttered.
That name rang wrong inside Kael.
"It's starting," Darius said.
"Starting what?"
Darius didn't answer.
Only said, "We don't have time anymore."
"Aetherium," Kael said suddenly without knowing how he knew.
Darius didn't correct him.
And for the first time, fear, not caution drove his steps.
Rai was awake when they returned.
Training.
Unstable arcs of lightning cracked across his ruined arm, snapping erratically against stone and metal. The moment Kael entered the clearing, the air snapped.
Void pressure met lightning instinctively.
Sparks crawled violently across Rai's arm as the ground beneath Kael darkened, soil compacting as if bracing for impact.
They stared at each other.
Then something inside Kael answered.
Void pressure rolled outward like a held breath finally released.
Rai's lightning didn't leap.
It folded.
Condensed.
A translucent storm-shield formed around Rai,perfectly shaped, humming softly, held together by an instinct he didn't know he possessed.
Rai stared at his hands.
"I didn't"
Kael staggered back, pulse racing.
Darius stepped between them instantly.
"Enough."
The pressure broke. The shield collapsed.
Rai whispered, "I didn't know I could do that."
Darius went still.
That confirmed it.
Kael wasn't just destabilizing himself.
He was catalyzing others.
"You cannot train together anymore," Darius said sharply.
Rai looked up. "What?"
"Kael cannot remain near anyone long-term," Darius said. "Not until this is understood."
Kael felt something fracture inside his chest.
Isolation wasn't punishment.
It was survival.
Steam filled the stone chamber as Kael showered, washing sweat from his skin but not the sensation of being watched from within.
Darius turned toward the sleeping quarters.
Tessa intercepted him.
No accusation.
No confrontation.
Only one question.
"How many Axes have there been?"
Darius stopped.
Silence.
Long enough to answer everything.
Tessa's heart sank.
Cipher hadn't lied.
She began preparing contingencies.
Not to stop Kael.
But against the Guardian.
Meanwhile,
The witness sold the information.
Dominion hunters followed the trail.
Not soldiers.
Not machines.
Specialists trained to kill phasers.
They found Iria and Veyla in the open.
Too many.
Too fast.
Iria panicked and something split.
Phantom Echoes tore free from her body like clones. afterimages bleeding across overlapping realities, striking from impossible angles. Blades clashed. Aether screamed.
Veyla joined in without hesitation.
Steel. Blood. Screams.
They escaped barely.
As they ran, Iria understood the truth.
Her hesitation hadn't made her human.
It had made her traceable.
They returned to Darius's den unexpectedly.
Everyone froze.
Darius exhaled once.
"Well," he said, "what perfect timing."
They gathered.
Darius didn't delay.
"The Forgotten One is awakening faster than anticipated."
Tessa stiffened.
"The ward is weakening," Darius continued. "The cost I paid is accelerating my decline."
He told them everything.
The blood ward.
The Primal Aether carved into stone.
The ancient symbols that burned gold and refused to fade.
It was the binding.
The Forgotten One. first being of Aetherium could only be killed in human form.
Each death forced rebirth.
Each rebirth created an Axis.
Kael was the latest.
"The Guardian's role," Darius said calmly, meeting Kael's eyes, "is not to save the Axis."
Silence.
"It is to decide when it must end."
Kael didn't look away.
"And when you lose control," Darius said, voice steady, "I must kill you."
No cruelty.
Only duty.
History repeating.
Aetherium.
The realm of first entities.
Hidden gods.
The Forgotten One's true origin.
The only entrances, the Aetherial Gates.
The map to them
"In Lord Veylith's study," Darius said.
Tomorrow at dawn, they would infiltrate Dominion headquarters.
Silence followed.
Veyla broke it.
"I want payment."
Darius nodded.
Soft footsteps at dawn.
Lavender hair caught the light.
Silver-blue robes shimmered faintly with resonance.
An ornate harp rested against her side.
Lyria Feyne bowed once.
Former Dominion noble.
Defector.
Songstress.
"This place feels wounded," she said softly. As she hummed her voice in a soothing frequency that the ears couldn't hear but the mind understood.
Bodies of those who were injured began to regain energy and healed rapidly.
"Good," Darius replied. "You're needed."
She explained the Dominion layout.
The routes.
The traps.
The gates.
The objective was clear.
Steal the map.
They planned.
They waited.
Dawn crept closer.
The Axis could not stand still.