The first sign that something was wrong came in the form of silence breaking.
Not external sound.
Internal.
Aira was resting—if what she was doing could be called rest. Her body lay unmoving within the recovery chamber, wrapped in layers of stabilizing light and soft mechanical hums. Neon Eden's Vanguard facility surrounded her with safety, regulation, and control.
Yet somewhere far deeper than flesh or circuitry, something stirred.
Her system pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Not an alert.
Not a warning.
A resonance.
Aira's eyes snapped open.
The white ceiling above her fractured—not physically, but perceptually—as layers of data peeled back, revealing something beneath reality itself. Her breath hitched as a pressure settled over her consciousness, vast and unfamiliar.
"…System?" she whispered.
There was no immediate response.
Instead, a sensation bloomed—an echo of the ruined realm she had destroyed. The metallic plains, the broken sky, the collapsing sigils, the final scream of a world that had lost its right to exist.
It wasn't gone.
It was calling.
Aira's heartbeat accelerated. Pain flared briefly in her chest, then dulled, overridden by something far more dominant—gravity, but not the kind that pulled at her body.
This gravity pulled at her existence.
Her system finally spoke, but its tone was different.
Deeper.
Layered.
> Anomaly Detected.
Residual Realm Data: Active.
Source: Eliminated Broken Realm
Status: Unresolved
Aira swallowed. "Unresolved how?"
The space around her dimmed as the facility's lights flickered, reacting to a surge they could neither identify nor suppress. Data screens jittered. Stabilization fields wavered.
> Realm Core Fragment Identified.
Integrity: 3%
State: Seeking Anchor
Aira's breath caught.
Anchor.
She knew what that meant instinctively.
The broken realm hadn't simply collapsed when the Guardian fell. It had lost its ruler, its core authority—but fragments of its existence still lingered, unclaimed, unbound.
Worlds, even ruined ones, did not like to vanish.
They clung.
And it had chosen her.
Her system's voice lowered, almost reverent.
> Compatibility Check…
Host-Soul-System Synchronization: Absolute
Conclusion: Host qualifies as Realm Anchor
The pressure intensified.
Aira clenched her fists as pain surged through her veins, sharper than anything she had felt since the battle. The stabilizing fields around her bed shattered like glass, alarms screaming into life throughout the facility.
"Stop it," she hissed through clenched teeth. "I can't—"
> Interruption Not Advised.
Realm Collapse Imminent.
Action Required: Absorption or Dissolution
Absorption.
The word rang through her like a bell.
Aira laughed weakly, breathless. "Of course," she murmured. "Why would it ever be simple?"
The pressure surged again, and this time, something inside her answered.
Not fear.
Acceptance.
She had torn the system from her soul once.
She had bent it.
She had survived things that should have erased her entirely.
If a dying world wanted to cling to her—
Then she would decide how.
"Do it," Aira whispered. "But on my terms."
The system hesitated.
A fraction of a second.
Then—
> Command Acknowledged.
Initiating Controlled Realm Absorption.
The world exploded inward.
Aira screamed.
Not aloud.
Inside.
Her consciousness was ripped from the recovery chamber, dragged through layers of data, memory, and raw existence. She saw the broken realm again—but not as it had been.
She saw it unraveling.
Cities collapsing into code.
Skies folding into endless lines of failed logic.
The metallic plains shattering into fragments of potential.
All of it rushed toward her, not violently, but desperately—like a dying thing reaching for warmth.
Her system wrapped around her awareness, reinforcing her core, translating the impossible into something she could endure.
> Warning: Host capacity near threshold.
System Intervention Required.
"Then intervene," Aira snarled, her will burning brighter than the collapsing world around her.
The system complied.
Not as a master.
Not as a subordinate.
As a partner.
It rewrote the absorption process on the fly—not pulling the realm into her body, not fusing it with her soul, but binding it to something new.
Something unprecedented.
A boundary.
A domain.
The broken realm did not disappear.
It transformed.
Its shattered skies condensed into a vast, suspended void—a space defined not by geography, but by Aira's will. The metallic plains reformed into an endless expanse beneath her feet, smoother now, reinforced, responsive.
The collapsing cities became echoes—structures of memory and data that drifted like ghosts at the edges of perception.
And at the center—
Aira stood.
Not physically.
Existentially.
Her silver moon hair flowed weightlessly around her, longer than ever, glowing faintly as if reflecting a light that did not exist. Her eyes burned with quiet authority, no longer just human, no longer just mortal.
The system's voice resonated across the forming space.
> Domain Creation Successful.
Designation: Unassigned
Authority: Absolute (Host-Bound)
Aira exhaled, the pressure easing at last.
"What… is this?" she asked.
The system answered with clarity.
> This is your domain.
A space derived from absorbed realm fragments.
Bound exclusively to Host Aira.
Information flooded her awareness.
Rules.
Parameters.
Power dynamics.
Her eyes widened as she understood.
Any enemy that entered this domain would find themselves weakened—not subtly, not conditionally, but fundamentally.
Their power reduced.
Their efficiency cut.
Their existence pressed down by the weight of her authority.
> Hostile Entities within Domain:
Power Output: -50%
And—
Her breath caught as she felt another layer settle into place.
Allies.
Those who stood with her.
Those she acknowledged.
Their presence resonated differently with the domain, amplified by its structure.
> Allied Entities within Domain:
Power Output: +50%
Aira laughed.
Not weakly this time.
Not in pain.
It was quiet.
Dangerous.
"So this is what you chose," she murmured, looking out over the endless, reshaped space. "You didn't want to die."
The domain pulsed softly in response.
It was not alive.
But it remembered.
The system continued.
> Domain Activation Condition:
Manual Invocation by Host
Duration: Variable (Dependent on Host Stability)
Restriction: Domain cannot manifest without Host Consciousness
Aira nodded slowly.
Fair.
Nothing this powerful came without limits.
The space around her began to fade, the domain retreating—not destroyed, not sealed, but waiting.
Waiting for her call.
Her consciousness snapped back into her body.
She gasped, arching sharply against the bed as the real world slammed into her senses. Pain followed, but it was distant now, overshadowed by something heavier—something vast resting just beneath her awareness.
Alarms blared.
Personnel rushed in.
But Aira barely noticed.
Her system spoke one final time, quieter than before.
> Domain Status: Dormant
Integrity: Stable
Host Condition: Critical but Improving
She closed her eyes, exhaustion crashing over her like a tidal wave.
A world now rested within her reach.
A weapon.
A sanctuary.
A battlefield where she alone decided the balance of power.
And when the war came—
When the enemy thought themselves overwhelming—
She would bring them into her world.
And break them there.
Aira slept.
And the domain waited.