The wind that swept across the dead city no longer whispered secrets—it howled warnings.
Callan stood at the ziggurat's edge, the Heartflame now sealed inside his core. His chest radiated warmth, steady like a second heartbeat. But beneath the city, beneath the sand itself, something moved.
Seris narrowed her eyes. "Did that tower just… shift?"
"No," Solenne whispered. "The ground did."
Then they felt it—a low vibration rolling up through the stone, up through the bones of the city, until even the air seemed to pulse.
Ren stepped back. "We woke something."
Callan scanned the horizon. The sand dunes were collapsing—not by wind or time, but by something crawling beneath them.
And it was coming closer.
Buried Engines of the Past
Solenne knelt, placing her hand to the ziggurat stone. "It's mechanical… partially. Arcane. Something vast and ancient is buried beneath this place."
"Buried by whom?" Callan asked.
She looked up, face pale. "By the Flamebearers."
The city shook again. A fountain of sand erupted in the distance, revealing a massive segmented coil of metal and bone slithering out of the earth. It was the size of a fortress, chitin-plated and rune-branded.
"Hell," Seris muttered. "It's a siege worm."
Ren scoffed. "That's no worm. That's a forgotten god."
From the ruined edge of the city, ten more rose. Their forms were long-lost war engines—biological titans built during the Age of Ash, meant to break kingdoms with a breath.
And they were waking up hungry.
Flight from the City
"Move!" Callan barked.
They fled the ziggurat as stone began to shatter under the pressure of the rising titans. Spires crumbled, ancient bridges cracked, and echoing roars split the sky.
Solenne summoned a translucent disc, hurling them across rooftops as massive limbs tore through the city's foundation.
One of the siege worms turned its eyeless head toward Callan's group. Its maw opened in four directions, revealing a burning core of molten gears and dying souls.
It screamed, and the air twisted.
Callan spun midair, flaring the Heartflame. The scream hit a barrier of his power and shattered like glass—but the blow sent him crashing through a tower.
Ren cursed. "He's down!"
"Get to him!" Seris shouted.
Within the Broken Tower
Callan groaned as dust settled around him. The impact had cracked stone and fractured ribs, but the Heartflame inside him burned steady, already sealing the worst wounds.
Then—a voice.
Not spoken.
Remembered.
"You were the one who made them. The siege titans. You forged them as a weapon… and sealed them as a mistake."
Callan pushed himself up. The tower's broken mosaic showed a figure—his own face again—commanding machines of fire.
"I created that?" he muttered.
The Heartflame pulsed.
Yes.
And now, they had risen.
The balance had broken.
The Guardian Below
Seris and Ren dropped into the wreckage seconds later. Solenne hovered down on a glowing platform, her expression strained.
"We need to stop those things," Callan said.
"We need to survive them first!" Ren snapped.
Solenne nodded. "There's something under the city still dormant. A failsafe—something left behind to stop the siege worms. But it needs a Flamebearer to activate."
Callan gritted his teeth. "Then let's wake it up."
They dove into the collapsing ruins of the city center. Guided by fading glyphs and buried memory, Solenne led them through a labyrinth beneath the ziggurat—into an underground vault sealed in obsidian.
A massive statue stood at the center.
A golem the size of a mountain.
Waking the Last Guardian
The golem was humanoid, forged from the bones of fallen flame dragons, with a core embedded in its chest: a hollow cage waiting for flame.
Solenne ran her fingers across the glyphs. "It's called Aegiros. The Last Guardian. The Flamebearers left it to defend the world if the siege worms were ever awakened."
Callan stepped forward, heart pounding. "And I'm the key."
He placed his hand against the core.
The Heartflame poured from his body, not in destruction—but in command. It threaded into the runes, seared through the golem's circuits, and reached its heart.
The cavern shook.
Aegiros opened its eyes.
Titanfall
The golem rose.
Stone cracked. Pillars shattered. The city broke in half as Aegiros stood to its full height, bursting from the underground vault like a mountain learning to walk.
The siege worms screamed and charged.
Aegiros answered with a blast of concentrated sunfire that vaporized half a dune. It grabbed one siege worm mid-slither, twisted, and snapped it like a whip.
Callan stood within its chest, the Heartflame tethering his mind to the Guardian's.
He moved.
It moved.
They were one.
Final Clash in the Sand
The battle raged across the city ruins.
Aegiros fought six siege worms at once, fists crashing like hammers, feet flattening towers already ruined.
Inside the cockpit, Callan's consciousness blurred between past and present.
He remembered piloting Aegiros in a war that no longer had a name. He saw flashes of comrades, of fallen empires, of the decision to bury the Guardian to prevent its power from being abused.
Now, that power was his.
And he used it.
Each blow was fire. Each step a promise.
Solenne, Ren, and Seris fought alongside, holding back cultists still crawling from the cracks.
Finally, Aegiros crushed the last siege worm beneath its heel.
Silence fell.
Smoke rose.
And the sand stilled.
Aftermath
Aegiros knelt.
Callan stepped out from its chest, soaked in sweat and trembling.
The Heartflame had dimmed—but not faded.
Solenne helped steady him. "You've only just begun to understand what it can do."
Seris threw herself down beside a broken statue. "Next time, I get the fire god robot."
Ren exhaled, stringing his bow again. "If the Ashen Order sees this, they'll come harder."
Callan nodded. "Then we'll be ready."
The city, now broken and half-buried, still whispered.
But Callan no longer feared it.
The past was alive.
And so was he.