The figure in the doorway was massive—taller than Drex by a head, and twice as broad. His armor was plated with dark, glinting metal, and lines of storm-blue energy pulsed beneath the surface like veins. Around him stood four others, clad in similar fashion, each emanating a terrifying presence. Their eyes glowed faintly, just like the Core within Kael.
Kael didn't need Lira's sharp intake of breath or Aren's quick hand on his sidearm to know: these were no ordinary scavengers. This was something older. Something dangerous.
"Back away from the pedestal," the lead figure growled. His voice was gravel and lightning. "That artifact is not for you."
Kael didn't move. His hand remained close to the crystalline container, his other gripping the edge of the pedestal for balance.
"Who are you?" Kael asked, his voice calmer than he felt. The Core was burning inside him, reacting violently to their presence. "And why is the Core responding to you?"
The man stepped forward, past the threshold of the door. "We are the Storm's Chosen. Guardians of the Legacy. The last true descendants of the Talent Architects. You, outsider, are not worthy of the Core you carry."
Drex shifted beside him, muscles taut. "You want a fight, say so. Otherwise, crawl back into the shadows you came from."
The Chosen didn't laugh. One of them, a woman with braided silver hair and eyes like a frozen lake, raised her hand—and with it, the very air in the chamber tightened. A gust of wind slammed forward, knocking over several shattered machines and almost sending Lira flying.
Aren caught her mid-stumble and snapped, "Yeah, I think they want a fight."
Kael stepped forward, raising his hands. "Wait. Just listen. This Core—it's linked to me. I didn't choose it. It chose me. If you're really the last of the Architects' line, help me understand it."
"You don't understand anything," the leader snapped. "The Core isn't a gift. It's a responsibility. A weapon forged to bind storms and bend time. You are not trained. You're a risk."
Lira, recovering, drew her blade. "I think it's time to go, Kael."
But Kael shook his head. "Not until I get answers."
The leader pointed a finger at him. "Then you'll get them from the inside of a containment cell."
The Chosen surged forward.
---
The Battle
Drex was the first to react. With a roar, he met the incoming warrior with a shoulder tackle that sent shockwaves through the chamber. Metal screamed. Debris exploded outward. The Chosen were strong—but Drex was born for war.
Lira vanished in a shimmer, her stealth activating just in time to flank. Aren opened fire, sending two of the Chosen ducking behind fallen slabs of concrete.
Kael remained rooted in place. The Core inside him wasn't just pulsing now—it was screaming. The moment one of the Chosen locked onto him, charging with a storm-cloaked blade, the Core reacted.
Time slowed.
Kael watched the raindrops of dust hanging midair, the slight shimmer of energy trailing from the attacker's weapon. He moved instinctively, stepping sideways, letting the blade miss him by inches, and striking with his own talent.
A burst of kinetic force shot outward from his palm, slamming the Chosen into a pillar and cracking it in half.
The moment snapped back to full speed.
Kael gasped. That wasn't him. That wasn't anything he'd learned before.
"Kael!" Lira's voice shouted from the shadows. "They're regrouping!"
The Chosen weren't down. They were testing the group.
Kael looked around. Drex was holding his own, but two Chosen had cornered Aren, and Lira had vanished again—he hoped intentionally. The leader was approaching Kael directly, eyes fixed on the glowing Core beneath Kael's chest plate.
"You don't know how to wield it. And that makes you dangerous," he said.
Kael felt the energy boiling in his blood. "Maybe. But I'm not giving it up."
Their clash was instant. Kael barely blocked the first blow, a swipe of a storm-forged blade that cracked the stone under his boots. He retaliated with a burst of energy, but the man absorbed it, his armor flaring with lightning.
"You're using it wrong!" the leader shouted. "It's not just raw force—it's structure. Control!"
"Then show me!" Kael snapped, swinging again.
The room shook.
---
The Storm Memory
The clash ended with the two locked hand to hand, and when Kael touched the leader's bare wrist, something strange happened.
Memories.
Images flooded Kael's mind—not his own. A great city beneath a dome of glass. Laboratories of crystal and light. Children learning to manipulate storm energy. Then war. Fire in the sky. Betrayal from within.
Kael staggered back.
The leader, too, reeled. He looked at Kael differently now.
"You saw it," he muttered.
Kael nodded slowly. "The fall of the Architects. You were there."
"I was born from them," the leader said, breathing heavily. "And I've spent my life protecting what they left behind. The Core... it must not fall into unworthy hands."
Kael looked around at the destruction. Aren bleeding from a cut on his arm. Drex panting. Lira emerging from the shadows behind the Chosen with a blade to one's throat.
"Then help me become worthy," Kael said quietly.
---
Aftermath and Alliance
Silence fell over the chamber. The leader lowered his weapon.
One of the Chosen stepped forward, a younger man, face bruised but eyes sharp. "He wielded it. The Core responded. He didn't take it by force."
Another nodded. "And he saw the Memory. The Core doesn't show that to everyone."
The leader considered this. Then turned to Kael. "You want to know what's inside you? Then you come with us. There's a deeper level of Velhym Station, sealed by the old council. That's where the Heart Archive is. It has the full schematics of the Core… and the truth about what it was designed to stop."
Kael's breath caught. "What it was designed to stop?"
The leader's face was grim. "Something that's waking up again."
---
Deeper into Velhym
They descended together.
Past the ruins of forgotten labs and memory banks, through an elevator shaft that hadn't operated in a century. The Chosen used their storm talents to power the lift, guiding them downward into the earth.
The Heart Archive wasn't a room. It was a vault.
Circular. 200 meters wide. Its walls were lined with crystalline storage nodes, pulsing gently. In the center stood a suspended prism—within it, a flickering humanoid form composed of energy.
Kael stepped forward.
The prism spoke. Its voice was broken, as if thousands of years old. "Core-bearer recognized. Protocol X-17 initiated. Accessing warning… The Entity is stirring."
Everyone froze.
"What entity?" Aren asked.
The prism continued. "Before the collapse, a convergence anomaly formed in the deep crust. Something... alive. Not of this world. We named it the Hollow Storm. It consumed talents. Rewrote minds. The Core project was developed to resist its influence."
Kael's blood went cold. "It's coming back?"
"Signs suggest early phase regeneration. Estimated surface breach: 312 days."
Drex exhaled slowly. "That's not a lot of time."
Kael stared at the flickering figure in the prism. "How do we stop it?"
The AI responded: "You must master the Core. Learn the Architect's sequence. Find the Three Fractures. Only then can the Hollow Storm be bound again."
---
The Choice
The Chosen turned to Kael. "Now you understand," the leader said. "You're not just a host. You're the last defense."
Kael nodded. "Then we don't have time to waste."
He turned to his team—worn, injured, but alive.
"We find the Three Fractures. We unlock the Core. And we stop the Hollow Storm."
Lira sheathed her blade. "Back to saving the world again, huh?"
Drex cracked his knuckles. "Let's make it bleed."
Aren grinned. "Guess we're Chosen now too."
Kael looked up at the vast archive around them. His Core pulsed in time with the lights of the station, resonating deeper than it ever had.
The war wasn't coming.
It had already begun.
---