The Veyar Throneworld was not a planet—it was a machine god pretending to be one.
Orbiting a dying star, it glowed with artificial daylight, powered by quantum furnaces and layered with billions of lives. Above its spires floated citadels the size of moons, and in its center, surrounded by a veil of warships, was the Core Hall—where the High Council ruled and the Protocols were born.
In that hall, Lord Xavien stood motionless before a flickering feed.
On it, Kael Veyar—exiled, discarded—was very much alive.
> "...His body was recovered by a relic-class protocol," whispered the Data Seer. "We're not sure how. It wasn't supposed to exist anymore."
Xavien's jaw clenched.
> "And you're telling me the protocol is now bound to him?"
"Affirmative," the Seer replied. "He's already devoured a Reaper-class drone. He's adapting faster than any known precedent. His Ascension rate is... accelerating."
The council chamber trembled under the weight of that word.
> Ascension.
The forbidden path. The god-killing climb. The legacy of the Old Ones—written in universal code, buried after the Great Collapse. If Kael had accessed it…
Then he wasn't just alive. He was rising.
Xavien turned away from the screen, voice steel.
> "Send the Harbingers."
---
In the void...
Kael was already moving.
His mind pulsed with maps, data streams, and cosmic signals. The protocol guided his instincts. It didn't speak like a voice—it bled knowledge directly into his neurons.
He now understood galactic scripts he'd never read. Star charts, relic signal patterns, enemy AI behaviors—they were as clear as instinct.
And it whispered his next path.
> [Protocol Thread Detected]
[World: Cindaros-7 | Status: Ruins | Risk: Severe]
> "I need more energy," Kael murmured, gripping the fractured drone core in his palm. "More pieces of this... code."
The drone's heart cracked open, spilling shimmering silver dust into his hand.
The moment it touched his skin, his system flared—
> [Enhancement Module Unlocked: Adaptive Core Layering Lv.1]
[Passive: Damage absorbed increases next skill impact by +30%]
Kael exhaled, feeling the raw learning surge through him. The power wasn't just strength—it was evolution.
But deep in the signal, he felt it.
Something was watching him. From across lightyears, an enemy node pulsed with artificial life.
---
Somewhere far away...
The Harbingers awoke.
Clad in obsidian plating, shaped like executioners forged in black holes, they stood in formation as their caskets opened. Red sigils shimmered beneath their feet. Their mission was singular:
> Terminate the rogue host.
Recover or erase the Protocol.
Above them, Lord Xavien watched from a throne of war-code.
> "Bring my brother's bones," he said softly. "Or I will turn the stars red myself."
---
Kael didn't have time to wait.
As he approached Cindaros-7, the system bled red alerts into his vision.
The planet was ash. Once a beacon world of the Ascended Guilds, now shattered into floating cities and debris-rings.
He landed hard into the ruin of a temple—its walls still humming with ancient Ascension code. The moment his boots touched the fractured obsidian floor, the protocol surged.
> [Legacy Code Detected]
[Unlocking: Technique | Starbreaker Form Lv.1]
[Skill Tree Fragmented – Reconstruct?]
> "Do it," Kael said. "Give me everything."
He knelt in the center of the broken altar, eyes glowing with quantum fire.
---
Suddenly—
> [Emergency Alert: Incoming]
[Harbinger Class Threat: ETA 90 seconds]
The stars above flashed. Seven trails of black flame tore through the sky.
They were coming.
And this time, it wasn't a test drone.
---
Kael rose slowly, his hand wrapped in radiant blue flames as he extended his palm.
> "Then let's see what a protocol-born heir really is."
As the first Harbinger descended, screaming in sonic rage, Kael vanished in a blink—teleporting mid-air, his new technique already awakening.
The ruins lit up.
The war had begun