The night was unnaturally still.
Stars flickered above like eyes watching the world exhale, as if even the sky awaited what Kaien Morreti would do next. He stood at the edge of the crater—the remnants of his latest evolution etched into the earth in jagged, glassed stone and flickering rift residue.
His katana, now resonating with folded space and flickers of Riftfire, floated gently at his side. It pulsed like a heartbeat, synchronized with his own.
Ilira stepped carefully beside him, twin sabers sheathed across her back, her silver hair gleaming in the moonlight. "That relic shard… it's fused deeper than the last one. Can you still feel your own core?"
Kaien didn't answer at first. He raised his hand, fingers brushing through the aftershimmer in the air. Every movement bent the light subtly, and when he blinked, the stars seemed closer.
"I don't feel like I'm slipping anymore," he said. "I feel anchored. Like the void's still there… but I'm standing over it now."
Ilira gave a slight nod, a mixture of relief and worry in her eyes. "You're changing fast, Kaien. Too fast. We don't even know what the relic is doing to you."
Kaien's eyes narrowed. "We don't have time to be careful. Sirex is still out there. And if the Council's sending CelestiaCore hunters like him, they've already escalated."
Behind them, heavy footsteps approached. Varen Kai emerged from the treeline, armor steaming from residual forge heat. He held a broken construct core in one hand and the remains of a corrupted scouting drone in the other.
"Council probe. Marked with Rift-trace signatures," he said, tossing the smoldering debris beside Kaien. "They've started scanning for deep-core emissions. They'll know you evolved."
Kaien turned his gaze to the ruined horizon. "Then we move before they do."
Ilira crossed her arms. "To where? The next shard? There are still two more buried in the outer ring, and we haven't even confirmed where the third landed."
"I know where the next one is," Kaien said quietly. "It came to me while I was in the evolution trance. A vision—fractured space, locked behind something ancient."
Varen raised an eyebrow. "Aether-memory?"
"No. Something older," Kaien replied. "A place where gravity folds into itself. Like the relic is calling me through the faultlines of space."
Ilira frowned. "You're talking about the Umbravault."
Varen's expression darkened. "That's a death zone. Even Council forces don't operate there. Gravity collapse zones, rogue cores, Rift-burned wildlife. If we go in without full protection—"
"I'm not asking you to follow me," Kaien said firmly, stepping forward. "But I am going."
Ilira blocked his path. "Of course we're going. Idiot."
Kaien blinked. Ilira rolled her eyes. "You really think we'd let you walk into a gravity tomb alone? I've got moonlight resonance tech that can hold the edges of the Rift zones for ten minutes—twenty with aether dampeners."
"And I've been working on anti-compression fields," Varen added. "Could stabilize a corridor through the collapse region. If we time it right, we walk in and out before the zone reacts."
Kaien smiled, faint but real. "Thanks."
They turned toward the east, where the ridgelines gave way to jagged shadows and curling mist—where the Umbravault pulsed faintly beneath the earth, hidden from sight but not from fate.
Far behind them, within a high spire of obsidian and light, the Council watched.
Within the observation chamber, three figures stood around a suspended holograph, tracing Kaien's core signature as it flickered erratically across the continent.
"He's accelerating," one murmured.
"Too fast," said the second. "If the Rift takes hold before he forms a stable CelestiaCore, he'll collapse. Or worse—become something else."
The third leaned forward. "It no longer matters. Send Ilvethe."
The other two turned in surprise.
"She's not bound to the Council anymore," the second protested. "She's gone rogue."
"She's a predator," the third replied. "And Kaien is a rare evolution. She'll come to him. Whether to kill him or claim him, I don't care."
As the order went out, a shadow stirred beyond the atmosphere—somewhere in orbit, where Rift satellites drifted like silent tombs. A figure cloaked in darkened stellar flame opened her eyes.
Her lips curled into a slow smile.
"Found you."