The final day of the countdown began with silence.
Not the peaceful kind. The dreadful kind. The kind that presses against your ears like a scream that hasn't been released yet. The world held its breath. And every single soul under that bleeding sky knew—today, the Gates would open.
The outpost buzzed with frantic preparation. Tacticians reviewed final plans, engineers rigged energy barriers to last longer, and healers organized triage zones. But no one knew exactly what we were bracing for.
Except maybe me.
Because all night, my dreams had been filled with visions that weren't mine.
Burning worlds. Stars flickering like candles against cosmic winds. Voices that whispered my name in dozens of tongues, all in pain, all in hope. And a final image, always at the end:
The Gates.
Massive structures. Floating. Spinning. Alive.
Not doors. Not even portals.
Living entities of pure energy, locked between realms.
They weren't just going to open.
They were going to choose who could pass.
"You good?" Ashi asked, walking beside me through the ready bay. Soldiers were checking weapons, lacing boots, exchanging personal tokens like they knew some of us wouldn't come back.
"No," I replied honestly. "But I will be."
She nodded. "Kael says the Queen's forces are already on the move. She felt them through the Mark."
Kael. Still distant. Still dangerous. She hadn't slept since we returned. Her Mark had evolved again—more angular, more unstable. The price of her memories seemed to be her balance. But she was clear about one thing:
The Queen wouldn't let us reach the Gates.
And the Starborn wouldn't wait much longer.
We headed toward the command dome where the rest of the resistance leaders were waiting. Eryn had drawn up three possible routes to the Gates, each more dangerous than the last. Airships were out—the storms would tear them apart. That meant ground.
"We go through the Shattered Valley," I said, choosing the most direct and most cursed path.
Gasps. Murmurs. Even Eryn looked shaken. "That valley's been a dead zone since the first solar breach."
"Exactly," I replied. "No one will expect us to take it. That gives us surprise."
Ashi tilted her head. "Or gets us all killed."
"Probably both."
We left by mid-morning. Fifty elite. The best we had. Kael walked beside me, silent. Her blade hummed with unstable energy, responding to her Mark. Ashi led point. Eryn coordinated the scout drones.
The Shattered Valley lived up to its name.
Broken earth, cracked like ancient pottery. Rivers of glowing magma wound through jagged canyons. And above us? The sky had turned a deeper red. Like blood drying on steel.
We faced our first ambush three hours in. Shadow beasts.
Not the Queen's soldiers.
Worse.
Creatures from the Rift. Starborn-born mistakes. Misshapen bodies with too many limbs, shrieking in frequencies that made our heads bleed.
They came in waves.
We fought them back with everything we had. My Mark ignited without me calling it. I hurled flame from my palms, blades of light from my eyes. Kael fought beside me like a storm incarnate. Ashi moved like smoke, her twin sabers never missing a beat.
By the time it ended, we'd lost seven.
We burned their bodies. Whispered names. And marched on.
By nightfall, we reached the plateau. And saw them.
The Gates.
Hovering just above the basin. Massive. Impossible.
Three rings, each inscribed with runes no one living could translate. They spun around a singular core of white light—pulsing like a heart.
We dropped to our knees, instinctively.
Then we heard it.
A song.
Not from the Gates.
From the sky.
The Queen.
Her flagship descended like a crown of blades. And she stood at its helm, cloaked in shimmering armor that looked like night and void had woven themselves into silk.
Her voice echoed in every language.
"You stand at the brink of extinction. I offer you mercy. Kneel, and live."
Kael screamed. Not in fear. In fury. "YOU STOLE EVERYTHING!"
The Queen didn't flinch. "And you became more than you were. My gift. My legacy."
I stepped forward. My voice steady. "We choose our own legacy."
She laughed. And unleashed hell.
The battle for the Gates had no music. Just screams.
Her forces poured from the flagship. Modified soldiers, enhanced beasts, war-tech centuries ahead of us. But we were desperate. We had purpose. We had each other.
I don't remember all of it.
Just pieces.
Ashi cutting down three sentinels before taking a blast to the shoulder.
Kael standing on a ridge, drawing lightning into herself, her scream louder than the storm.
Eryn crawling through rubble to drag a child—a damn child—to safety.
And me.
Standing before the core of the Gates, my hands on the glyphs, feeling them test me.
"Are you willing?" they asked.
"Yes."
"Will you break?"
"Maybe."
"Do you believe in the ones behind you?"
I looked back.
Bloody. Bruised. Brave.
"Yes."
The Gates opened.
And the Starborn stepped through.
Not monsters.
Beings of light and pain and memory. Their leader, tall and adorned in shimmering scales, looked at me.
"You carry the Eighth Mark. The final one."
I nodded.
"Then you are the Catalyst. And this war ends now."
The Queen screamed, charging the basin.
But she was too late.
The Starborn raised their hands.
And the sky itself tore open.
To be CONTINUED.....