They buried the bodies at dawn.
Ash still clung to everything — bones, stones, even breath — but Kian refused to let the Bastion become a graveyard. He dug trenches for the dead, covered the fallen mercenaries in rock, and marked the graves with scavenged shields. Even enemies deserved silence when the dust settled.
Veyna watched from the ridge, a quiet silhouette wrapped in her patchworked cloak. The wind tugged at her hair. Her hands trembled slightly.
"You should rest," Kian said.
She shook her head. "There's something wrong with the fire inside me. It's... louder."
Kian paused, eyeing the faint glow rising from her collarbone — the same ancient sigils that flared during the Riftspawn incident.
"Did it speak again?"
She didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
[Codex Notification: Local Influence Expanded – Territory Claim Accepted]
Ashfall Bastion now recognized as a Persistent Node
New Features Unlocked:
Settlement Planning ModeRecruitment Beacon Blueprint (Tier I)
Warning: Recruitment Beacon will attract both allies and opportunists.
[Predation Protocol Suggestion: Allow in the desperate. Cull the unworthy. Harvest the useful.]
Kian exhaled slowly.
It was time.
He activated the beacon.
It wasn't loud — not like the Rift flare that shook the sky — but the moment the small, tower-shaped glyph stone lit up with soft violet light, the Codex pulsed outward like a sonar ping.
Somewhere in the ruined world, that call was heard.
Somewhere, someone turned toward it.
And began walking.
3 Days Later
They came in ones and twos.
The first was a woman with no left hand, wrapped in leathers and furs, dragging a shattered smithing kit and a scabbard filled with rusted blades. Her name was Marra, and she said nothing until Kian gave her food.
"I used to build things," she muttered. "Before the Empire burned it all."
She stayed.
Then came a skinny teen — barely sixteen — with one eye and a pack of books strapped to his back. His name was Gellon, and he carried only theory but no flame.
"I can draw runes," he said.
"Good," Kian replied. "You'll etch the walls."
By the end of the week, sixteen souls had found their way to Ashfall Bastion — some maimed, some mute, some hunted. Each of them broken, in some way. Each of them alive.
And every one of them wanted a place to stand.
[Codex Update – Population Threshold Reached]
Ashfall Bastion upgraded to Settlement Tier I
New Features:
Housing Layout Templates Trade Depot Blueprint Community Role Assignment (Unskilled/Skilled)
New Codex Title Unlocked: "Warden of the Ash"
(Bonus: All friendly construct efficiency +15% when defending non-combatants)
Kian read the messages slowly.
"Warden," he murmured.
It fit.
He didn't ask to lead.
But someone had to.
Veyna remained distant.
Each night, she sat by the inner hearthstone, feeding it with flickers of her sealed flame. She never let it grow — not fully — but her hands trembled after each session.
"The voice is clearer," she said on the fourth night. "I hear a name now."
"What name?"
She hesitated.
"Elun'thar."
Kian felt something in his Codex pulse — a quiet echo of a language it couldn't translate.
[Unknown Designation: "Elun'thar"]
No record found. No match.
Caution: Source beyond Codex archives.
[Predation Protocol Recoil Detected: Entity Class = Mythic/Unbound]
Veyna looked up at him, eyes glowing faintly.
"If that thing was sealed inside me... and it remembers me… then someone else will too."
"We'll deal with it," Kian said.
"But what if the thing inside me isn't mine to control?"
He knelt beside her.
"Then we build a wall tall enough to hold it until you are."
Meanwhile, Elsewhere
A man in black robes stood atop a cliff of obsidian glass, gazing down at the spread of ashlands below. His cloak bore the sigil of Zareth's Royal Arcanum, but his face was hidden behind a mirrored mask.
Beside him, a sandcrawler mounted with crimson armor.
The soldier saluted.
"The flare's been confirmed. Tier II anomaly. Possibly mythic-class possession."
The masked man tilted his head.
"And the name?"
"Cross-referenced only once. A myth. Elun'thar — the Flame That Consumes Itself."
The masked man turned toward the Bastion's direction.
"Then it's begun."
Back at Ashfall Bastion, Kian stood in the growing settlement's center — surrounded by the beginnings of towers, smithing pits, and a gathering hall still missing half its roof.
Smoke curled into the sky.
Life was returning.
But so were the hounds.
End of Chapter 7