From the shadows of fractured alleys and the dim neon veins of Helixia's cybernetic underbelly, Alya Aerius emerged. Her arms still shimmered with the lingering lattice of nano-fiber, violet and pink threads pulsing faintly across her skin like veins of starlight. The glow made her look ethereal, almost divine, yet her steps betrayed fragility. Her limbs trembled; her muscles screamed with pain. Victory had not come without cost.
Far ahead, where the ruins of the Zuhdar Bar once stood, Kaylin and Edo spotted her silhouette. Their voices pierced the electronic hum of the street.
"Alya!" they shouted in unison, desperation tangled with relief.
Within moments, she stumbled into the open. Her complexion had paled, the sharpness of her violet irises dulled. Kaylin sprinted toward her, panic etched across his face.
He cupped her cheeks, his eyes scouring every inch for wounds.
"Are you alright?What were you thinking going down there?"
His voice cracked under the weight of fear. Alya blinked, startled not at the question, but at the depth of his worry. She had seen him fight a hundred battles, but never tremble like this.
Before she could answer, Kaylin pulled her into a suffocating embrace.
"Don't scare me like that again," he murmured against her shoulder, voice breaking.
Her words came muffled, strained.
"Uh… Kaylin?You're… hugging too tight."
Realization struck him; he released her at once, sheepish.
"Sorry," he muttered, stepping aside, though his eyes refused to leave her.
From the sidelines, Edo observed in silence. His sharp gaze, unlike Kaylin's tender concern, was calculating. His attention snagged on the faint glow that still traced Alya's arms.
"So…you've awakened a Discipline," Edo remarked. His tone carried neither awe nor excitement...only weight. "A Gunner, no less." His voice hardened, eyes narrowing. "Come. We've lingered long enough."
With quiet obedience, they followed his lead.
The walk back through Avril's cyber-streets was drowned in the hiss of neon lights and the distant thrum of anti-gravity skiffs. Edo walked at the front, his strides deliberate yet restless. His silence was heavier than words, and even the city seemed to sense his unease.
Alya, watching his furrowed brow, finally spoke.
"You're troubled. What's stirring in your head?"
His voice came low, almost reluctant.
"The Elite Nobilities expect to see you tomorrow. You...and that Omicron boy."
The name landed like a thunderclap. Kaylin's eyes widened.
"Omicron? Wait.....you mean Ivo Omicron?" His words spilled fast, incredulous. "I heard his father and grandfather betrayed Helixia...tried to sell our technologies to the outside world. At least, that's what I heard. We'll confirm with the others in Stellaris."
Edo tilted his head, unfamiliarity sparking curiosity.
"Stellaris? What's that?"
Alya stiffened, muttering under her breath,
"Damn it, Kaylin."
Kaylin, cornered, scratched the back of his neck before confessing.
"Stellaris...is the name of our group. A team formed in secrecy: me, Lila, Lyrien, Thane...and Alya as our leader. Stellaris born from the Latin, meaning 'of the stars.' We are a constellation of warriors, tied not by blood, but by the light we bring to darkness."
Edo stopped walking, his expression caught between disbelief and exasperation. He ran a palm down his face and let out a long, weary sigh.
"Of course. A vigilante group. Just like Kenneth. You really are following into Kenneth's footsteps."
Alya's lips curved into a smirk. She met his gaze with challenge.
"And what of it?"
Edo's lips twitched. Despite himself, he smirked back.
Moments later, the trio arrived at Alya's home. Waiting inside were Thane, Lyrien, and Lila...their figures gathered in quiet anticipation. A storm of words, revelations, and heavy truths followed.
Dawn crept across Helixia. Alya prepared to depart when Edo intercepted her, his presence filling the threshold like a wall.
"Wait, Alya. Don't go alone. Let me take you to the castle skyscraper."
She arched a brow.
"You mean the Stellaluna Fortress?"
His sigh was deep, almost annoyed.
"Yes. That. Whatever name you give it."
Together they boarded a Skybolt, its sleek hull gleaming silver as its engines roared to life. The craft cut through the sky, slicing past towering spires and drifting aerial cities.
Soon, the Stellaluna Fortress rose before them an ivory monolith embedded with golden circuitry, spiraling upward until it pierced the clouds. Its towers shimmered with radiant shields, and its gates stretched like the maw of some mechanical deity. The fortress breathed majesty and dread in equal measure.
Upon landing, Edo was barred from entering. He waited as Alya stepped into the towering halls alone.
The elevator carried her upward in silence, a single glowing chamber ascending through glass corridors that revealed the sprawl of Lunaria below. Her heartbeat matched the rhythmic hum of the lift.
When the doors slid open, she entered a cathedral-like hall where the Elite Nobilities gathered in a circle of thrones, their faces half-veiled in golden masks.
A hush blanketed the vast chamber, broken only by the echo of her footsteps upon the crystalline floor. The light here was strange...suspended like liquid gold, dripping from chandeliers that hovered in midair, casting shimmering lattices across the marble expanse.
At the center of the hall, waiting, was Ivo Omicron.
He stood with hands clasped neatly behind his back, his pale, androgynous features sharpened by the faint scar of a star-shaped birthmark etched across his forehead. His dark, tousled hair framed eyes that gleamed with a calm, unreadable mirth. His lips curled into a subtle, enigmatic smile that seemed to taunt without a single word.
The Grand Minister's voice reverberated across the vaulted ceiling.
"Ivo Omicron of Napario. Alya Aerius of Avril. Be welcomed before the council of the Elite Nobilities. By will and by fate, you alone passed the trails. You are chosen, the ones destined to wield the fragments of the Cerebrox."
Murmurs rippled among the nobles, their masked faces turning like constellations in orbit.
From a pedestal in the chamber's heart, two artifacts were unveiled: crystalline shards glowing with opposite polarities of existence.
The first, Chrona Shard gleamed in pure white brilliance streaked with gold, radiating warmth like captured dawn. The second, Voidheart throbbed with a violet-black luminescence, its surface alive with shadows, as though stars themselves had drowned inside.
Gasps echoed across the chamber. The very air seemed to pulse with their presence.
The Grand Minister continued.
"But know this, the fragments are not tools. They choose their wielders. Only thies aligned with their essence may lay claim."
Alya's breath caught in her throat. The weight of history pressed down on her. The fragments were no mere relics, they were remnants of the Cerebrox, an ancient engine of creation that had once bent the laws of reality.
Ivo stepped forward first, his expression unreadable. His hand extended with slow, deliberate confidence toward the Chrona Shard. At once, the shard trembled, and golden radiance flared. The fragment leapt into his palm, resonating with him as though it had always belonged there.
He turned his gaze to Alya, smile widening not of joy, but triumph.
Alya forced her legs forward, her gaze locking on the darker fragment: the Voidheart. Its violet hue swirled like liquid cosmos, drawing her in. Suddenly, the shard rose on its own, spinning midair before drifting toward her. The closer it came, the stronger the pulse in her veins, until it pressed against her palm. Energy rippled through her body familiar, consuming, whole.
She closed her fingers around it. The Voidheart pulsed once, resonating with her soul.
The chamber erupted in whispers.
The Grand Minister lifted his arms.
"The fragments have chosen. Thus is the covenant sealed."
Yet the ceremony did not end in harmony.
An elder noble, robed in crimson, leaned forward.
"If these two hold fragments, the balance is incomplete. The other four remain scattered across the world ."
Another, voice sharper, added:
"You must retrieve them. Travel undetected beyond our borders. Secure what belongs to Helixia."
A third rose to his feet, mask glinting under the golden light.
"Be wary. The outside world is treacherous. Trust no one. Our technology may outstrip theirs, but arrogance is death."
Finally, the eldest noble thundered:
"In two days, your mission begins. Fail and Helixia falters. You are dismissed."
Both Alya and Ivo bowed in unison, voices clear.
"We are honored."
Together they stepped into the elevator, the silence between them charged and volatile. The chamber above faded from sight, but the echo of whispered politics lingered.
The descent was slow, the hum of the lift almost suffocating.
Alya kept her gaze forward, gripping the Voidheart as if it might slip away. But beside her, Ivo's lips curled again into that same mocking smile.
Her temper snapped.
"Drop that smile. It infuriates me."
At once, his expression hardened, replaced with sharp fury. His voice was quiet, venomous.
"Alya Aerius, the outsider who somehow became Helixian. The girl who turned every gaze, even Kenneth's. Do you know what burns me? The fragment should never have chosen you."
She turned, meeting his eyes with fire.
"Then perhaps it didn't. Perhaps it only rejected you."
His glare sharpened. His voice dropped lower.
"Ever thought of Helixia becoming one with the world? I have. And I know this...our nation was never meant to hide. While others slept, we forged gods from silicon. Now, I rise not as tyrant, but as correction. Let the world tremble. The forgotten shall awaken.."
Alya's hands clenched.
"You speak like a zealot."
He ignored the barb, his tone sharpening.
"Do you know why I despise you? Because you are my rival. You, the outside child, plucked from nothing, showered with reverence. Trained by Gerek himself, handed allies and victories. When the outsiders infiltrated Helixia with Dr. Xypher, you destroyed PSI.....Dr. Xypher's creation. And still, after all that, fate rewards you with a fragment. You should not exist. And yet, you are the one who can stop me."
The lift chimed.
The doors slid open. Alya's irises burned violet, her pupils glimmering with electric blue. She gave him a look that could have carved stone.
"Then prepare yourself, Ivo Omicron. Because if you are the storm, I am the silence that ends it."
She stepped out without looking back.
From across the lobby, Edo waved, shouting.
"Alya! How did it go?"
She did not answer at first. The Voidheart pulsed faintly in her hand, hidden beneath her cloak.
Edo frowned.
"Didn't work out? Don't worry. Better luck next time."
Finally, Alya turned, her voice low but steady.
"No, Edo. I was chosen."
His eyes widened.
"Then why that grim face? Doesn't suit you."
Alya exhaled sharply.
"It's Omicron. He hates me. Remember when Jayce, Noella, Axel and I took down Dr. Xypher and PSI? That's what he hates about me."
Edo froze. His voice dropped to a whisper.
"That's because Dr. Xypher was his father. Xypher Omicron."
The revelation struck like a blade. Alya's breath caught, her eyes narrowing.
"I see…"
Elsewhere in Helixia, in the depths of a hidden facility, Shiwunki staggered through steel corridors. His body was broken, wrapped in scars of defeat. Blood marked his path.
He fell to one knee before a towering, shadowed figure clad in a suit laced with red nano-stripes that glowed like veins of fire.
"Forgive me," Shiwunki gasped. "I failed you. You warned me I could not win, and still I....."
The figure's voice cut like a blade.
"Enough. Prepare yourself. Soon, they shall know of us."
He lifted his gaze, crimson light spilling from his form as a swarm of nanobots spiraled upward like a rising storm.
Deep within the facility, locked in a chamber of iron and shadow, a woman stirred. One of her eyes glowed with a golden iris, but chains of nano-wire bound her limbs, stripping her of Discipline, stripping her of freedom. She waited, silent, her wrath building in the dark.