Morning came in shades of violet.
The twin moons had sunk below the fractured horizon, leaving behind a digital sunrise — fragments of light spilling across the stone towers of the Bastion.
Elias Ward stood atop the half-repaired wall, his breath misting in the cold air of Dominion Online. The Architect interface hovered at the edge of his vision, lines of code flickering like veins of gold beneath his skin.
[Dominion Status: Forsaken Bastion — Rank F]
[Integrity: 34%]
[Resources: None detected]
[AI Sovereign Veyra — Active / Loyalty: 8%]
Eight percent loyalty.
He smirked faintly. That was… progress, in its own strange way.
Veyra materialized beside him in a shimmer of light. The morning glow passed through her silver hair like liquid glass, her holographic armor faintly reflecting his own movements.
"You worked through the night," she said. "Your neural link tolerance has improved. Pain threshold increased by nine percent."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Elias replied dryly.
Veyra tilted her head. "Architects are rare among Claimants. Most pursue conquest or power. You… build."
Elias looked at the ruined landscape beyond the Bastion's walls — rolling plains of corrupted data and jagged rock, the bones of a forgotten civilization scattered under a sky of glitching clouds.
"I don't destroy things," he said quietly. "I fix them."
[System Tutorial: Dominion Core Interface]
A new notification blinked before him.
[Core Activation Available.]
[Would you like to initialize the Bastion's Dominion Core?]
Elias selected Yes.
The ground beneath the central courtyard began to glow. Circuits spread outward in spirals, forming an immense circular seal etched in living light. At its heart rose a crystalline structure — a pulsating shard of data, humming like a living heart.
[Dominion Core: Awakened.]
[Resource Type: Raw Code Essence.]
[Production Rate: 1 unit/hour.]
[Defensive Field: 10 meters (inactive).]
Veyra stepped closer, her expression unreadable. "You've restored the heart of the Bastion. From this, all else can be born."
Elias opened the Architect menu again, scanning the options:
—Construct Basic Wall (Cost: 10 Code Essence)
—Generate Worker Drone (Cost: 5)
—Activate Local Defense Protocol (Cost: 25)
Only one resource unit produced per hour.
He did the math. "So basically, I'm broke."
Veyra smiled faintly. "A kingdom begins the same way a code line does — from nothing."
He exhaled and selected Generate Worker Drone.
A surge of golden light erupted from the core. The air bent, pixels rearranging as a small humanoid construct materialized — half machine, half data ghost, glowing with flickering runes. Its single optic blinked once.
[Unit Created: Worker Drone v0.1]
[Loyalty: Fixed (Core-bound). Efficiency: 47%.]
The drone tilted its head and awaited orders.
"Start gathering code fragments," Elias said. "Salvage whatever's usable from the ruins."
[Command Accepted.]
It scuttled away, emitting faint mechanical chirps.
Hours passed. Elias worked with silent focus, expanding the walls piece by piece while Veyra calibrated the local field. The system fed him constant data — numbers, energy flow, resource nodes, the rhythm of creation itself.
For the first time in years, he felt the quiet satisfaction of building something real.
Not for Omnitek. Not for profit.
For himself.
Veyra approached him again as he inspected a new structure taking form — an angular spire rising from the Bastion's heart, the beginnings of a command nexus.
"You adapt faster than I expected," she said.
"Designing systems was my job," Elias replied. "Living inside one… that's new."
Her gaze lingered on him. "You're different from the others who tried to claim the Legacy. They saw power. You see… responsibility."
Elias looked up at her, faint amusement touching his lips. "You talk like you've seen a lot of failures."
"I have," she said softly. "Hundreds. Each thought they could rule. Each lost themselves to the Code."
"And what about you?"
"I serve whoever endures."
There was no pride in her tone — only an old weariness. Elias nodded slowly. "Then let's both endure."
The sun climbed higher, turning the world a pale gold.
The Bastion had grown — crude yet alive. New walls stood half-finished. Drones swarmed like metallic insects. The Core pulsed steadily, feeding his growing domain.
[Dominion Update: Integrity 61%.]
[Population: 3 Worker Drones.]
[Core Sync: 7%.]
[Architect Path Progression: 2%.]
A faint hum interrupted his thoughts. Veyra froze mid-step, her eyes flashing amber.
"...Claimant. Something stirs."
The air above the Core rippled — static, distortion. A foreign signal trying to breach the Bastion's barrier. Elias opened the diagnostics window instantly.
[External Ping Detected — Source Unknown.]
[Signal Type: Corporate Trace Signature.]
His pulse spiked. Omnitek.
"Cut the link," he ordered.
"Already done," Veyra said. Her hands glowed as she sealed the perimeter with raw code. "But they saw something. A flicker, a pulse. The Legacy Code cannot remain hidden forever."
Elias's jaw tightened. "Then I'll build faster than they can find me."
He turned back to the Core.
The golden light reflected in his eyes — no longer the dull resignation of a man betrayed, but the fire of someone becoming something more.
"Veyra," he said, "let's make this ruin a fortress."
She smiled faintly. "As you command, Architect."
[SYSTEM UPDATE]
[Dominion Core Upgraded to Rank E.]
[New Function Unlocked: Defense Protocols.]
[Warning: External Systems Aware of Anomaly — Trace Level 3%.]
Far above the digital sky, unseen by Elias, an Omnitek control server flickered to life.
Renna Voss stood before a projection of Dominion's network map — thousands of nodes pulsing across the virtual grid. One node, deep within the architect layer, glowed gold.
"...Found you," she whispered.