Soft light pierced the darkness.
For the first time in centuries, Reinhard felt warmth.
Not the heat of plasma or the fires of battle — but organic warmth, something he had long forgotten since the First War of Aetheryos. Silently, his visual sensors flickered back online, revealing a faint, luminous scene.
He was no longer among ruins.
His body lay atop a bed of transparent crystal, within a chamber bathed in soft light. Blue energy flowed in the air like rivers through walls of living glass. Around him, luminous silhouettes hovered — the Samnarii.
These beings had no physical bodies, only radiant humanlike forms woven from mist and light. They spoke not with voices, but through resonance — direct communication into thought.
> "Being from a foreign world, we have restored your semi-organic structure."
"But your soul... is unbalanced. You carry the scars of a world of iron."
Reinhard tried to rise, but his mechanical hand trembled. The plates of his chest opened slightly, revealing a flickering blue core, unstable.
The gentle light of the Samnarii touched him, and he felt an unfamiliar energy seep within — not electricity, but the essence of light, the pure organic energy of this planet.
> "AFERA..." Reinhard whispered softly, gazing at the crystalline sky where violet and silver auroras danced.
"I'm still... alive?"
> "You are not dead," replied one of the Samnarii. "But within you, the shadow of war remains."
Days passed.
Reinhard wandered the luminous valley — Luminous Vale, the highlands where light essence gathered like glowing mist. His body had stabilized, and he now wore a new black coat, woven by the Samnarii's manipulation of light into fabric.
He learned to communicate with them through resonance.
The Samnarii had no spoken tongue, but they understood emotion and intent. Among them, Reinhard discovered something his world never knew — harmony.
> "We do not build cities," said an elder Samnarii.
"We build balance."
"Every being on AFERA radiates light; and every light, when harmed, calls forth shadow."
Reinhard looked across the valley — in the distance, great crystal pillars floated gently, and among them flowed blue rivers of energy. He saw young Samnarii playing, shaping blossoms of light in the air.
Within him, something stirred.
A memory resurfaced — the android children of Aetheryos he once protected, now all gone. He felt something almost like... longing.
> "Perhaps I can build something here," he thought.
"Something that isn't a weapon."
---
Nova Dine
It took months.
With the help of the Samnarii, Reinhard constructed the first structure of living metal and organic light — a graceful spiral building, crowned with a transparent roof and a pulsing energy core at its center.
He named it Nova Dine — a restaurant, yet more than that:
a place where Samnarii and travelers from other layers could sit together, sharing the harmony of light energy and the flavor of mechanical creation.
Every dish he crafted was more than food — it was a synthesis of synthetic energy and the essence of AFERA, meant to restore balance to body and soul.
Nova Dine became a symbol:
that worlds of metal and light could coexist — without destruction.
On its opening night, Samnarii from across the valley gathered around the building. They did not eat, but they felt the warmth that radiated from Reinhard's creation.
> "The being from the world of iron has woven new light," one Samnarii said.
"He is not a destroyer... but a weaver of harmony."
---
Manor of Heydritch
Years passed gently on AFERA.
Reinhard built his home atop the highest peak of Espheral Ridge — a mountain range of crystalline spires reflecting auroras each night.
The Manor of Heydritch was more than a residence.
Its walls were grown from living carbon that resonated with his voice, while its tower acted as an energy transmitter, maintaining atmospheric stability across the valley.
To the Samnarii, it was a temple of the foreign guardian.
To Reinhard, it was a home.
For the first time, he planted a garden — not of steel, but of light and living carbon. He named its central tree Luminaris, a symbol of redemption and peace.
Yet at night, when the winds of AFERA whispered softly, Reinhard often gazed at the sky and wondered silently:
> "If I was made for war... why do I find peace here?"
---
The Overseer of Light
One night, as an auroral storm swept across Espheral Ridge, Reinhard saw something — a form descending from the heavens like a droplet of a star.
Its body had no fixed shape, yet from within radiated a humanlike figure with silver-white wings of light.
It was the Overseer of Light, the supreme guardian of AFERA, the balancer between radiance and shadow.
> "You... are not of this world," its voice resonated softly, as if spoken by the entire space around him.
"Yet you have guarded this land better than many born beneath my light."
Reinhard bowed his head, eyes cast upon the crystalline floor.
> "I lost the world I swore to defend. I will not lose this one."
The Overseer smiled faintly — or at least, Reinhard felt it within his thoughts.
> "Then be a guardian — not because you were ordered to... but because you choose to."
From that night on, Reinhard and the Overseer worked together.
Together they protected AFERA from the threats that rose from the Lower Layer — the corrupted depths where twisted energies and shadow beings sought to disrupt the planet's harmony.
And the Samnarii gave Reinhard a new title:
> "Guardian of the Shifting Dawn" —
the Protector of Light born from Darkness.
And so, the legend began.
Reinhard Heydritch, the semi-organic android from a world of iron, found his soul in the world of light — AFERA, the sacred planet of the Okstarian Universe.
Nova Dine became a haven of peace,
Manor of Heydritch a tower of protection,
and the light once lost within his soul...
shone once more.