The descent into the Night Pits felt like falling into the lungs of a dead god.
Each step echoed down iron shafts that stretched endlessly into darkness. The air was thick with dust and mana corruption—tangible enough to taste. Every breath stung Kael's lungs like acid.
He carried only a half-broken lamp and the faint pulse of Ardentia's shard in his chest. It guided him downward, glowing faintly beneath his skin, a heartbeat answering his own.
"Further," the voice whispered, faint as a dying flame."The resonance calls below. Do you hear it?"
Kael paused. Beneath the rumble of rock and clatter of chains, he could hear it—deep, rhythmic vibrations, like a forge hammer striking the bones of the earth.
"Yes," he murmured. "And whatever's making that sound isn't human."
The tunnels widened into an ancient cavern—a cathedral of rust and ruin. Faint blue veins of corrupted ore pulsed through the stone walls, bleeding sickly light into the dark. Scattered across the floor were skeletons—miners, soldiers, slaves—some crushed under fallen beams, others charred to ash.
Kael knelt beside one corpse, brushing away the dust.
Chains were still attached to its wrists. Branded sigils glowed faintly on its bones—Dominion marks.
The corruption runs this deep, he thought grimly. They're still feeding on this world.
He stood and looked deeper into the abyss. The path split three ways: one tunnel glowing faintly with molten light, another lined with rune-etched walls, and the third exhaling cold fog like the breath of a grave.
Ardentia's whisper hummed in his mind again.
"The shard sings from the cold path. But beware—the Dominion listens too."
Kael smiled faintly. "Let them."
He followed the fogged tunnel. The temperature dropped with every step, until frost crept across the walls and his breath fogged in the air. His lamp flickered and died, but the shard in his chest burned brighter, casting silver light across the cavern.
Then he saw it.
A forge—ancient, impossibly old—half-buried in ice. Its anvil was cracked, its bellows petrified. And in the center, suspended in frozen light, was another fragment of Ardentia.
The shard was larger than the first—sleek, black, and bleeding faint streams of starlight that twisted into patterns on the ice.
Kael stepped closer. "So this is where you've slept."
"Not slept…" the voice answered, pained. "Imprisoned."
The moment his hand touched the ice, the world trembled. The frost shattered outward in a blinding pulse of energy. The walls shook. Chains of dark light erupted from the ground, wrapping around the shard, and from the shadows, a voice like thunder spoke:
"Unauthorized resonance detected.""Identifying… anomaly: remnant of the Iron-Star Legion."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "So you're still guarding her."
The air twisted. The chains merged into a figure—tall, armored, faceless. Its form was made of molten steel and shadow. A Warden Construct—one of the Dominion's relic enforcers, built to hunt souls like his.
"Designation: Kael Ardent," the machine intoned. "Status: Erased. Termination required."
Kael exhaled slowly. "Let's see if your gods left you any skill."
The Warden lunged—its blade a mass of seething black energy. Kael moved, faster than his body should've allowed, ducking low and striking upward with an iron rod pulled from the floor. The two weapons met, light and darkness colliding in a burst of sparks.
The impact flung him backward. His body screamed in protest, weak muscles tearing under pressure. He hit the wall hard, tasting blood.
The Warden advanced, relentless.
"You are incomplete," it said. "You cannot fight as you once did."
Kael wiped the blood from his mouth and grinned. "Maybe not. But I still remember how to kill."
He pressed his palm to the shard embedded in his chest.
It responded.
Light flared, filling the cavern with blinding silver. The iron rod in his hand began to hum, vibrating violently as the shard's resonance bled into it. The metal reshaped—melting, folding, reforging in midair—until he held a crude sword wreathed in starlight.
"Ardentia… Fragment Resonance: 12%."
The Warden paused, sensors flickering. "Impossible—fragmentary power cannot manifest—"
Kael moved before it could finish. He slashed once, a horizontal arc of silver flame. The strike didn't cut flesh—it erased the space it passed through. The Warden staggered back, half its body dissolving into molten dust.
Kael exhaled, lowering the blade. "You talk too much."
The machine's remains convulsed, voice glitching. "Un… authorized… protocol… override…"
Then silence.
Kael approached the central forge again. The chains that had bound the shard now lay shattered, and the fragment pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat. Slowly, he reached out—and this time, it came willingly.
The shard melted into his hand, merging with the first piece. Pain surged through him, white-hot, as his vision exploded with starlight.
He stood now in a void of shifting constellations. Infinite light stretched around him, stars moving like living thoughts. A figure walked toward him—shaped from pure radiance, holding a sword that blazed brighter than suns.
Ardentia's true form.
"You've found two pieces," her voice echoed, clearer now."Each will test your memory of what you once were. But to wield me again, you must remember not the war… but the purpose behind it."
Kael frowned. "Purpose?"
"You fought not to destroy the Dominion… but to protect what they feared: free will."
Her light dimmed slightly, flickering. "And now… that freedom is dying again."
Kael stepped forward, reaching out. "Then help me restore it."
"Gather me, shard by shard. Forge me anew. When the blade is whole… the stars will tremble once more."
The vision shattered.
Kael collapsed to his knees, gasping as the light faded. The fragments within him pulsed steadily now, two voices harmonizing in the silence of the pit.
He stood, gripping the half-formed sword that still glowed faintly in his hand. It wasn't Ardentia—not yet—but it was alive.
"We're whole enough for now," she whispered. "But they'll come. The Dominion never lets go of what it claims."
Kael smiled faintly. "Good. Let them try."
He looked up toward the tunnel mouth. Morning light filtered through the cracks above, faint but growing.
The Iron Star's fire was burning again.
And somewhere beyond the horizon, the gods stirred uneasily.