[OPENING SCENE – DEAD-ZONE CROSSWAY, SECTOR 9 – NIGHT]
A zone once bustling with trade hubs now lies in silence, scorched and hollow. The buildings lean like charred bones, ash clinging to their edges like desperate memories. Static pulses hum beneath the ground — echoes of a Rift scar deep below.
In the haze, a figure strides through the wreckage — a living storm of embers. Drayven, warlord of the Cinder Strain, arrives. Beside him: Husk, dragging a molten axe. Spitwire, twirling cables of superheated filament. Rask, a new recruit cloaked in emberlight.
Drayven (low voice):
"This sector will become our forge."
He kneels, pressing his bare hand against the ash. The ground trembles faintly. The Rift responds.
[MIRAGE RIPPLE – DREIVA'S ENTRY]
Across the plaza, a shimmer of mirrored light twists into existence. Dreiva steps from it, her cloak dancing in impossible patterns. Her face reflects back in seven fractured angles.
Dreiva:
"Still playing with soot, Drayven? Haven't you learned that ash always fades in the wind?"
Drayven (rising):
"And illusions shatter in fire."
The two factions stare across the cracked street — silence, and then… chaos.
[FULL-SCALE VILLAIN VS. VILLAIN BATTLE – THE PLAGUE OF MIRRORS VS. THE ARMY OF EMBERS]
Drayven charges first, his hammer trailing burning sigils through the air. Dreiva splits into five duplicates, surrounding him in a spiral of laughter and whispers.
Drayven:
"Only cowards hide behind reflections!"
He slams his hammer into the ground — a burst of ash-fire rips out in a circular wave. Two mirror images explode into glass shards. Dreiva reappears above him, arms spread.
Dreiva:
"This is art, darling!"
From her hands, radiant prism-blades shoot like razors. Spitwire leaps and flings a molten whip to intercept. The sky flashes violet and crimson.
Spitwire:
"Come down here and I'll melt your mask!"
Dreiva:
"Catch me then, spark-boy!"
Meanwhile, Husk locks arms with one of Dreiva's manifested illusions — an enormous horned beast made from her trauma-mirrors. He roars, his molten axe cleaving through the false creature.
Husk (grunting):
"These ghosts don't bleed!"
Drayven (commanding):
"Then make them shatter."
The entire plaza becomes a war-torn painting of light and fire. Rift spikes fire randomly, pulsing under their feet. The ground breaks. The battlefield descends into multiple tiers — like a collapsing arena.
[INT. THE FORGE CAVERN — UNDERGROUND LEVEL]
Dreiva teleports to the lower tier — into a cavern where Rift magma flows like veins. She places both hands on the molten wall. Reflected in the river: her own past, crying children, cities burning, a mask forming.
Dreiva (quietly):
"I see myself. And that is why I win."
Drayven crashes through the ceiling like a comet, hammer first. The floor shakes. Dreiva deflects with a mirror-blade and flies backward, skimming the magma.
Drayven:
"You play with memories. I forge them."
He swings his hammer — each strike echoes with Rift shockwaves. Dreiva throws up walls of fractured light to deflect, barely holding ground.
[DREIVA'S COUNTERSTRIKE – FIELD OF GRIEF]
Dreiva snaps her fingers. The cavern distorts — turning into a cathedral of memories. Giant stained-glass windows float midair, showing both their pasts: Dreiva's city burning, Drayven's family turning to ash.
Dreiva:
"Let's compare trauma, shall we?"
Each glass shatters, unleashing mirror-wolves and grief-phantoms. They swarm Drayven.
Drayven (snarling):
"I don't fear my past. I carry it."
He roars and activates the Rift node embedded in his chest. Ash blooms from his body in an explosion. The phantoms evaporate.
[FINAL CLASH – FLAME VERSUS FRACTAL]
Drayven and Dreiva meet at the center of the cavern. He swings the hammer. She manifests a prism-lance. Their weapons collide — a shockwave of black-and-white flame and rainbow light tears the cavern apart.
Silence. The battlefield is reduced to wreckage. Dreiva, wounded, stands panting.
Dreiva:
"This is not the end. We'll see who owns the Rift soon enough."
She vanishes into mirror-smoke.
Drayven drops to one knee. Blood and molten ash drip from his shoulder. Husk and Spitwire arrive behind him, dragging Rask, who's badly hurt.
Spitwire:
"Boss… we holdin'?"
Drayven (rising):
"Barely. But we don't fall. Not yet."
He stares at the melted Rift node. It flickers — unstable. A whisper echoes from the shadows: not Dreiva's voice, not his own.
Whisper (unknown):
"You burn well… but you are not alone beneath the smoke."
Drayven looks around — nothing. But something… watched.
[CLOSING SCENE – SKYVAULT STILL UNAWARE]
The camera pans above the battle zone. The city above continues with daily motion. VAN HQ lights blink softly. Kael and Yuna walk past a Rift scanner with no alerts. They don't know what happened below.
A single ash leaf drifts up from the dead zone — carried by a wind no one feels.
TO BE CONTINUED…