The transition from the Nexus to the material galaxy was like being torn from a dream. Kael, Elyra, and the Marauder emerged inside their ship, The Seraphine's Echo, as if they had never left it. Yet, the starlight outside was different now—colder, fractured, and filled with invisible tremors that shook the space between atoms.
Elyra's scanners flickered wildly. "This can't be right. The coordinates point to Sector Vareth, but that region was destroyed during the War of Suns centuries ago."
Kael leaned forward, gazing out at the swirling lights. "Destroyed doesn't mean gone. If the Keepers sent us there, something must still exist."
The Marauder's deep, resonant voice filled the cabin. "I can feel it. A pulse—a dying heartbeat within the void. The Fractured Star still burns, hidden between dimensions."
Kael adjusted the ship's controls, pushing the engines beyond their safety threshold. The Echo hummed with living energy as its runes ignited in blue fire. "Then that's where we're going."
The voyage through the Foldspace corridors was rough. Fragments of reality flickered past the windows—images of forgotten planets, long-dead civilizations, and shadows whispering from behind shattered moons. Elyra gripped the console, sweat on her brow. "Kael, something's following us."
He turned sharply. "What do you mean?"
Before she could answer, alarms screamed through the ship. A black ripple erupted behind them—like space itself had cracked open—and from it emerged a shape both immense and terrifying. A dark construct resembling a colossal hand reached out of the rift, its surface made of liquid starlight.
The Marauder's tendrils whipped out defensively. "It's him. The Fragment."
Kael's staff flared, energy flowing through his veins. "The mastermind's remnant?"
"Yes. The thought that refused to die."
The hand lunged toward their ship. Kael slammed his palm onto the rune panel, shouting, "Elyra, warp now!"
The Echo roared as light exploded across its hull. They vanished in a blinding surge just as the hand closed around the space they had occupied.
Moments later, they dropped out of hyperspace into eerie stillness. Before them hung the Fractured Star.
It was unlike anything Kael had ever seen—a massive celestial body broken into thousands of crystalline shards, each orbiting a molten heart that pulsed faintly. Rivers of light flowed between the fragments like veins, and with every pulse, the entire structure seemed to whisper.
Elyra spoke softly, awe and fear mixing in her voice. "It's… alive."
Kael stared at the glowing core. "That's where it's hiding. The remnant."
The Marauder shifted beside him, its voice low and solemn. "Then this is where our balance will be tested. If we fail, the Fractured Star will collapse—and take half the galaxy with it."
Kael nodded slowly, eyes reflecting the dying light of the broken sun. "Then we don't fail."
He raised his staff toward the glowing horizon. "Let's finish what the Keepers began."