The sky rebooted.
Light returned not as dawn but as fragments of memory-
And amid that forming chaos, Cael awoke.
He lay on obsidian sand beneath a half-born sun, the world still stitching itself together in flickers. Every breath felt borrowed. His chest still burned where the Heart Core pulsed faintly, sealed beneath cracked armor.
[System Reboot: 43% complete.]
[Synchronization with local reality: unstable.]
He sat up, looking around. The air shimmered, unsteady, like the dream of a place that hadn't decided to exist yet.
So this was what rebirth felt like-
Cael touched the ground. Beneath the black sand, veins of molten blue pulsed faintly, threading across the landscape like a heartbeat beneath glass.
He frowned. "You followed me here, didn't you?"
The Heart Core inside his chest thrummed in answer.
[Acknowledged.]
[Warning: Containment breach spreading.]
The edges of the horizon rippled. For a heartbeat, the mountains blinked-
Eyes. A dozen colossal eyes hidden beneath stone and cloud, all turning toward the lone figure who had survived annihilation.
Cael rose slowly. His body felt heavier here. This world-
A shadow peeled itself from the ground, taking form beside him. Vague at first, then sharpening: black armor, a blank helm, crimson lines like veins of magma. One of the Legion.
"No," Cael whispered. "You were erased."
The Legionnaire tilted its head. "We recompiled, Commander. The code followed your beacon."
Cael blinked. "How many?"
"Seven." The Legionnaire's voice was mechanical, yet faintly reverent. "The rest are dust in the void."
Seven left. Out of ten thousand.
He exhaled. "Then we start with seven."
[Legion Protocol: Reactivated.]
[Synchronization – 27%.]
The air above them cracked open like shattered glass. From the breach descended an enormous symbol, a ring of orbiting runes burning white-blue. Each rune hummed with divine frequency-
[Warning: Unknown dimensional signature – "Prime Origin" resonance detected.]
Cael stared at the sky. "So you're what woke up."
The Legionnaire tensed. "Orders, Commander?"
Cael smirked faintly. "We observe. Then we adapt."
The symbol pulsed. A beam of light fell to the horizon, carving a scar across the newborn landscape. From that wound, something began to rise-
It wasn't built; it was remembered into being.
And within that radiance, a voice older than stars murmured across every atom of the world:
"The prototype survived."
Every Legionnaire knelt instantly. Even Cael felt his knees weaken under the pressure, like gravity itself remembered what authority felt like.
He clenched his fist. "Then let it remember wrong."
The world shuddered again, and the sky dimmed to crimson.
The light descended like a verdict.
The vast ring of runes spun faster, their glow sharpening into lances that pierced the newborn landscape. From each scar of light, a figure emerged-
[Designation: Herald-class entities.]
[Quantity: 3.]
The air bent beneath their presence. Even the Legion's armor whined as the code within them faltered, unable to parse the Heralds' geometry.
Cael didn't bow. He stood, staring up at the descending radiance with eyes that still burned crimson.
The tallest Herald spoke first. Its voice echoed through the bones of the world.
"You were not meant to persist."
Cael smirked. "Neither was the universe. Yet here we are."
A pause. The Herald tilted its head as though confused by defiance. Then its halo expanded, forming an orbiting array of luminous sigils. Reality warped around it, gravity bending in reverence.
[Incoming sequence: Erasure Protocol.]
The Legion formed up, shields flaring as spectral fire ignited between them. Their chant-
"Legion line, anchor code-
Seven soldiers drove their blades into the ground. Light surged through the sand, forming a glowing sigil that circled them all. The runes were ancient-
The Herald hesitated. "You speak the forbidden root?"
"Speak it?" Cael's grin widened. "I wrote it."
The sigil detonated. Waves of blue flame erupted skyward, colliding with the divine light. The shockwave ripped the horizon in half-
[Power reading: unquantifiable.]
[Warning: Local physics thread destabilizing.]
The second Herald descended through the chaos, wings of crystal unfurling. Its sword was forged from compressed starlight. "You cannot rebel against your source."
Cael caught the blade between his hands. Sparks of raw existence exploded across his skin. His voice broke into a growl:
"Watch me."
He twisted, redirecting the sword's energy back into the sky. The explosion shredded clouds and tore new constellations into existence. The third Herald barely blocked it, feathers of light scattering like dying suns.
One Legionnaire screamed as his body pixelated into dust, his last words echoing through the system: "For the anomaly!"
Cael's fury surged. His flames grew darker, the hue shifting toward the black-red spectrum of anti-light. The ground beneath him fractured into a reflection of something deeper-
He looked up at the collapsing heavens, at the divine machinery descending to erase him once more. "You call me an error," he whispered. "But I'm the update you couldn't predict."
The Heart Core burst open.
For one impossible moment, all sound vanished.
Then reality split.
The Heralds' halos flickered and went dark, their forms scattering into shards of broken law. The landscape inverted, and the sky screamed once again-
When silence returned, Cael stood alone amidst the ruins of gods. His armor glowed faintly.
[Warning: Prime Origin still observing.]
[Next contact predicted in 00:03:12 local time.]
Cael wiped blood from his lip and smiled at the impossible countdown hanging above him.
"Good," he murmured. "Let it come."