The Shatter-Canyons were a labyrinth of obsidian pillars and gravity-warped rock, a place where the air hummed with the residual radiation of the First Calamity. Deep within the shadows of a jagged overhang, the Azure Strike Force—a specialized unit from the Spire—had deployed their "Aether-Drones."
These drones were sleek, silver orbs that moved with a frictionless grace, their undersides glowing with a pale violet light. They weren't weapons of destruction; they were harvesters. They were currently hovering over a pulsing, jagged crevice in the earth: a Fragment of the Tectonic Maw.
"Stabilization at 84%," the Azure Commander whispered into his comms. He wore "Phase-Armor" that shimmered like a desert mirage. "Once the fragment is secured, the 'Aries' and his little fort in the Sump will be nothing more than a memory. Without gravity-logic, he's just a boy in a fancy coat."
He never heard the sound of the world ending.
BOOM.
A heavy, matte-black projectile slammed into the canyon floor fifty meters from the research site. It wasn't a shell; it was Jax.
The Iron-Lung rose from the crater, his Taurus-Vanguard armor hissing with steam. Behind him, dropping from the cliffs like black rain, came the First Platoon of the Sump-Legion.
"Unsanctioned research in a Sovereign zone," Jax rumbled, his hydraulic gauntlets grinding together. "By order of the Anchor, your equipment is now scrap."
The Azure Commander didn't panic. He was a professional. "Drones! Switch to Combat-Logic! Activate 'Frictionless-Beams'!"
The silver orbs spun, firing concentrated streaks of violet energy. These beams were designed to slice through heavy plating by ignoring the friction of the target's armor. In the past, a single volley would have decapitated the entire platoon.
The beams hit the Legionnaires squarely in their chests.
The violet light flared—but instead of cutting through, the energy rippled. A network of amber-gold threads ignited between every soldier on the field. The 100% lethality of the beams was instantly divided by sixty. The soldiers didn't even stumble. They felt a slight warmth in their chests, and then they kept moving.
"Impossible!" the Commander screamed. "Increase output! Target their joints!"
The drones fired again, a continuous stream of violet fire.
Suddenly, the air in the canyon grew cold—unnaturally cold. The violet beams didn't hit. They bent. They were pulled toward the center of the canyon as if caught in the gravity of a dying star.
Kael descended from the sky, his Sovereign Vanguard mantle spread wide like the wings of a predatory bird. He wasn't falling; he was lowering himself with a terrifying, controlled grace.
"You talk of 'Frictionless-Logic' as if it is a law," Kael's voice boomed, his platinum eyes locking onto the Azure Commander. "In my domain, I am the law."
Kael raised his hand. The violet beams from the drones were sucked into his palm, forming a swirling sphere of stolen energy.
[ZODIAC SYNC: 32% (TAURUS)] [ABILITY: ABSOLUTE INERTIA — KINETIC REDIRECTION]
"Return to sender," Kael commanded.
He crushed the sphere. The violet energy didn't explode outward; it was launched back at the drones with the speed of a railgun. Ten "Aether-Drones"—the pinnacle of Azure research—were vaporized in a single micro-second.
"Legion! Advance!" Jax roared.
The Sump-Legion didn't charge like a mob. They moved in a synchronized "V-Phalanx." Every time an Azure soldier fired a high-tech rifle, the Unbroken Mantle absorbed the hit and shared the impact. The Legion was a living tank, an unstoppable wall of matte-black iron that ground the Azure defense into the dust.
The Azure Commander realized the gravity of his situation—literally. He turned to the Calamity Fragment, intending to detonate it and take the whole canyon with him.
"Don't," a voice whispered in his ear.
The Commander froze. He couldn't move his hand. He couldn't even blink. Rin was standing directly behind him, the obsidian katar pressed against the seam of his Phase-Armor. The Zone of Silence was so absolute that the Commander couldn't even hear his own heartbeat.
Kael walked across the battlefield, his boots clicking softly on the obsidian floor. He reached the crevice and looked down at the Tectonic Maw Fragment. It was a dark, throbbing stone that smelled of sulfur and deep-earth pressure.
"Sia, prepare the containment," Kael said.
Sia dropped from a light-filament bridge she had woven across the canyon. She carried a specialized Runic box. "This fragment is unstable, Kael. If we don't sync it with the Bastion's core in the next hour, it'll trigger a localized earthquake that'll level the Sump."
"We have time," Kael said. He turned to the captured Azure Commander, who was now being held by Jax.
Kael reached out and touched the Commander's helmet. With a slight hum of platinum energy, the reinforced glass shattered.
"Go back to your Spire," Kael said, his voice a cold, sharp blade. "Tell Valerius that the Wastes no longer belong to the Azure. Tell him that every time he sends a research team, I will send them back as scrap. And tell him... I'm coming for the Gemini Array next."
The Azure survivors were stripped of their tech and cast out into the desert. They were left with nothing but their lives and a message of terror.
Kael stood over the secured Calamity Fragment. He could feel the Sovereign Star Protocol pulsing in his mind, the Taurus sign reaching toward a new threshold.
[DEAD MAN'S SWITCH: 05:45:12] [ITEMS ACQUIRED: 1X TECTONIC FRAGMENT, 12X AZURE PHASE-CORES] [SYNC RATE: 35% (TAURUS)]
"Volume 2 is halfway over, isn't it?" Lyra's voice asked through the link.
"No," Kael said, his gaze turning toward the distant silhouette of the House of Terra's High Spire. "It hasn't even begun. Now that we have the fragment, we have the key to the Overlord's front door."
Kael looked at his Legion. They stood in the canyon, sixty men who had faced the most advanced weapons on the planet and hadn't bled a single drop. They were no longer rats. They were the Sovereign Vanguards.