---
The Vanguard base no longer slept.
Lights pulsed red through the metallic corridors. Engineers sprinted across scaffolds, feeding cables into glowing reactors. Soldiers in reinforced armor loaded rifles that hummed with faint, blue energy. The atmosphere was feverish, electric, like a storm waiting to fall.
Kai stood at the center of the command platform, the glass walls around him revealing the fractured sky. Beyond it, the world shimmered—a patchwork of dimensions overlapping. Rivers flowed upward. Mountains pulsed faintly like hearts. The war between existence and collapse was spreading.
Zara approached quietly. "The Council's movement has started. Beelzebub is alive again."
Kai didn't turn. "They never die. They just adapt."
Leo entered next, carrying a holographic slate. His eyes looked sunken, his uniform scorched. "Our scouts confirmed it—Beelzebub re-manifested two sectors north of the Ruined Civilization. He's rebuilding his counter."
Kai clenched his fists. The memory of the last battle still burned in him—Aetheros broken, Lucian vanished into the Dark Palace, and Morax's cold promise echoing through every timeline.
"Where's Lucian?" Zara asked softly.
Kai didn't respond at first. He reached out, pulling a fragment of his vision from the air. The hologram projected Lucian's image—pale, still, drifting through the void of the Dark Palace. Chains of ink and fire wrapped around him. His aura was dim, yet steady.
"He's alive," Kai said. "But the Palace is rewriting him."
Leo frowned. "Rewriting?"
"Turning him into something the Tower can control," Kai answered. "Something that won't resist Morax."
Zara stepped closer. "Then we go get him."
Kai looked at her, the weight of command pressing against his chest. "If we breach the Palace, the Council will respond. They'll send their prime constructs."
"Then let them," she said.
Kai almost smiled. It was the same kind of reckless conviction Lucian used to have.
He turned toward the window again. The storm outside was growing thicker. Bolts of crimson light streaked across the clouds—energy signatures from collapsing realms. The Tower's reach was expanding, consuming worlds one by one.
"We move at dawn," Kai said.
---
[Dark Palace | The Chains of Silence]
Lucian drifted through shadow.
The air was heavy with whispers, like prayers from dead stars. His body floated within a column of black fire. Every breath hurt. Every thought echoed back distorted.
You are not what you were.
The voice was neither Morax's nor Aetheros's. It was older, colder.
He opened his eyes. Chains pierced his chest, binding him to a massive pillar of glass. The structure reflected infinite versions of himself—some human, some monstrous.
"Who's there?" he muttered.
A figure appeared beyond the darkness.
Morax.
His robe trailed behind him like a collapsed dimension. His eyes glowed with surgical calm. "You're in the Palace of Reflection. Every thought you resist becomes real here."
Lucian strained against the chains. They didn't break. They grew tighter.
Morax circled him like a teacher examining a student. "You fascinate me. A variable that refuses deletion. Tell me, Lucian… what are you fighting for now? Your friends? The child you lost? Or the illusion of control?"
Lucian's eyes burned. "For choice."
Morax stopped. "Choice is entropy. Entropy destroys order. And order sustains the system."
"I don't care about your system."
"Then you'll be rebuilt into one that does."
Morax raised his hand. The chains brightened. Lucian screamed. His memories scattered into light fragments—Neo's laughter, Riv's tears, Luna's broken whisper.
Then—silence.
A pulse rippled through the room.
Morax frowned. "What—"
A light burst from Lucian's chest. The chains cracked. The air warped.
Aetheros's voice echoed faintly. You are not alone.
Morax stepped back. "Impossible. The Watcher is dead."
But the voice persisted, faint yet steady. I left more than memory.
Lucian's eyes opened. White. Blinding. The chains disintegrated.
Morax took a step forward, summoning his weapon—a spear forged from still time.
"You'll destroy yourself."
Lucian's voice came out quiet, almost human. "Then I'll destroy the concept of you."
The entire Palace convulsed.
---
[Vanguard Base | Pre-Dawn]
The ground trembled.
Every sensor in the base went off simultaneously. Kai looked up from the console as alarms screamed. The monitors showed the Palace—its structure flickering, walls fracturing, dimensions overlapping.
Leo shouted, "The Dark Palace is destabilizing!"
Zara grabbed her weapon. "Lucian?"
Kai's answer came in a whisper. "He's breaking free."
They ran to the launch platform. Soldiers and engineers cleared the decks. Three portal frames aligned, glowing blue. The Vanguard's core ship, The Ardent, roared to life.
"Coordinates locked on the Palace's temporal anchor," Leo called out.
Kai stood before the gate, wind whipping his hair, eyes burning. "Once we enter, we can't come back."
Zara smirked. "When have we ever?"
The gate opened. The world bent.
They jumped.
---
[Dark Palace | Core Chamber]
Lucian stood amidst the rubble of what had been his prison. The Palace burned from within, bleeding black flame into the void. Morax was gone—or perhaps retreating to another layer of reality.
Lucian's hands trembled. His body cracked with light. He could feel every fragment of power screaming within him—Aetheros's time loop, the Tower's essence, his own mortal soul.
He was barely holding together.
Then a portal flared open behind him.
Kai stumbled through first, followed by Zara and Leo.
Zara froze. "Lucian…"
Lucian turned, eyes dim but alive. "…You came."
Kai exhaled in relief. "You look terrible."
Lucian managed a weak smile. "You should see the other guy."
Before they could speak again, the Palace trembled. A massive sigil appeared in the air—the mark of the Council.
Leo shouted, "They've detected us!"
The sigil opened. A new figure stepped out, surrounded by mechanical halos. Female. Sharp. Eyes like mirrors of infinity.
"Designation: Arkeia. Prime Construct of Enforcement," she announced. "Lucian. You have breached containment."
Lucian stared at her. "Then let's end containment."
Arkeia smiled faintly. "Then let's begin collapse."
The chamber shattered as the two clashed.
Kai, Zara, and Leo barely held their ground as waves of raw force tore through the ruins. The fight wasn't divine—it was surgical. Arkeia fought with precision, Lucian with fury. Sparks and memories flew together.
Kai gritted his teeth. "We have to help him."
Zara loaded her rifle. "We always do."
The Vanguard charged into the storm.
And the war for reality began again.
---