Chapter 6: Wings Beneath Ash
The transport Sera had dispatched was a patchwork beast—an old E-Class drifter retrofitted with magnetic lifts and a cloaking shell. It hummed with unstable grace as it cut through the air above the crimson sands of the Ashfold Expanse, a place where firestorms were more common than rainfall and the ground smoked with ancient fury.
Shu leaned against the frame of the open ramp, scanning the horizon. Ash clouds rolled like thunderheads below, broken by jagged spires of black stone. Somewhere beyond them, hidden within the volcanic folds, lay Vault Seraphim, the newest red site to activate.
Kael stood behind him, arms folded, unmoving despite the buffeting wind.
"She wanted us to follow," Shu said.
Kael nodded. "Or she wanted witnesses."
"Same thing, isn't it?"
Kael looked out at the horizon. "Not when the person leaving the trail thinks they're saving the world."
Sera's voice crackled in through their headsets. "I ran a scan. The vault's buried under Mount Caelstrom—active fault line, high seismic activity, and no known surface entrance. You'll have to descend through the spine fissures."
"Any signs of Lyra?" Shu asked.
"Not directly, but something lit the sky towers near the vault for the first time in four hundred years. If she's not there yet, she's close."
Kael placed a hand on Shu's shoulder. "Be ready. This one… this vault isn't like the others."
"What do you mean?"
Kael's eyes narrowed. "It wasn't built to store a relic. Vault Seraphim was meant to judge."
The drifter dropped low, descending into a canyon wreathed in smoke and glowing mineral veins. The moment Shu's boots hit the rock, he could feel the heat—the ground pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat below his feet.
The fissure ahead yawned like the mouth of a sleeping giant.
Shu went first, rappelling down through a vertical shaft that twisted through obsidian layers and fossilized roots. Kael followed silently, his descent eerily still. They landed on a platform coated in volcanic glass.
And the door awaited them.
It was shaped like a pair of wings folded inward, sealed by an ancient locking rune glowing white.
The Sky Key responded immediately. As it neared, the rune flickered, then shattered like glass touched by light. The vault opened with a sigh, revealing a cathedral of fire.
They stepped inside.
---
The interior of Vault Seraphim defied logic.
The walls shimmered with heat, yet frost clung to the floor. Gravity twisted around central pillars of flame that didn't burn, and stone arches floated in midair without support. Above, a dome showed the sky—but not the one outside.
It was a sky full of stars Shu had never seen.
And in the center of it all, suspended in a lattice of light, was a figure.
She hovered above the ground, arms extended, strands of data and glyphs trailing from her fingertips into the air like puppet strings. Her cloak was white. Her hair flowed upward like wind beneath wings. The Sky Key hovered near her chest—but it burned blue, not gold.
Lyra.
She opened her eyes.
"You're late," she said.
Shu stepped forward. "You left a path of corpses. What exactly were we supposed to hurry for?"
"I thought Kael would know," she said, turning her gaze to the former Sentinel. "After all, this vault was his design."
Kael stepped forward. "You've activated the Seraphim Core. Why?"
"Because the lattice is waking," she said simply. "And I intend to finish what the Order was too afraid to do."
"The Order sealed this vault because it couldn't control the outcome," Kael said. "It doesn't just react to Sky Keys—it reacts to will."
"I know," she said. "That's why I'm here. It responds to intent. To truth. And my truth is clearer than yours."
Shu's grip tightened on his blades. "And what truth is that? That you deserve to rule what's left of the sky?"
"I don't want to rule it," she said softly. "I want to reset it."
She raised her hand, and the Core pulsed. Images flashed in the air—sky cities burning, ships falling, towers collapsing. But then came new ones: cities reborn, vaults open, skies clear.
"A clean start," Lyra said. "No empires. No relic wars. Just harmony. Guided by the lattice. Controlled by the code."
"That's not rebirth," Shu snapped. "That's obedience."
"And what do you offer, Shu?" she asked, descending slowly until her feet touched the ground. "Revenge? Nostalgia? You're carrying a key built by a dead world and wielding it like a sword."
"I offer choice," he said. "Even if it's messy. Even if it hurts."
She smiled, sadly. "Then we're opposites."
Kael stepped between them. "If you activate the full Seraphim Protocol, it won't just reboot the lattice—it will wipe anything unconnected to it. Millions will die."
Lyra hesitated. "Sacrifice is necessary. The Order knew that. You knew that."
Shu stepped forward. "Then you've already lost."
Lyra looked at him for a long time. Then she turned.
"Then stop me."
The Core surged.
Shu launched forward.
Their blades met in a burst of light—curved steel against a lattice-forged saber. The chamber roared around them, runes lighting with every strike. Lyra moved like lightning, every step predicted, every motion controlled. But Shu fought with instinct. Grit. Pain forged into purpose.
For a moment, they were equals.
Then the vault screamed.
The Seraphim Core destabilized. Glyphs shattered in midair. Kael ran to the center, hands splayed, trying to contain the overload.
"Too late!" he shouted. "It's collapsing!"
Lyra disengaged, eyes wide for the first time. "This wasn't supposed to happen."
Shu grabbed her wrist. "Then undo it!"
She reached for the Sky Key—but it didn't respond.
Instead, Shu's Key pulsed.
It rose into the air, spun, and collided with Lyra's.
A burst of white light erupted.
The vault vanished.
---
Shu woke in silence.
He lay on a stone platform in an endless sky, drifting above a sea of clouds. Beside him, the two Sky Keys floated—merged now, spinning as one.
Kael stood nearby.
"Where is she?" Shu asked.
"Gone," Kael said. "But not dead. The vault reacted to both of you. It created a middle path."
"What now?"
Kael looked up. "Now you find the next vault. Before she does. And before others come looking."
Shu stood, wind in his hair, stars above.
The sky remembered him.
And he remembered what he was fighting for.