Kairo had just picked up the second Atlas piece when the sky changed.
At first, it was small stuff—just a low rumble under his boots and a few floating rocks shifting around like they were waking up from a nap. But then came the real noise, deep and echoing, like thunder inside a cave.
He paused, glanced around, and whispered to himself,"…That doesn't sound good."The next thing he knew, the air itself began to hum. Bright golden lines lit up beneath his feet—symbols, circles, shapes that seemed to draw themselves across the sky. The stars around him started to move faster, faster—spinning and swirling like he'd kicked a nest of angry sky-bees.
And then it happened.
The rocks floating near the ruins began to pull together, clicking into place piece by piece, like a puzzle forming in midair.
What they built looked like a creature from a dream—or maybe a nightmare.
It was massive. It had wings made of starlight and stone, a long tail that shimmered, and a chest that glowed like it had a sun burning inside it. Its head turned slowly, and its eyes—bright, golden, ancient—locked right onto him.
"…Hi?"Kairo tried.Bad idea.The thing let out a noise that wasn't a roar—it was more like music, but loud and heavy, the kind that made your bones vibrate. The Guardian had woken up, and it clearly wasn't happy.
Back on the Cloudreaper, Cinder squinted through his telescope and nearly dropped it.
"Oh, that's not good," he muttered.
Velka stood beside him, calm as ever. "It's a Guardian. Built to protect the Atlas."
"Well, it's about to squish your new captain."
"We should probably go get him," shesaid.
"Yeah, probably," Cinder grumbled, already throwing the ship into motion.
Meanwhile, Kairo was running.
Leaping from floating platform to platform, slipping on one, nearly falling off another, he was just trying to stay alive. The Guardian was flying after him—its wings didn't flap like a bird's. They glided, quiet and terrifying, and every time it opened its mouth, it let out a sound that shook the sky.
"Kairo!" Velka's voice came through his wrist communicator. "You need to move toward the bell rock! Now!"
He spotted it. A curved, broken piece of a tower floating in the air.
"On it!"
He fired his grappling hook, swung around the edge, and barely dodged a swipe from the Guardian's glowing claws. Sparks flew. A floating stone exploded behind him.
He spotted the ship rising fast through the mist.
Cinder leaned over the edge. "Jump, you maniac!"
Kairo sprinted forward, every muscle screaming, and launched himself into the air.
He landed hard on the deck of the Cloudreaper, rolled once, and groaned.
Cinder hauled him up. "You alive?"
"Yeah," Kairo panted. "But that thing doesn't mess around."
He held up the second Atlas piece, glowing in his hand.
"But I got it."They didn't stick around. The Cloudreaper pulled away fast, engines burning bright as the Guardian faded back into the stars.
It didn't follow.It just… watched.Later, Kairo lay on the deck, still catching his breath. His clothes were dusty, his hair stuck up in every direction, and he couldn't stop smiling.
"That was way too close," he muttered.
Velka sat nearby, holding both map pieces in her lap.
"They're starting to link together," she said quietly. "The path ahead is clearer now."
Kairo looked at her, then up at the sky.
"I don't think the world wants us to reach the First Horizon."
Velka gave a small smile. "That's fine. We're going anyway."
He grinned. "Yeah. Let's keep doing what we're not supposed to."
END OF CHAPTER 6