The stars above their quiet camp burned steady and silent. Twilight lingered on this shadowed world, neither bright nor dark, as if time itself had agreed to let them rest a little longer.
A fire crackled—surrounded by laughter, soft voices, and the clink of bowls.
For the first time in over a decade, the three brothers were eating a real meal.
Not ration bars.
Not battlefield scraps.
But actual food.
Ryu was already three bites ahead of everyone else, dual-wielding skewers of flame-roasted solar-beast ribs like swords.
"I'm just saying," he spoke through a mouthful, "if the gods wanted peace, they should've invented better seasoning."
Luto, calmly stirring a pot of spicy celestial-root stew, didn't even glance up.
"You'd say that if they handed you a death sentence with a side of fries."
"…Would the fries be crispy?" Ryu asked.
Onyx just stared at them both.
A soft grunt escaped him. "Idiots."
But there was warmth in the word—a peace he hadn't felt in years.
Saelara Nive, the quiet healer who'd chosen to stay, sat slightly apart, sipping from a steaming mug. Her calm gaze held the practiced patience of a battlefield medic who'd seen far too much and still managed to smile.
Then—
Onyx's voice dropped, barely above the fire's whisper.
"…Arkann."
Silence fell.
Even Ryu stopped chewing.
Luto glanced up, spoon slowing.
Onyx stared into the fire. His hand rested on Varkal'Zir—not gripping it, just grounding himself.
"I haven't said his name since that day."
Ryu nodded once. "He saved our lives."
"He gave his so you could escape," Onyx said. "And he… told me something, right before we were taken by the gods."
The flames flickered higher.
"I didn't understand it then. But now…"
He met their eyes.
"At the edge of the Maelris Expanse—past the unmarked constellations—there's a place. Maybe a world, maybe a dimension. He called it Cindervault. Said that's where he hid… where he learned the truth about the gods, and why they wanted him erased."
Onyx exhaled slowly.
"He told me: 'If you survive, don't let them erase me. Find the Vault. Let the truth live—even if I can't.'"
The fire popped softly.
Luto set his spoon down.
Ryu leaned forward.
"Well," Ryu grinned, "you could've led with ancient rebel secrets instead of killing the mood."
Luto smirked. "And here I thought you'd outgrown your idiot phase."
Onyx shook his head.
"If we're fighting gods, then we need to know why Arkann started fighting first."
Ryu raised a skewer like a toast. "To old rebels and new revolutions."
Luto flicked him a shimmering sphere—an interdimensional snack ball pulsing through colors.
Onyx blinked. "You're… sharing?"
Luto shrugged. "I only trust people I give my prototypes to."
Ryu gasped. "You've never given me one!"
"You eat them before they activate," Luto said flatly.
"…Fair."
⸻
The fire blazed brighter.
A new mission had been born—not vengeance, but truth.
They would find Cindervault.
They would uncover what Arkann died to protect.
They would learn which gods had turned on him…
And they'd make sure the multiverse heard his story—
even if they had to scream it across galaxies.
Deep within each of them, something ignited.
Not duty.
Not revenge.
Fire.
A fire no god could contain.
⸻
The Next Day
Luto woke to the ground trembling beneath him.
His first thought: If Ryu's cooking again, I'm moving to another planet.
Groggy, hair wild, he sat up as another rumble passed—rhythmic, almost timed. He rubbed his eyes, muttering, "Either seismic instability or stupidity. I'm betting on the latter."
He wandered through the abandoned structure they'd camped in the night before. Light from the red supergiant poured through cracked walls, painting the halls in copper and rose.
Outside, the eternal twilight shimmered brighter than usual.
And there—sitting on the stone steps—was Saelara.
She smiled faintly. "Unique bed-head, Architect."
Luto groaned. "Morning sarcasm. My favorite."
"I'm surprised it took you this long to wake up," she said, tilting her head toward the plains.
Luto followed her gaze.
Two figures moved like blurs beneath the crimson sky.
Ryu and Onyx—bare-fisted, drenched in sweat—trading blows hard enough to shake the horizon.
Each strike boomed through the ground. Each dodge split the air. Sparks, flame, and faint distortions of void energy collided in rhythmic bursts.
Luto sighed. "Of course."
"They've been at it for a while," Saelara noted, a small smile touching her lips.
"It's been years," Luto said softly. "Used to be every morning. Guess they missed disturbing the peace together."
She glanced at him. "Something tells me you don't hate it as much as you say."
He didn't answer—just watched them with a faint smirk.
Down below, Ryu ducked a jab, laughing.
"Come on, Onyx! Don't tell me all that divine training made you soft!"
Onyx's eye twitched. "Keep talking."
"Thought so," Ryu taunted.
Onyx exhaled sharply, void energy flickering across his arms.
"Fine. You want serious?"
"Oh, absolutely."
Flames burst around Ryu's fists; void shadows rippled over Onyx's. They launched at each other—
And a bolt of lightning split the sky.
Both were struck mid-air, landing flat on their backs, smoking.
Luto stood at the edge of the cliff, Nulvyr crackling in his grip.
"That's enough."
Ryu groaned. "That… wasn't fair."
Onyx muttered, "I could've won."
Saelara's laugh echoed from the steps.
Luto marched over, smacking both of them on the head. "Youidiots! Using cosmic energy out here? You want to light up every divine scanner from here to the next system?!"
They sat cross-legged, sheepish and sizzling.
"Sorry…" Ryu mumbled.
"Won't happen again," Onyx added.
"Good," Luto said, plopping down on the steps beside Saelara. "Now that you're both officially fried, let's talk travel."
He crossed his arms. "Two questions. One—do either of you even know where the Maelris Expanse is?"
Ryu grinned. "That's your job, Mr. Map Guy."
A vein pulsed in Luto's forehead. "You accepted a dying man's mission and didn't check the coordinates?!"
Onyx chuckled quietly.
"Unbelievable," Luto muttered. "Never mind." He turned to Saelara. "You've been to a lot of worlds. Any leads?"
Saelara thought for a moment. "If I recall right, several rebel cells operate in the southern sector of the Auralis Expanse—where we are now. But this far north, life is sparse."
Luto nodded. "Figures. The portal dropped us near the system fringe—barely civilized. Great."
Ryu blinked. "Which means?"
Onyx translated dryly. "We're nowhere near anything useful."
"Exactly," Luto sighed. "So we'll have to cross the entire Auralis Expanse to reach the populated belt."
Saelara frowned. "That could take months."
"Which brings me to question two," Luto said. "We need a ship. And not just any ship."
Ryu's eyes lit up. "Wait—"
"Yes, Ryu," Luto cut in, "that ship."
Onyx and Saelara exchanged puzzled looks.
Luto smirked. "Aetherframe Genesis."
Ryu practically bounced. "He's doing it again! You're all gonna love this."
Saelara blinked. "Doing… what, exactly?"
Ryu spread his arms dramatically. "Building reality. The last time he did it was when we were separated those 10 years and training in the Vyr Expanse. On a dying moon. Built a ship from nothing but scrap and stubbornness."
Saelara looked between them, disbelief mixing with awe. "You can construct ships?"
Luto smiled faintly. "Not conventional ones. Through Aetherframe Genesis, I can bend dimensional fabric itself—turn concepts into constructs. I don't summon or forge; I rewrite physics around a blueprint I design in real-time. The result is a vessel that partially exists across multiple dimensions. It flies because the universe doesn't know it can't."
He leaned back, fingers tapping his knee. "Self-sustaining. Fold-jump capable. Survives storms and time fractures."
Saelara blinked again, astonished. "You'd need impossible resources."
"True," Luto said. "I'll need either Astral Ferrite or Nythralite as the core alloy. And at least 12,000 Rythe Units' worth of cosmic energy to initialize the frame."
Ryu whistled. "So… basically impossible."
"Not quite." Luto pointed upward.
"Notice the ring around this world?"
Saelara squinted. The red-lit sky revealed a shimmering halo of debris orbiting the planet.
"That ring's full of fractured vessels and collapsed stations," Luto continued. "Which means Astral Ferrite. Probably tons of it. I checked last night."
Ryu tilted his head. "How are we supposed to get it?"
Luto chuckled darkly, a spark flashing in his eyes.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
⸻
To Be Continued…