The twilight never truly left this world.
The horizon shimmered in its permanent hue of ember and dusk, and under it, the brothers gathered beside a field of metallic reeds, their laughter echoing softly through the thin air.
Luto knelt near the fire, adjusting the lenses of his scanner while faint arcs of dimensional energy traced between his fingers. His eyes flicked up to Onyx.
"Come here," he said quietly.
Onyx raised an eyebrow but obeyed. Luto leaned close, cupped a hand near his ear, and began to whisper.
A pause.
Then Onyx started laughing.
"You're not serious," he said, his deep voice rumbling like distant thunder.
"I'm completely serious." Luto's expression didn't flinch. "In fact, I'm brilliant."
"That's debatable," Onyx muttered, still chuckling.
Luto looked up as Saelara began walking toward the ruined structure they'd used as shelter the night before. "Saelara," he called. "You might want to stay inside for a bit. There's a high probability Ryu will need healing when this is over."
"What do you mean when this is over?" Ryu asked from the background, suspicious. "Why do I sound like the victim in your tone?"
Onyx folded his arms, smirking. "Because you are."
Ryu blinked. "I'm what?"
Luto straightened, brushing dust from his coat. "We're going to throw you into orbit."
Silence.
Ryu tilted his head. "You're gonna what—?"
"Into orbit," Luto repeated matter-of-factly, pointing upward at the thin glimmering belt encircling the red giant's light. "You'll land right on the debris ring. From there, you'll need to identify and drop chunks of Astral Ferrite down here. Onyx and I will collect them before they destabilize on reentry."
Ryu's mouth opened slightly. "…and when you say 'we'—who exactly is 'we' throwing me into orbit?"
Onyx raised a hand. Shadows folded open behind him like a veil parting. The ground trembled.
Then, from the darkness, something moved.
Gravemind Doruun rose—taller than the surrounding ruins, its obsidian form steaming with faint violet light. The creature's chest pulsed like a slow drum, its molten veins glowing faintly under the twilight.
Ryu's jaw dropped. "DORUUN?! I thought you were dead!"
Without hesitation, Ryu sprinted toward the massive being and tried to hug its leg. The leg didn't move. Doruun blinked—if such a voidborn could blink—and lowered its head slightly, the deep rumble of its breath stirring the dust around them.
Onyx smiled faintly. "He almost was. The blast nearly tore his core apart. But Saelara's healing gave me enough to repair his void structure."
Saelara, still by the doorway, folded her arms. "I said it would help with your recovery, not your giant monster's cardio."
Onyx smirked. "It worked anyway."
Luto clapped his hands. "Good. Then we're all in agreement. Doruun will handle the launch."
Ryu's grin faltered. "The what?"
Onyx crossed his arms. "You heard him. Launch."
"Like—throw me?"
"Precisely."
"Into space?!"
"Orbit," Luto corrected. "You'll only be in vacuum for a short period. Don't worry. Your cosmic flame naturally generates a field. Just—try not to panic. You'll suffocate faster that way."
Ryu laughed nervously. "Hilarious. You're joking, right?"
Luto handed him a small metallic device shaped like a coiled ring. "Attach this to your wrist. It'll keep us connected through dimensional resonance. You'll hear my voice clearly. If you find any usable Astral Ferrite, mark it with a pulse beacon and kick it free. Precision is key, or we'll spend the entire day chasing falling scrap."
Ryu fumbled with the device, still staring upward. "Okay, but what if something's up there?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know! Space ghosts, cosmic worms, gods with hobbies—"
"Possibly," Luto admitted. "There's a small chance some things survived the gravitational ripple when this world's system collapsed."
"Small chance?!"
"Insignificant," Onyx added, though his smirk betrayed him.
Saelara pinched the bridge of her nose. "You three are out of your minds. This is not a plan, it's a death sentence waiting to happen."
Luto smiled calmly. "It's efficient. Quick. And most importantly—untraceable. The gods won't think to look for three fugitives salvaging minerals from an abandoned orbit. We're ghosts right now, Saelara. Let's stay that way."
Saelara sighed. "At least make sure the ghost comes back."
Ryu grinned, climbing into Doruun's massive open hand. "Oh, don't worry. I always land on my feet."
"Technically," Luto muttered, "you're about to not land."
Onyx barked a short laugh, raising a hand to signal Doruun.
The air around them thickened as the Voidbound giant lifted its colossal arm. The energy in the atmosphere crackled, distorting the light as gravitational rings circled its forearm.
"Ready?" Onyx asked.
Ryu crouched, igniting his hands in flame. "Let's make it cinematic."
"Three," Luto counted, fingers glowing blue as he calibrated the trajectory.
"Two…"
Saelara turned her head, muttering something that might've been a prayer.
"One."
The world bent.
Doruun's roar echoed across the twilight valley as it hurled Ryu skyward.
A sonic boom shattered the air, scattering the metallic reeds. A crimson trail of fire followed the figure tearing through the atmosphere—flame carving a single line toward the shimmering belt in the heavens.
Saelara shielded her eyes from the brilliance. "He's insane."
Luto smirked faintly. "He's my brother."
And above them, Ryu screamed into the wind, half in thrill, half in terror—
"WOOOOOOOORTH IT!!!"
____
The Graveyard Above the Twilight
The air thinned.
Sound died.
And Ryu—Crownless Flame—floated.
Below him stretched the twilight planet: a living ember wreathed in dusk, its plains shimmering under the dim light of the red supergiant. The horizon bent in shades of copper and gold, clouds glowing faintly from reflected starlight. From up here, the endless fields looked like veins of molten glass pulsing under the surface of a sleeping world.
For the first time in what felt like forever, Ryu forgot to breathe.
"Damn…" he whispered, voice muffled by the thin layer of his flame-forged aura. "That's actually… beautiful."
He tilted his body slightly, the faint push of cosmic current shifting him between drifting fragments of broken ships and glimmering shards of lost stations. Metallic reflections wove around him like ghost constellations.
"Ryu!"
Luto's voice cut through the comm like an irritated thunderclap.
"Stop admiring the scenery and focus! You're reading low on oxygen regulation already—your flame won't compensate forever!"
Ryu laughed into the comm. "Luto, you really gotta relax. You woke up on the wrong side of the bed today?"
"Ryu, I don't sleep on a side. I sleep upright. Efficiently. Unlike you—"
A second voice cut in. "He's fine, Luto," Onyx said calmly, though the low rumble of Doruun's breathing in the background made it sound like thunder from a god's lungs.
"I'm not fine!" Luto barked. "I'm managing a cosmic engineering project while one brother is chatting with a void monster and the other's sightseeing in orbit!"
Ryu grinned, doing a lazy spin between two fractured hulls. "Aww, you worry too much."
"You think I worry too much?"
"Yes. Also, you sound like you're holding your breath—"
"Because I am!" Luto yelled, exasperated.
Ryu chuckled and focused, letting his aura stabilize. Small tongues of plasma flickered off his arms as he scanned the debris field, gliding between broken metal and crystalline panels. Each piece drifted in eerie silence—remnants of some long-lost civilization that once orbited this world.
Then something glimmered.
A faint blue pulse buried in the side of a broken engine core.
"Bingo," Ryu muttered.
He reached out, pressing his hand against the material. Instantly, his flames illuminated streaks of crystalline filaments embedded deep within the metal. They hummed faintly with residual cosmic energy—Astral Ferrite.
"Luto, I found it! Sending the first shipment now."
Below, in the valley, Onyx looked up as burning fragments began streaking across the sky like comets. Doruun extended a massive arm, catching a cluster of glowing debris midair before it could crash. The metal hissed, cooled instantly under void compression.
Luto's fingers flew across his holo-slate. "Perfect trajectory. Keep going. Try to drop them along the same vector—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ryu said, lazily floating toward another piece of wreckage. "I got this."
"You never 'got this,'" Luto muttered.
"Confidence, my dear brother! Confidence!"
Ryu kicked off a panel, sending himself spinning toward another drift cluster. He sliced through a hanging sheet of steel, uncovering another streak of glowing ore. Every move sent a faint ripple of energy through the orbit, the debris singing as gravity remembered what motion felt like.
Then—
A chill ran through him.
Something shifted above the wreckage.
Ryu froze mid-drift. His flame dimmed instinctively.
He looked up.
The faint shimmer of starlight passed over something—hundreds of somethings—suspended across the upper arc of the belt. At first, he thought they were dormant drones. Then they twitched.
Wings.
Not mechanical.
Dark. Smooth. Too many.
"Uh…" Ryu whispered. "Hey, Luto?"
"I'm tracking your pulse signature," Luto replied distractedly. "Everything reading normal. Why?"
"Quick question," Ryu said slowly, eyes narrowing as the nearest creature unfurled a long, leathery wing. "Do bats… live in space?"
There was a pause.
"…What?"
Ryu blinked as the winged shapes turned toward him—hundreds of eyes opening at once, all reflecting his crimson glow.
"Oh. That's new."
"Ryu?" Onyx's voice now, heavy with concern. "What are you seeing?"
Ryu swallowed, watching as the creatures shifted in unison, claws curling against the metal hulls they clung to. Their mouths opened—not to bite, but to scream.
"Oh, shi—"
The belt erupted.
A single sonic detonation rippled through the void—an explosion of pure vibration. Every fragment of debris convulsed and shattered outward. The wave slammed into Ryu's chest, spinning him violently through the wreckage.
"—Ryu!" Luto shouted, his voice crackling with static. "What was that?! Ryu, respond!"
Onyx was already shouting orders, Doruun roaring as he raised his head to the heavens. Saelara ran from the structure, eyes wide as the sky lit up.
High above, a bloom of blue fire rippled through the atmosphere.
Then silence.
Luto's connection panel flickered.
The signal flatlined.
The last thing they saw was the expanding ring of light—
and then the line went dead.