The Citadel's artificial dawn flickered as if reality itself was trying to decide whether to rise or collapse. Kaelen Veyra stood before the panoramic viewport, the faint blue curve of Earth beneath him shrouded by lattice fractures, those glowing cracks in the sky that shimmered like veins of dying light.
Seris approached, her boots silent on the obsidian deck. "You didn't rest," she said softly.
Kaelen's reflection didn't move. "I don't need to."
She exhaled. "You do. Even the Forge can't hold your mind together forever."
"Incorrect," the Forge murmured from within, its voice resonating in both of them now. "Kaelen's cortical structure has adapted. Fatigue is now psychological, not biological."
Seris frowned. "That's not an improvement. That's self-destruction with math."
Kaelen turned toward her, eyes glinting silver. "You disappeared for half the war, Seris. You don't get to talk to me about self-destruction."
The air went still. Even Lyra, working at a nearby console, froze.
Seris's gaze faltered. "You think I wanted that? The Council pulled me out through a temporal fold, I didn't choose to vanish. When I came back, you were half-machine and orbiting Earth in a freaking fortress!"
Kaelen's jaw tightened, but the cold in his expression softened, barely. "Then tell me where you were."
Seris's hand trembled slightly before she clenched it into a fist. "In the Rift. The Fourth Realm. The Titans threw me in as a test subject. Time… doesn't move right there. You see everything at once. Every choice, every death, every version of yourself that fails. I survived because something, or someone, shielded me. It said your name, Kaelen."
Kaelen's eyes widened for a fraction of a second.
"Cross-dimensional signature confirmed," the Forge whispered. "Entity within Fourth Realm retains quantum imprint of Kaelen Veyra's resonance."
Seris stepped closer. "Whatever it was… it was afraid for you. Not of you."
A long silence. Kaelen's gaze drifted back to the window. "Then that thing… might be connected to me. Or to what's coming."
Lyra spoke up suddenly. "Then we have to prepare, right? No time to unravel interdimensional mysteries. The breaches are multiplying exponentially. Every hour, new contact points appear across orbit."
"Confirmed," the Forge added. "Fourth-Dimensional entities are no longer probing, they are assembling."
Kaelen turned sharply. "Deploy the cortex anchors. Activate planetary link with the Citadel. If they're coming for Earth, we meet them in orbit."
Seris's eyes flared with alarm. "That could tear the planet's atmosphere apart!"
Kaelen's voice was steady, cold. "Then it's a good thing I'm not planning to lose."
Thirty minutes later, the Citadel's belly opened like a steel flower. The Forge's light ran through its conduits, connecting to orbital arrays across the hemisphere.
Kaelen stood at the center of the command ring. His armor shimmered with the combined radiance of the Forge and Cortex, half machine, half pure resonance.
Outside, space rippled. Dozens, then hundreds, of Fourth-Dimensional echoes folded into existence. They resembled serpents made of smoke and glass, constantly rewriting themselves, every moment a different shape.
"Targets incoming!" Lyra shouted. "They're… phasing through our scanners!"
Kaelen extended a hand. Energy poured from him into the Citadel's spine. "They won't need to be scanned."
The Forge roared to life. Massive lances of silver plasma erupted from the Citadel's surface, carving across the void. The first wave of entities shattered under the blast, fragments dissipating into vapor trails of bending light.
But for every one destroyed, three more appeared.
"They adapt," the Forge warned. "Dimensional phasing. They are learning from each attack."
Kaelen's voice was calm. "So will I."
He leapt into the breach.
The Citadel's energy field bent open, forming a gate that poured him into the upper atmosphere. Clouds tore apart in his wake as he descended, then shot back up, propelled by sheer kinetic will, colliding with one of the creatures mid-orbit.
It screamed, reality distorting around its mouthless form. Kaelen's blade of pure Forge energy sliced through its body, the cut resonating like sound through space itself.
Another attacked from behind. Kaelen twisted, parrying with a flash of light. He didn't just fight, he orchestrated the battle, his every motion aligning with the rhythm of the lattice's pulse.
Below, Earth's night side erupted in silver auroras as the battle's energy cascaded across the atmosphere.
Inside the Citadel
Seris manned the command systems, keeping the lattice stable. Sweat dripped down her temples. "We can't hold the power flow much longer!"
Lyra's hands darted across the console. "If he pushes more energy, he'll burn the reactor core. The Citadel won't survive this output!"
Seris clenched her teeth. "Then divert half to me."
Lyra turned, horrified. "You'll fry your neural pathways!"
Seris smiled faintly, her eyes glowing blue now as she interfaced directly with the system. "If Kaelen's fighting for the world, I'm not sitting on the sidelines anymore."
She thrust her palms against the interface. Power surged. The Citadel's light intensified, its hull fracturing but holding.
In Orbit
Kaelen felt the surge instantly. Seris's energy intertwined with his through the Forge's channel. Their minds brushed, raw, electric, unfiltered.
"You're with me again."
Her voice echoed in his mind. "Always was."
The synchronization amplified his strength tenfold. The entities lunged again, but this time, Kaelen's counterattack wasn't just force, it was precision, intent, and purpose.
He split through them in a spiral of radiant energy, the Forge and Cortex harmonizing almost perfectly. Each strike folded entire entities out of existence, like cutting through illusions that forgot they weren't real.
Still, as he fought, something larger stirred beyond the breach. A shadow darker than the void itself began to emerge.
"Unidentified entity approaching," the Forge warned.
"Origin: Fourth Realm Core. Power signature, immeasurable."
Kaelen's eyes burned silver-white. "Then this is it. The true beginning."
He clenched his fists, his aura erupting like a collapsing star.
Seris's voice whispered in his mind. "Then end it before it begins."
The void cracked.
Something colossal began to crawl through, a shape so vast it dwarfed mountains, made of fragments of realities stitched together. Its eyes, or what passed for them, locked on Kaelen.
And then, for the first time in countless cycles of time, the Fourth Realm spoke.
"We remember you."
The words were not sound but existence. Every atom in Kaelen's body resonated with the voice.
He raised his head slowly. "Then you should've stayed forgotten."