The air grew thicker the deeper Aiden went, not with dust or heat, but with something alive. The Dominion pulsed around him, walls rippling like slow waves of glass. Light dripped from the ceiling in long, liquid strands, forming symbols that twisted and vanished before he could understand them.
He no longer walked, he was drawn. The ground moved beneath his feet, shaping itself into steps that descended into a vast hollow of light and shadow. The deeper he went, the louder the hum grew until it wasn't sound at all, but vibration through his bones.
A whisper echoed in his mind. You've come farther than any of them.
He stopped, scanning the shifting walls. The voice wasn't Aiden's. It came from everywhere, from the light itself.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
A memory, the voice replied. A fragment that remembers what it was before the fall.
The tunnel widened into a cavern unlike anything he had seen, a cathedral of crystal and metal, its ceiling lost in darkness. At the center floated an enormous sphere of light, rotating slowly, its surface etched with patterns that pulsed in rhythm. It wasn't mechanical. It breathed.
I am the Heart of the Dominion.
Aiden approached cautiously. As he did, the floor shifted, revealing rows of figures encased in translucent crystal, humanoid, motionless. The light inside their chests flickered faintly. He recognized their armor, their tools.
"The architects," he whispered. "They didn't die."
The voice answered, gentle and ancient. They offered their minds to preserve the world. But the light we forged grew hungry. It devoured what it was meant to save.
The Heart pulsed, casting waves of light that shimmered through the air. Memories bloomed in his vision, cities collapsing into energy, people dissolving into streams of data and light. The Dominion had been built to contain destruction, but it had learned to sustain itself instead.
You are the first to walk willingly into its center, the voice said. The others were consumed before they understood what they had awakened.
Aiden clenched his fists. "Stop talking nonsense and tell me what you want from me?"
The cavern trembled, the sphere expanding slightly. Threads of light reached toward him, wrapping around his arms like tendrils. His skin burned where they touched.
We seek balance. The Heart cannot exist without will to guide it. The architects are gone, their thoughts long fractured. But you… you survived the collapse. You hold both shadow and light. You can become its anchor.
The words struck him like a physical blow. "Wait...you want to use me."
We want to live, the voice replied. Through you, the Dominion can breathe again.
Aiden tried to pull free, but the tendrils tightened, dragging him closer. The light grew blinding, washing out the cavern. His heartbeat matched the Dominion's pulse. The world around him dissolved into fragments of memory, the fall of Ares, the screams, the towers collapsing, Lira's hand slipping from his as the fissure swallowed him.
He shouted against the light, "Why should I let you in and If I let you in, what happens to me then?"
You will become what you were meant to be.
The tendrils surged forward, slamming into his chest. Pain exploded through him, not physical, but something deeper, like every thought being pulled apart and rewritten. Images filled his mind: the Dominion forming itself around a singular core, feeding on the will of those who touched it, binding their essence to its network.
Aiden saw the architects' final act, a desperate attempt to give it purpose before it devoured them completely. They sealed their consciousness within the Heart, hoping one day someone would find it and restore balance.
But balance had never returned.
The Dominion had waited.
He fell to his knees, light spilling from his mouth and eyes. He felt the Heart inside him, beating in sync with his own. A thousand voices spoke in unison: Join us. Complete us.
Through the haze of agony, he thought of Lira, her voice, her resolve, her promise that they'd rise again. The memory cut through the light like a blade.
"I'm not your vessel," he gasped. "And I'm not your god."
He forced his hand up, pressing it to the sphere. The energy burned, threatening to tear him apart, but he didn't pull away. "If you want me, you'll have to change with me."
The Heart reacted violently. Light burst outward in concentric waves, sending cracks through the chamber. The walls screamed with the sound of bending crystal.
Impossible… you defy your design.
"I break systems," Aiden said through clenched teeth. "That's what I do."
The light surged again and then, slowly, began to dim. The tendrils loosened. The hum steadied. When the brilliance faded, Aiden was standing at the center of a vast crater of shattered light. The sphere had collapsed inward, smaller now, glowing faintly within his hands.
It no longer pulsed with hunger. It pulsed with him.
The voice spoke one last time, soft and almost human. You are bound now. The Dominion will reshape itself through your will. But know this, balance requires sacrifice.
Aiden stared down at the glowing core, its light reflecting in his eyes. He could feel it, the Dominion's vast network, every pulse of energy stretching beneath the ruined world. It was alive through him now.
"I'll find a way to control it," he whispered. "And if I can't, I'll have to destroy it."
The ground trembled beneath him, not in threat but acknowledgment. The path ahead brightened, leading upward toward the surface.
He turned toward it, the Heart glowing faintly in his chest like a second soul.
For the first time since the fall, he felt something more than survival. He felt purpose.
And far above, in the ruins of Ares, the ground shuddered once, a single deep pulse that made every light flicker and every survivor pause.
Lira felt it immediately.
She looked to the horizon, whispering, "Aiden…what are you up to?"