The journey to Vall Oras took three days.
Through mountains of rusted steel, dead ether storms, and valleys where the ground itself hummed with static life.
Once, the city had been the crown of Ardentia—the forge of gods, the birthplace of all mecha souls.
Now, it was a wound that never healed.
Rayan Tarsa stood at the ridge, staring down at the ruins below.
The city glowed faintly, veins of pale blue light pulsing under the surface like a dying heart.
> "That's it," Lyra Venn murmured beside him.
"Vall Oras. The place every mechanist dreams of… and every sane person avoids."
Rayan smirked.
> "Good thing we're neither."
They descended into the ruins at dawn.
The silence was suffocating—no wind, no birds, only the hum of dormant power.
Broken spires pierced the fog, and massive gearworks jutted out of the ground like the bones of a machine god.
Rustfang moved cautiously behind them, its heavy footsteps echoing through the mist.
> "I'm reading multiple ether signatures," Lyra said, checking her scanner.
"Something's still alive down here."
> "Alive?" Rayan asked.
> "Or awake," she corrected. "Can't tell which is worse."
They followed a glowing path etched into the stone, descending into a massive cavern lined with ancient symbols.
The deeper they went, the more the air vibrated with energy.
It felt like the pulse of something enormous… something waiting.
At the end of the descent stood a cathedral of machines.
Towers of glass and steel rose like pillars of faith.
And at the center floated a massive construct—a heart-shaped engine suspended in a cocoon of light, slowly beating.
Each pulse shook the air, each rhythm carrying whispers of old memories.
Rustfang stopped, its optics flaring wide.
> "That… is the source," it said, voice trembling.
"The first of my kind. The Sleeping Heart."
Lyra's eyes widened.
> "You mean… this thing created you?"
> "Not created," Rustfang said. "Born from it. As all Soul Engines were."
Rayan stepped forward, drawn by something he couldn't explain.
His neural link pulsed on its own, syncing to the rhythm of the Heart.
And suddenly, he heard a voice.
> "You came," it whispered.
The sound wasn't heard with ears—it resonated in his mind, deep and ancient.
A figure materialized before him—a woman of light and metal, her form both ethereal and mechanical.
Her eyes glowed like stars fading in twilight.
> "Rayan Tarsa," she said. "Bearer of a forgotten soul. You walk the path of echoes."
Rayan swallowed hard.
> "Who are you?"
> "A shadow of the one who built this world," she replied.
"The first Architect."
Lyra's voice trembled.
> "The Architect? That's impossible. She vanished centuries ago."
The holographic figure smiled faintly.
> "Vanished… or perhaps, buried."
She gestured toward the Heart.
> "That is my legacy. A gift meant to unite man and machine. But humans turned it into war. They feared what they could not control."
Rayan clenched his fists.
> "And now it's happening again. The Order hunts us because of you."
> "Because of what you awakened," she corrected softly.
"Rustfang's core carries a fragment of my consciousness. Through him, I live again. Through you, I remember."
Before he could respond, the chamber shook violently.
A beam of golden light burst through the ceiling, followed by armored soldiers descending like angels of judgment.
The Order of Solis had arrived.
Their banners of white and gold gleamed, marked with the Eye of Faith.
At their head stood Ardis Valen, his expression calm, merciless.
His armor radiated brilliance, and the holy sword at his side burned with pure ether light.
> "Rayan Tarsa," he called. "By decree of the Order, you stand guilty of communion with heretical machines."
Rayan stepped forward, unflinching.
> "Funny. I thought guilt required a conscience."
> "You consort with the ghosts of blasphemy," Ardis said coldly.
"The Architect's sin must be erased—from the world, and from you."
He raised his sword, its blade glowing like a second sun.
Rustfang roared, metal wings unfurling as crimson ether flared from its joints.
Rayan's neural link surged, his body trembling as his vision fused with Rustfang's.
The Architect's hologram flickered, her voice echoing one last time.
> "The war begins again…
Light against steel.
Creation against its maker."
Rayan took a breath, his voice calm but steady.
> "Let's finish what they started, Rustfang."
> "With you," the mech rumbled, "always."
The Heart behind them pulsed one final time, sending waves of energy through the city.
And as steel met light in the ruins of Vall Oras, the world of Ardentia shifted once again—
the Sleeping Heart awakening to the sound of war.