The victory at the First Forge had been a roar of defiance heard across the stars, but the silence that followed was suffocating. As the Valkyrie banked away from the Spines of Gaea, the sky above the Uncharted West transitioned from the blinding white of the Solar-Lens to a murky, sickly amber. The retreat of the Hive-Ship hadn't signaled the end; it had merely shifted the theater of war from the heavens to the earth.
Kaelen sat in the medical bay of the flagship, his bare chest exposed to the cold, sterile air. The Aegis of the First Forge lay on a nearby table, still thrumming with a faint, golden resonance. Elara moved around him with the clinical precision of a surgeon, her hands glowing with a soft, restorative blue light.
"The calcification is spreading, Kaelen," she whispered, her brow furrowed. She gestured to his left shoulder, where the Starlight-Steel was no longer flexible. It had turned into a dull, grey crystalline structure that felt like cold stone to the touch. "Every time you use the Void-Ignition, you aren't just burning mana. You're burning the biological bridges between your cells. If this reaches your heart, the Scepter won't be able to jumpstart you again."
Kaelen looked down at his reflection in a polished piece of scrap metal. The violet Void-Scars had reached his jawline now, looking like a map of a shattered world.
5 Days, 02 Hours, 15 Minutes.
"We don't have time for a slow recovery, Elara," Kaelen said, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together. "The Solar-Lens bought us a window, but Pip's scanners are already picking up 'Seed-Pods' falling in the Eastern Provinces. The Star-Eaters aren't leaving; they're diversifying."
"He's right," Pip chirped, poking his head through the doorway, his goggles pushed up onto his forehead. "The Hive-Ship took a hit, but it released a massive amount of 'Void-Spore' into the atmosphere as it retreated. The Salt-Marshes in the South are already reporting a total ecosystem collapse. And that's exactly where the Fourth Relic's signature is coming from."
"THE SALT-MARSHES... THE GRAVEYARD OF THE TIDES," Ignis rumbled deep within Kaelen's mind. "BEWARE, ECHO. THAT LAND WAS NOT SHAPED BY FIRE. IT WAS SHAPED BY THE TEARS OF GAEA. THE RELIC THERE IS NOT A WEAPON OF THE SUN. IT IS THE CROWN OF THE ABYSS."
The transition from the mountain air to the southern humidity was like walking into a wet wool blanket. By the time the fleet reached the edge of the Salt-Marshes, the vibrant greens of the coastal forests had been replaced by a landscape of bleached white trees and stagnant, iron-colored water.
The Salt-Marshes were home to the Sunken Cities, ancient metropolitan centers that had been reclaimed by the rising tides during the first age of industrialization. Now, they were jagged skeletons of stone and rusted rebar poking out of the brine, draped in thick, grey moss that looked like rotting hair.
"Stay sharp," Ria commanded, standing at the prow of the landing skiff as they descended toward the ruins of Lumeria, the largest of the sunken districts. "The water here is toxic. One scratch, and the brine-rot will have your limb within the hour."
Korg stood beside her, his massive Goliath weight causing the skiff to sit dangerously low in the water. He kept his hand on the hilt of his hammer, his eyes scanning the surface of the murky water. "The water isn't moving," he noted. "No tides. No ripples. It's like the world is holding its breath."
As the skiff glided through a narrow "street" between two crumbling skyscrapers, Kaelen felt a sharp pull in his chest. The Scepter of the Unspoken began to vibrate against his hip.
"It's close," Kaelen said, standing up. The movement caused a sharp pain in his crystalline shoulder, but he ignored it. "Underneath us. Deep."
Suddenly, the water erupted.
A massive, serpentine shape burst from the brine, showering the skiff in acidic salt-water. It wasn't a Star-Eater, but it was changed by them. It was a Brine-Wraith, a local apex predator that had been "infected" by the Void-Spores. Its scales were a translucent purple, and its many eyes glowed with the frantic, chaotic light of the Hive.
"Defensive positions!" Ria roared, her spear igniting with azure light.
The Wraith didn't bite; it shrieked. The sound was a sonic weapon that shattered the glass windows of the surrounding ruins and sent a wave of nausea through the team. Korg stepped forward, planting his shield just in time to catch the creature's massive tail as it slammed into the skiff. The impact nearly capsized them, the metal of the boat groaning under the pressure.
Kaelen didn't wait. He Blinked onto the back of the creature.
The surface of the Wraith was slick with a caustic slime that began to eat through his Starlight-Steel boots. He ignored the burning and drove his hand—now glowing with a focused, emerald heat—into the creature's neck.
"Ignis! Burn it from the inside!"
A surge of dragon-fire poured from Kaelen's palm. The Wraith thrashed, its internal organs boiling, but it didn't die. It turned its head 180 degrees, its many eyes fixing on Kaelen.
"THE... HUNGER... IS... ALL..." the creature hissed, its voice a wet, gurgling version of the Star-Eaters' telepathy.
It dove.
Kaelen was dragged beneath the surface of the salt-water. The world turned into a blur of grey brine and stinging salt. His Void-Scars flared, the dark energy reacting violently to the "Void-Spore" saturation in the water.
Under the water, Kaelen saw the true horror of the Marshes. The Sunken City wasn't just ruined; it was being rebuilt. Thousands of smaller creatures were moving through the submerged buildings, carrying fragments of obsidian and bone, constructing a massive, underwater hive. At the center of this hive sat a cathedral-like structure, and within its altar, a pulsing, sapphire-blue light beckoned.
Relic #4: The Crown of the Deep.
The Wraith squeezed Kaelen, its coils crushing his chest. His air was running out, and the "One-Week Clock" in his mind was flickering red.
5 Days, 01 Hour, 45 Minutes.
"YOU ARE DROWNING IN THE PAST, ECHO," Ignis's voice was fading, dampened by the salt. "THE WATER IS THE VOID'S EMBRACE. IF YOU DO NOT BREAK THE SURFACE, THE CLOCK STOPS HERE."
Kaelen didn't fight the coil. He didn't fight the water. He reached out to the fourth relic, sensing its frequency. The Crown of the Deep wasn't a weapon of heat or fire; it was the master of Fluidity. It was the power to move with the world, rather than against it.
"I am... the bridge," Kaelen thought, his lungs burning.
He didn't use fire. He used Spatial Displacement. He swapped the space inside his lungs for the air on the skiff above. A sudden, cold gasp of oxygen hit his system, shocking him back to full consciousness. Then, he focused on the water around the Wraith.
"Phase... Shift!"
The water in a ten-foot radius around Kaelen and the Wraith instantly turned into steam. The sudden expansion of gas created an underwater explosion that blew the creature's coils apart. Kaelen launched himself upward, a streak of emerald-and-violet bubbles, breaking the surface and landing back on the skiff with a heavy thud.
The Wraith followed, but before it could strike again, a heavy, enchanted bolt from the Valkyrie's overhead guns pierced its skull, pinning it to a submerged wall. The creature shivered and dissolved into a puddle of black sludge.
Ria knelt beside Kaelen, her hands trembling as she helped him up. "The water... it's changing your skin, Kaelen. Look."
He looked at his hands. Where the salt-water had touched him, the Starlight-Steel had turned into a shimmering, iridescent pearl-color. The fourth relic was already influencing his biology before he had even touched it.
"The Relic is in the cathedral below," Kaelen said, pointing into the dark depths. "But the Star-Eaters are using it as a battery. They're building a portal, Ria. They aren't just harvesting Gaea anymore. They're bringing the rest of the Hive here."
"Then we blow the cathedral," Korg said, his voice a low rumble.
"No," Elara countered, looking at her scanners. "If you destroy the Relic, the entire South will sink into the abyss. The Crown of the Deep is the only thing holding the tectonic plates of the Marshes together. We have to retrieve it without breaking the seal."
Kaelen looked at the cathedral's spire, which was just visible beneath the water. He felt the weight of his team's gaze. They were exhausted, battered from the Forge, and now drowning in a toxic swamp.
"Pip," Kaelen said, turning to the gnome. "How long to retro-fit the skiff for deep-dive pressure?"
"With Guild tech? Twelve hours," Pip said, his face falling. "And we don't have twelve hours."
Kaelen looked at his clock. 5 Days, 01 Hour, 30 Minutes.
"You have two," Kaelen said. "I'll go down first and keep the 'rebuilders' busy. Ria, Korg—you handle the surface. If any more of those Wraiths show up, don't let them near the Valkyrie."
"Kaelen, you can't go down there alone," Ria protested. "Your shoulder is stone! You can't swim!"
"I won't be swimming," Kaelen said, his eyes glowing with a new, fluid blue light that began to mix with the emerald fire. "I'll be walking. The Void doesn't care about pressure, Ria. And neither do I."
As Kaelen prepared to dive back into the murky brine, a massive shadow fell over the Salt-Marshes. It wasn't the Hive-Ship. It was something else—a storm of black clouds that crackled with orange lightning.
The Star-Eaters had launched their counter-offensive. The "Planet-Cracker" strike was no longer a threat; it was a reality. The clouds weren't made of water; they were made of microscopic Nanites, designed to deconstruct the planet's atmosphere molecule by molecule.
"The air is turning to glass!" Elara screamed, clutching her throat.
Kaelen looked at the sky, then at the water. The Fourth Relic wasn't just a goal anymore. It was the only thing that could create a "Hydro-Shield" large enough to protect the Southern Province from the atmospheric dissolution.
"Get in the boat!" Kaelen roared, his voice echoing through the ruins. "The clock just started ticking for the whole world!"
He dove. The brine swallowed him whole, and the "Hero" vanished into the dark, silent depths of the Sunken City, heading toward a Crown that was never meant for human hands.
~Current Status~
The One-Week Clock: 5 Days, 01 Hour, 20 Minutes remaining.
Atmospheric Status: Dissolution Imminent (The Nanite-Storm will reach the Marshes in 6 hours).
Kaelen's Condition: Mutating (His Starlight-Steel is becoming 'Pearl-Glass', increasing his speed in water but making him fragile to physical impact).