The Ashorex capital, Luminar, was a corpse of its former glory.
Celia stood at the edge of the Sunscorched Plains, staring at the once-gleaming spires that now jutted crookedly into a bruise-colored sky. The Solaris Veil, still hanging from her belt, hummed faintly as though mourning its fallen home. Beside her, Jax Lobenstein adjusted the hood of his tattered cloak, his Arc Core's glow muted under layers of grime. Talen lingered a few paces back, clutching the Luminar Code tablet like a lifeline.
"They've fortified the gates," Jax said, squinting through a stolen telescopic lens. "Council banners. Those aren't Ashorex guards—they're puppets."
Celia nodded. The figures patrolling Luminar's walls moved with unnatural synchronicity, their armor blackened and eyes glowing faintly violet. The Vult Council had wasted no time. "The catacombs," she said. "There's an entrance through the sewers."
Jax raised an eyebrow. "Sewers? You really were a rebel saint."
"I was a princess," she corrected coldly. "I know every secret of this city. Even the filthy ones."
Talen cleared his throat. "The Code's shifting. The Council's altering the sigils—if we don't hurry, the fragment will be buried forever."
Celia glanced at the Reality Shard in her palm. Its light had dimmed to a feeble pulse, the cracks along its surface spreading like spiderwebs. Two uses left. Maybe one.
---
The sewers reeked of decay and betrayal. Celia led them through knee-deep sludge, her Solaris Veil glowing just enough to reveal the path. The walls, once adorned with holy mosaics, were now scrawled with the Vult Council's jagged runes.
"Cheerful décor," Jax muttered, swatting a mutated rat off his leg. "Reminds me of home."
Talen gagged as a corpse floated past—an Ashorex priestess, her golden robes half-dissolved. "They're purging the faithful."
"The Council doesn't need faith," Celia said. "They want obedience."
They reached a rusted grate marked with a fading Ashorex sunburst. Beyond it lay the catacombs, a labyrinth of tombs and forgotten relics. Celia pressed her palm to the lock, channeling a sliver of unstable light. The grate shrieked open.
"Still know the hymns?" Jax asked drily.
"Quiet."
The catacombs were silent, the air thick with the scent of incense and rot. Celia traced her fingers over the nameplates of ancestors she'd once revered. Liars. All of them.
Talen paused at a tomb sealed with Luminar Code. "This shouldn't be here. The dead are… protected."
Jax snorted. "Tell that to the Council."
Celia froze. Ahead, the corridor ended in a massive door fused from Ashorex gold and Lobenstein steel. The Third Heart's symbol glowed faintly at its center.
"The fragment's behind that," Talen whispered.
"No," Celia said. "It is the door."
---
The door shuddered as they approached, its surface rippling like liquid. A face emerged—a woman's, her features a blend of Celia's sharp angles and Jax's ruggedness. Lira Veythar's voice echoed, distorted by centuries.
"Prove your worth, heirs of ash and ore."
Talen stepped forward. "We're here to restore the Heart! The Council's corrupting it—"
The door's surface hardened, throwing him back. "Words are wind. Prove. Sacrifice."
Jax eyed the door. "It wants a trade. Something precious."
"Like what?" Talen asked.
Celia's grip tightened on the Shard. "Blood. Memory. Power."
Jax unclipped his plasma wrench, its core nearly depleted. "Or a show of teamwork."
Before Celia could react, he pressed the wrench's sparking end to the door and grabbed her hand. "Channel your light. Now."
She resisted. "This could kill us—"
"So will the Council."
Celia exhaled, letting her frayed magic merge with the wrench's unstable energy. Gold and blue light spiraled into the door, illuminating veins of Luminar Code and Lobenstein circuitry.
The door screamed.
A crack split Lira's face, and the door crumbled, revealing a chamber bathed in ethereal light. At its center hovered the Second Heart fragment—a crystalline shard pulsing with pure, uncorrupted energy.
Jax collapsed, his Core stuttering. "Told you… teamwork…"
---
They barely had time to breathe.
"Take it," Talen urged, staring at the fragment. "Before they—"
The walls exploded.
Vult Council enforcers poured into the chamber, their void-like armor absorbing the light. At their head stood Grand Inquisitor Voss, his face a featureless mask beneath a hood of shifting static.
"You persist, as insects do," Voss intoned. "But even insects serve a purpose."
Celia grabbed the fragment, its light searing her skin. "Stay back!"
"You misunderstand." Voss gestured, and the enforcers parted. A figure shuffled forward—High Luminar Torin, Celia's uncle, his once-regal frame hunched and twitching. His eyes were voids, his mouth sewn shut with dark wire.
"Uncle…" Celia whispered.
"He serves better now," Voss said. "As will you."
Jax struggled to his feet, firing his wrench. The blast fizzled against Voss's armor. "Run, Celia! Take the fragment and—"
An enforcer struck him down, a blade of shadow piercing his thigh. Talen lunged, but a backhanded blow sent him crashing into the wall.
Celia backed toward the chamber's edge, the fragment and Shard burning in her hands. Merge them. The realization struck her like lightning. Merge the fragments.
She slammed the Shard into the fragment.
---
Light erupted—not gold, not blue, but a blinding white. The chamber dissolved, replaced by a memory older than the Sundered Forge.
Celia stood in a void, facing the original Third Heart—a colossal engine of light and gears, its surface etched with the faces of a thousand forgotten souls. Lira Veythar stood before it, weeping.
"They fear unity," Lira said, though her mouth didn't move.
The memory shifted. Celia saw the Vult Council's birth—a cabal of Ashorex and Lobenstein elders, their faces twisted by greed. They shattered the Heart, buried its fragments, and rewrote history.
"The Lie is their weapon," Lira whispered. "Break it."
The vision ended. Celia gasped, clutching the merged fragment. It pulsed with newfound strength, its light repelling the enforcers.
Voss recoiled. "You dare wield what you cannot comprehend!"
"No," Celia said. "I understand it."
She channeled the fragment's power, her holy magic merging with its primal energy. The enforcers disintegrated, their armor dissolving into ash. Voss screamed, his form unraveling into static.
"Celia!" Jax's voice cut through the chaos. "The chamber's collapsing!"
The walls crumbled, the cathedral above groaning. Talen dragged Jax toward the exit as Celia followed, the fragment's light shielding them from falling debris.
---
They emerged into a city in chaos. Luminar's spires trembled, Voidwell storms ravaging the sky. Ashorex citizens ran screaming, their faith shattered by the Council's betrayal.
Talen stared at Celia, awe and fear in his eyes. "What did you do?"
"What they should've done centuries ago." She lifted the merged fragment, now a jagged blade of light. "We're ending this."
Jax leaned against a crumbling wall, his Core looked … darker. "You'll need the rest… of the fragments."
Celia knelt beside him. "We'll find them. Together."
He laughed weakly. "Optimist."
A roar shook the city. From the cathedral's ruins rose a new horror—a Veythari titan, its body a fusion of corrupted Heart energy and Council machinery.
"The Council… endures," it boomed, Lira Veythar's face twisted across its chest. "The Lie… survives."
Talen stepped back. "What is that?"
Celia hefted the fragment-blade. "Our next mistake."
---
End of Chapter 5