The valley screamed.Six Dominion Sentinels descended upon Astra's Hollow like falling stars, each leaving a trail of fire as they struck the shattered earth. Their armor shone with molten veins, carved in the likeness of long-dead gods. They were neither spirit nor machine, but something in between — echoes given form.
Kael's new sword, the Iron-Star Reforged, pulsed against his palm, its core alive with molten light. Each heartbeat resonated with the rhythm of the forge that had rebirthed it.
Eira's runes burned across her arms as she threw up a barrier of azure flame. "They're adapting fast! Their cores are syncing with the Dominion's old channels."
Kael planted his feet, eyes narrowing. "Then we break the channels."He leapt forward.
The first Sentinel met him midair, blade colliding against blade. The impact split the sky with a shockwave that rolled through the crater. Fragments of glassed earth spiraled upward like shrapnel.
Kael twisted, driving his sword down through the Sentinel's helm. The construct convulsed, its body cracking as light bled from its core. "One," he hissed.
But as the husk fell, the remaining five moved — not individually, but as one.
Their formation closed in, blades humming in perfect synchronization.
Eira shouted, "They're linked by thought! It's a hive-echo!"
Kael's grip tightened. "Then cut the hive."
The Sentinels lunged.Kael pivoted low, dragging his blade in an arc that left trails of molten light in the air. The heat melted through one Sentinel's knee joints. Eira followed up with a blast of condensed lightning that vaporized the falling construct's chest.
The explosion shook the forge valley, but Kael was already moving. He moved faster than the human eye — more flame than man — every step powered by the Iron-Star's pulse. His blade hummed like a living being, every strike fueled by fury and purpose.
"Even rebellion needs creation to exist," he remembered from the Forge's whisper."Then I'll create a world where rebellion never needs to exist," he growled back under his breath.
Two more Sentinels advanced, one launching a volley of radiant spears from its shoulders. Kael's instincts screamed. He raised his sword, spinning it in a defensive pattern that deflected the projectiles mid-flight. The air became a storm of light and steel.
Eira's voice cut through the chaos: "They're drawing power from beneath the forge! Something's still active!"
Kael's gaze flicked downward — beneath the glass floor, he saw it: a massive heart of light pulsing in rhythm with the Sentinels' attacks.
"The Dominion's core fragment," he realized. "That's their source!"
Kael dashed across the battlefield, dodging a sweeping beam that carved a trench through the glass. He reached the crater's center and drove his sword downward. The blade plunged through the surface — and connected.
A scream tore through his skull — not his own, but the Prime's.
"You cannot unmake what you were forged to be."
The voice was deeper now, clearer, almost human. Kael gritted his teeth as waves of alien memory flooded his mind: galaxies collapsing, the birth of stars, the first Dominion kneeling before something far older.
He saw himself — or something like him — wielding the Iron-Star in a time before time, a weapon designed not to protect mortals, but to cull them.
Eira grabbed his shoulder, shouting through the roar of power, "Kael! Let it go!"
He forced himself to tear the sword free. The heart below began to crack, its light flickering erratically.
The Sentinels screamed in unison — their connection faltering.
"Now!" Kael yelled.
Eira raised both hands, runes glowing white-hot. Lightning split the clouds and poured through her palms, striking the cracked core. The light expanded, then imploded inward, consuming the Sentinels in a vortex of fire.
When the storm finally cleared, nothing remained but glass, smoke, and the echo of their breathing.
Kael fell to one knee, panting. His sword's light dimmed, returning to its normal amber glow.
Eira collapsed beside him. "Did we stop it?"
He looked toward the crater's center. The core was gone — but its absence didn't feel like victory.It felt like silence after a scream.
"No," he said quietly. "We only delayed it. That wasn't the Prime… that was its reflection."
Eira frowned. "Then where's the real one?"
Kael turned his eyes upward. Beyond the broken clouds, the stars twisted — forming a single, massive symbol across the heavens: the sigil of the Dominion, reborn in constellations.
His heart sank. "Above us."
They traveled through the night, following the scar of destruction the battle had left behind. By dawn, they reached a plateau overlooking the Hollow. From here, the pattern in the stars was clearer: six constellations orbiting a single void in the center — a dark sun.
Eira sat beside him, exhausted. "So it's starting again."
Kael's voice was a low growl. "No. This time, we finish it before it wakes."
She gave him a faint smile. "You talk like a man who's already seen the end."
"I have."
They sat in silence for a while, watching the horizon bleed from violet to gold. The first true sunrise since the Dominion's fall broke across the world, scattering shards of color over the land.
Eira finally said, "If we fight it again, we'll need more than just us. The world has to remember what it's fighting for."
Kael nodded slowly. "Then we find those who still believe in the flame."
He rose, the Iron-Star on his back catching the new light.
"When the ashes forget their flame…"He smiled faintly."…the flame must remember itself."
Eira stood beside him, mirroring the motion. "Then let's remind them, Commander."
Together, they turned north — toward the lost cities of the old legions, where sleeping relics and half-buried gods awaited.
Behind them, in the heart of the Hollow, the glass began to hum softly again. Faint cracks formed where the core had once pulsed.
And in the void between the stars, something vast opened its eyes.