The entire level pulsed with pale green light, flickering through cracked ceiling panels and broken conduit.Aria stood motionless for a heartbeat, Elias' unconscious weight heavy on her back, Jarek trembling beside her.
The metallic voice repeated—calm, ancient, far too aware:
"Sovereign detected.""Initiating protocol."
Aria swallowed hard.
"Ward… what did you wake up?"
But Elias didn't respond.
His breathing was thin, his skin burning with fever, faint patterns—like veins of light—tracing along his jaw and neck.The signs were spreading.
Jarek pressed himself into the nearest wall, hands over his ears.
"Make it stop… please make it stop…"
Aria grabbed him by the collar.
"Keep it together. We are NOT dying here."
But Jarek was unraveling.
"I heard it… I heard him speaking… the whole floor listened… it listened to him like he was—like he was—"
Aria slammed him back.
"Get it together!"
Jarek choked on a sob.
Before Aria could speak again—
Heavy footsteps echoed from above.
Aria spun toward the stairwell.
"Kellan…?"
For a moment, hope surged.
Then she saw the silhouette.
Too tall.Too thin.Too many jointed limbs.
Aria's heart plummeted.
The creature from earlier crawled down the shaft wall like a spider of metal and bone—its body twisted, but its head held upright.
Worse—
It wasn't alone.
Dozens of glowing shapes peeled out of the shadows behind it, clinging to walls, ceiling, floors.The whole layer was waking up.
Jarek screamed.
"That thing killed Kellan! It killed him! It killed him—"
Aria's breath hitched.
Kellan's roar had gone silent.
His aura had vanished.
Nothing from above but the crawling of things.
A cold blade twisted in her chest.
But she didn't let it break her.
She dragged Elias down the corridor as fast as her body could move.
The metal voice echoed again:
"Sovereign. Proceed to center chamber."
Jarek wailed.
"It wants HIM! It wants Elias!"
Aria hissed back:
"Then we don't go where it wants!"
But the floor had other ideas.
The corridor walls shifted—panels sliding, grinding—closing off every path except one.
A single corridor lit up ahead of them with pulsing lines of green light.
A path.
Forced.
Directed.
Jarek dropped to his knees.
"Oh gods… it's funneling us… we're rats… and Elias is the reason—"
Aria grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked him upright.
"Get up before I leave you behind."
He stumbled to his feet, sobbing.
The sounds behind them grew louder—the creature with Elias' voiceand the swarm of awakened horrors.
Aria forced her legs to move faster.
Elias' fingers twitched against her arm.
He whispered again.
The alien tongue.Low.Measured.Like a ritual spoken in his sleep.
Aria's heart slammed against her ribs.
"WARD. Stop. You are making everything WORSE."
He didn't stop.
His voice deepened—multiple tones layering beneath his own.
Jarek stumbled back from him.
"He's changing… Aria, he's changing—"
Aria's jaw clenched.
"No. He's fighting."
But she didn't know if that was true.
Finally, the corridor opened into a colossal chamber.
Aria froze in place.
"By the—"
The room stretched three stories tall.Circular.Dead center stood a towering monolith of blackened steel, covered in symbols that glowed faintly with Elias' every whisper.
Ring-like platforms circled it.Cables hung like vines.Screens flickered with ancient data.
An experimental arena.
A testing ground.
Jarek backed away, shaking his head violently.
"No. No no no—we can't go in there—this place was made to contain monsters. Not train cadets. This is where THEY were born—"
Aria pushed forward.
"We don't have a choice."
Behind them, the horde flooded the corridor—crawling, slithering, clicking, eager for the prize in Aria's arms.
The chamber door slammed shut automatically as soon as she passed the threshold, sealing them inside.
Aria lowered Elias against a support pillar.
His eyes were still closed.
But something had changed.
His breath no longer came shallow.
It came heavy.Measured.Almost controlled.
"Ward," Aria whispered, kneeling beside him, brushing sweat from his forehead."Please wake up. I need you."
Again—
He did not wake.
But his mouth moved.
He spoke three words in that alien language.
And the monolith flashed with violent white light.
The metal voice spoke again:
"Initiating Sovereign Trial."
Aria looked up sharply.
"What… trial?"
Jarek shrieked.
"We're dead! We are ABSOLUTELY dead—"
Aria cut him off:
"Shut up!"
But inside, she was terrified.
Something stirred inside the monolith.
A vertical seam split open—
as if the machine was peeling itself apart.
Something inside moved.
Something tall.Armored.Dormant.
Jarek backed away, stumbling.
"No… please… not another one… not a guardian—"
Aria pulled Elias closer to her chest, shielding him.
From the monolith, metal parted—
and a humanoid shape stepped forward.
It wasn't like the others.
Its armor was smoother.Its movements slower.Its eyes dim, not hostile.
A failed guardian.
No.
A prototype.
It looked at Aria.
Then at Elias.
Its eyes glowed faintly.
Blue.
It knelt.
Aria's breath caught.
"What… are you doing?"
The guardian prototype bowed its head to Elias.
A voice crackled from its core—broken, distorted, but trying to speak through centuries of decay.
"…Sovereign candidate… recognized…"
Aria's blood ran cold.
"Sovereign… candidate…?"
Jarek collapsed against the wall.
"Oh gods… that's why everything is hunting him… he's not supposed to exist here…"
Aria touched Elias' cheek.
His eyes twitched beneath his eyelids.
"Ward… what are you?"
Suddenly—
Elias inhaled sharply.
His back arched.
His eyes snapped open.
White.Burning.Unfocused.
Aria gasped and grabbed him.
"WARD—WARD, LOOK AT ME—"
But he wasn't looking at her.
He was staring past her.
At something behind her.
Aria's heart stopped.
She turned—
and the wall behind them was melting.
A massive claw tore through the metal.
The creature from above forced its way inside—
its stolen voice dripping hunger:
"…Aria…"
Aria raised her blade despite shaking arms.
Behind her, Elias whispered one final word—
and the chamber lights exploded.