The Silver City was burning.
Below, the rebellion Eray had ignited was crushed within an hour by Imperial mages.The streets were filled with corpses. The water flowing from the sewers had turned red.
Eray burst out of the palace's lower gardens and sprinted toward the massive structure at the city's center: the Moon Tower.
This was the temple that powered the city's illumination and defensive barriers.At its heart floated a colossal, raw Aether Crystal, suspended in the air.
To the locals, it was sacred.To Eray, it was nothing more than a massive battery.
The Exo-Suit's servos groaned. Energy had dropped to 18%.Eray took the temple stairs three at a time. Priests at the entrance tried to cast spells when they saw the metal giant charging at them.
Eray didn't slow down.
He shoulder-checked his way through. One priest was crushed under the suit's weight and thrown aside.
Eray reached the crystal chamber at the top.
Before him stood the Aether Crystal, the size of a building, emitting blinding blue light.Golden rings rotated around it, distributing energy evenly throughout the city.
"Beautiful," Eray said between breaths. "So much power. Just speaking the wrong language."
He removed the Lightning Rifle from his back, not to fire it.
He detached the rifle's power cell from the stock. Then he ripped the copper cables from the Exo-Suit's arm.
His goal was simple: disrupt the calm, balanced magical flow surrounding the crystal.
When Raiders ships traveled between dimensions, they ignored random energy waves.But if an energy source pulsed rhythmically, aligned with a universal mathematical constant…
That was a signal.
A sign of intelligent life.And an invitation.
Eray approached the rune-covered section of the crystal.
He couldn't read the runes, but he understood the logic of the energy flow.
"No more blue light," Eray said.
He jammed the copper cables and the rifle's power cell directly into the main energy conduit, into the so-called "holy" vein.
ZZZTTT!
The system went into shock.
When technology and magic touched, the result wasn't harmony.It was violent reaction.
The massive crystal trembled. Its calm blue glow turned into a sick, furious red.
Runes exploded from their pedestals. Eray was thrown back, but he forced himself upright.
Now, because of the circuit Eray had created, the crystal pulsed erratically, firing beams of light into the sky.
Short… short… long… short…
This wasn't magic.It wasn't Morse code either.
It was the Raiders' "Extreme Emergency Support" signal.
Eray looked up through the visor.
A massive red pillar of light tore through the blue sky, punching through the atmosphere and into the depths between dimensions, sending broken pulses outward.
"Hear me," Eray whispered. "Coordinates locked. Feast is ready."
At that moment, the door behind him exploded inward.
Through the cloud of dust stepped Velira.
Her dress was torn, her silver hair disheveled.Her face carried something never seen before: pure madness and ruin.
"What have you done?" Velira whispered, her voice shaking the tower itself."You burned my city. Had my people slaughtered. And now… you defile the Sacred Light."
Eray slowly turned toward her. The hydraulics in his shoulder armor hissed.
"I told you, Velira," Eray said through the mechanical filter of his suit."I am not a dog."
"I am an honorable soldier."
Velira screamed. Not in grief, but in war fury.
"DIE!"
She flung her arm. Dozens of silver spears formed in the air and rained down on Eray.
Eray tried to move, but the Exo-Suit was nearly drained. One spear shattered the piston in his leg. He collapsed to one knee. Another pierced his left shoulder, punching through armor and flesh.
"Argh!"
Eray raised the Lightning Rifle and fired.
BAM! BAM!
The rounds reached Velira—but she stopped them mid-air with a single gesture.
Her magical power was so dense that even bullets couldn't break through her rage barrier.
Velira walked toward him. The marble floor cracked beneath every step.
Eray dragged himself backward toward the crystal panel. He couldn't stand. The suit had locked.
The woman before him looked like a goddess.Eray was just a toy with a dead battery.
Velira stood over him. In her hand, she formed a crackling sword of pure magic.Its tip hovered over Eray's exposed neck.
"Why?" Velira asked. Tears streamed down her face, but her voice was ice-cold.
"I pulled you out of that pit. I gave you a life. I kept you by my side. I protected you.That night in the forest… I trusted you, Eray. I opened doors to you I never opened to anyone!"
Eray spat blood. His visor was cracked. He saw Velira with his own eyes now.
He knew he was going to die. His only chance was to buy time.
"Trust?" Eray laughed hoarsely."You never trusted me, Velira. You owned me."
Velira froze. The sword trembled.
"I was a person to myself!" Eray shouted, gathering what strength he had."To you, I was a toy! You put a collar on my neck! You humiliated me! You crushed my companions in front of me! You called me your property!"
"I honored you!" Velira screamed back. "I gave you purpose!"
"You chained me at your door," Eray said, tears slipping from his eyes."You're sick."
He looked straight into her eyes.
"You're a lonely, spoiled, sadistic child. I should've killed you the moment that collar came off. But I didn't. Do you know why?"
Velira's eyes widened. She was afraid of the answer, but couldn't stop herself.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted you to take it off willingly," Eray said—unsure himself whether it was truth or a lie.
His gaze flicked to the crystal's indicator.
Signal strength: 100%.
"You're lying," Velira hissed. "You used me. And now you'll pay."
She raised the sword.
She was about to bring it down.
And then—
The sky tore open.
This wasn't thunder.It was the sound of a mountain being split in half. A metallic, deafening CRAAAASH ripped through the tower.
The air above the tower fractured where the red signal struck. The sky shattered.
From the rift emerged something Velira had never seen in her life.
Not a dragon.Not alive.
A massive, angular, gray-metal fortress, warning lights flashing yellow, engines blasting steam and blue flame downward.
A Raiders Support Ship.
Its shadow swallowed the tower. Engine pressure threw Velira backward. Her magic sword vanished.
Velira stared upward in horror.
"What… is that?"
The ship's lower hatches hissed open.
Black cables shot downward.
From them descended twelve soldiers, wearing pristine black armor—sleek, advanced, nothing like Eray's battered suit.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
They landed in perfect synchronization.
In seconds, twelve heavy machine guns with laser sights locked onto a single point:
Velira's chest.
Velira couldn't move. She tried to cast magic, but the strange magnetic field emitted by these beings disrupted the Aether flow.
For the first time in her life, she was not the hunter.
She was the prey.
From among the soldiers stepped a Raider Commander, his rank marked by red stripes on his shoulder. His helmet speaker emitted a cold, mechanical voice.
He glanced briefly at the wounded man on the floor.
"Code 145 confirmed," the Commander said.
He raised his weapon to Velira's forehead.
"Target locked. Awaiting fire authorization, Captain Eray"
He turned his head toward Eray.
Velira couldn't take her eyes off Eray.
Eray, lying in blood, his suit crippled, raised his head.
He looked at her.
There was no anger in Velira's eyes now. Only shock.And fear of these Metal Gods she couldn't comprehend.
Eray smiled. His teeth were red with blood.
"I told you, Velira," he said.
The Raider Commander's finger tightened on the trigger.