Kruger

Spires burned.

The once-sturdy western defense wall had collapsed under the Mage's assault. In its place, a maelstrom: drones spun in wreckage, plasma fire streaked the air, and Voidlings poured through the breach like black blood from a wound that couldn't clot.

Kruger soldiers — real ones, not trainees — dropped from gunships overhead, encased in full Riftsteel exo-frames. Their shock cannons hissed, and Viora lances crackled in their hands.

"Hold the west corridor!""Pull wounded to deck four!""Anchor teams to the node — NOW!"

Kaiell sprinted across the broken plaza, flanked by Joran and three other candidates. The sound of battle was everywhere: Voidlings screeching like dying stars, rifles barking in triple bursts, and above it all, the whisper of the Mage, humming like a virus in Kaiell's skull.

The rift node in the plaza's center was growing — a black obelisk of twisting metal and Void energy. Veins of silver light ran up its side, pulsing in sync with the Mage's presence.

"It's anchoring the Voidstorm.""We have to destroy that node."

Kruger squads had formed kill-circles around key points, holding off Voidlings with coordinated fire. But the enemy was different now — not mindless. Tactical.

A pack of blade-limbed crawlers split off from the main force, darting along the rooftops. Above, two Wraiths spun in the air like shards of broken gravity, and a flying Voidling — one with wings like glass — divebombed a turret nest, exploding into a cloud of neurotoxin.

"DOWN!" Joran shouted, tackling Kaiell just as the mist burst past.

A Kruger soldier wasn't fast enough — he hit the ground screaming, blood pouring from his ears.

Kaiell stood, eyes glowing bright.

"I see the pattern," he whispered.

He felt the Mage guiding them — like a conductor behind the veil. Each wave of attack, each angle of approach, carefully orchestrated. Not for brute force. For calculated attrition.

And yet—

So did Kaiell.

His Viora burned hot. It wasn't just sight now. It was insight. His mind moved like theirs did — between space, between sound, between thought.

"Joran — take two left, cut through the scorched hall. You'll flank the Voidbeast by the reactor gate. Don't look at its eyes — they hex perception."

"Bran, Mira — with me. We're taking the node."

The three of them charged.

Kruger fire teams were holding the line barely — plasma arcs lighting the courtyard as Voidlings slammed into riot shields and kinetic barriers.

Then Kaiell reached the node.

He raised his palm. His Viora pulsed into full bloom — a halo of light spiraling from his body as the runes on the node shimmered in response. It was alive. It saw him.

The Mage saw him.

A voice split his skull.

"You would sever the vein?Break the gift of becoming?"Fool. You were born from entropy.You are one of us."

Kaiell screamed — pushed his Viora deeper.

Lightning cracked from the node, slashing the earth. Bran was hit — flung into a pillar of burning debris. Mira screamed, trying to pull him free, but a Wraith lunged down in a spiral, cutting through the smoke.

"Enough!"

Kaiell forced his hands to the node.

He remembered the mines.Uncle Samuel.Rust-12.The cold.The collapse.The silence after.

He focused it. All of it.

And unleashed it.

A burst of raw, unfocused Viora surged from his body — not refined, not controlled. Just pure will. The node cracked. Its veins reversed. Voidlight screamed.

And then—

It exploded.

A wave of pressure knocked the battlefield into silence.

The air cleared.

One Rift closed.

The storm faltered — just a little.

Commander Seth's voice rang across comms:

"Node destroyed. Repeat: one anchor down.""Status on candidate 1179?"

Joran rejoined him, bleeding from the lip but alive. "He's breathing."

Kaiell stood, slow and shaking.

He looked toward the battlefield.

Voidlings were still coming. Wounded, furious, but still organized. And far above, floating near the clouds, the Mage had stopped walking.

It was now watching.

It raised its arms once more.

And somewhere in the sky, the Leonida's began charging its orbital core.