Chapter 54: Countdown to Chaos

The war foundry of Solmara pulsed with heat and energy as the team worked tirelessly. The once-abandoned fortress had become a storm of movement—forge fires roaring, metal being reforged, energy pulsing through newly awakened systems. Every clang of metal against metal, every hiss of steam, every flickering rune along the factory walls signaled progress.

Elias barely paused as he moved from one workstation to the next, adjusting components, checking the reinforced plating, fine-tuning the power regulators. Time was slipping through their fingers, and for the first time since stepping foot in this world, he wasn't sure if they had enough of it.

If the Primordial Lords knew about them, then the clock had already started ticking.

Ivy stood at the edge of the ruins, perched on a crumbling wall, scanning the dark horizon. Her sharp eyes followed every flicker of movement, every shift in the air. She had lived too long in the shadows to ignore the feeling in her gut—something was coming. Something watching.

"Anything?" Elias's voice crackled through the newly repaired comm-link in her earpiece—a short-range radio device he had cobbled together, finally giving them a secure line of communication.

Ivy barely shook her head. "Nothing yet. But it's too quiet out here."

Before, the winds of Solmara howled through the ruins, carrying whispers of the past. Now, the air was dead still, as if the land itself was holding its breath.

Inside the foundry, the tension was just as thick. Elias moved between workbenches stacked with half-finished exosuits, his gauntlet's interface flickering as he ran calculations. The goal was simple—mass production. No more single prototypes. Every member of House Null needed to be battle-ready.

"Reinhardt, how's the armor plating holding up?" Elias called over the noise.

Reinhardt, holding up a newly forged chest piece, knocked his fist against it. A deep, metallic thud echoed. "Stronger than anything I've worn before. Feels good."

Cecilia smirked, leaning lazily against a workbench. "Let's see if it still feels good after I stab it."

Before Reinhardt could protest, she launched forward, her dagger flashing through the air, striking the reinforced plating dead-on.

Clang!

The blade snapped at the tip.

Reinhardt blinked.

Cecilia stared at her broken dagger, then at Elias.

"Okay. I take it back. This is impressive."

Lira sighed, arms crossed. "I don't like this. It feels too much like we're preparing for a funeral instead of a battle."

Elias exhaled, adjusting the final energy regulator on his own exosuit's gauntlet. They were getting close. But close wasn't good enough.

Marco, working on the energy disruptors, wiped sweat from his forehead, adjusting a mana resonance coil. "This is taking too long, Elias. If they attack before we finish, we're screwed."

Elias clenched his jaw. Marco was right. They needed to buy more time.

Kierian, who had been standing silently against the far wall, finally spoke. "Then we force them to hesitate."

Lira raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly do we do that?"

Kierian turned toward the massive entrance of Solmara, its runic defenses flickering faintly as they absorbed what little energy remained from centuries past. "We make them think we're stronger than we are. We give them a reason to fear attacking too soon."

Elias's mind snapped to attention, gears turning in his head. "A bluff." His eyes flickered toward the towering sentinels still dormant in the deeper halls of the foundry. "We don't just defend Solmara—we make it look like a fortress they can't breach."

Marco adjusted his glasses. "You want to fake an army?"

"Something like that." Elias moved to a nearby console, scanning the dormant mechanical warriors left behind by the Obsidian Vanguard. "We activate what we can, even if it's just enough for a show of force. If they're scouting us, let's make sure they report back fear."

Cecilia crossed her arms. "And if they call our bluff?"

Elias flexed his gauntlet. "Then we make sure we're ready for them."

Silence fell over the room.

Reinhardt cracked his knuckles, glancing at the towering war machines around them. "So, you need me to wake up some ancient metal giants?"

"Exactly," Elias confirmed.

Marco sighed. "That better not backfire on us."

Kierian stepped forward, running his hand across the engraved control panel of the Vanguard's automation system. Dust and time had worn it down, but the power lines beneath it still glowed faintly—an ember of a war machine long forgotten.

"If we do this," he said, voice low, "there is no turning back. Once the sentinels rise, Solmara is no longer a ruin—it is a battlefront."

Elias's jaw tightened. "It already was."

Kierian's eyes met his, searching for hesitation. He found none.

With a slow nod, the ancient warrior pressed his hand to the activation panel. The runes flickered once, twice—then flared brilliant gold as the fortress responded to the command.

A deep, mechanical rumble filled the air.

Then came the first movement.

Across the foundry, gears groaned back to life, pistons firing as dormant war constructs stirred for the first time in centuries. Metal feet scraped against the floor, red and gold optics blinking awake, ancient warriors rising from slumber.

Elias felt the electricity in the air, the weight of a long-forgotten army waking up.

Lira took a sharp step back, daggers ready. "Uh. Tell me you actually have control over these things?"

Kierian's eyes flickered. "We'll find out."

One of the sentinels turned its head, its hollow optics locking onto Elias. For a moment, he wasn't sure if it was recognizing him as an ally or a threat.

Then, in a voice deeper than the forge itself, the machine spoke.

"Orders received. Awaiting command."

The foundry was no longer silent.

The fortress was no longer abandoned.

Solmara had awoken for war.