Chapter 4

The Fractured Moon

1. The Descent

The Celestial Drake shuddered as it pierced the thin atmosphere of Selene's Fracture, the broken moon hanging like a jagged scar in the void. Kael pressed his face against the viewport, watching as the surface rushed up—a wasteland of silver dust and glowing fissures where the moon had been split clean in half by some forgotten cataclysm.

"Landing in five," growled Captain Ryn, her cybernetic fingers dancing across the ship's controls. "Hope your friends are friendly, scholar."

Lira Veyne adjusted her cracked spectacles, frowning at the ancient star-chart in her hands. "The Techno-Mages aren't 'friends.' They're fanatics. They believe machines have souls."

Kael's sword, Dawnbreaker, hummed at his hip. "All things have souls," it whispered, voice like grinding steel. "Even the dead."

The ship touched down in a valley between two towering obsidian spires, their surfaces etched with circuitry that pulsed faintly blue.

"Welcome," said a voice—not through the comms, but inside their skulls.

2. The Techno-Mages

The air outside was cold and scentless. Kael's boots crunched on glass-like shards as the crew moved toward a floating monolith, its surface shifting like liquid metal. A figure emerged—hooded, their face hidden behind a mask of living wires.

"You seek the Forge," the mage said, not a question.

Lira stepped forward. "We seek knowledge. The Vorthax are—"

"Harvesting souls to wake the God-Engine. We know." The mage's mask retracted, revealing a face half-flesh, half-machine. "I am Darien. Follow."

Inside the monolith, the walls were lined with floating corpses—mages in stasis, their bodies fused with machinery. Kael's skin prickled. "Are they… dead?"

"They dream," Darien said. "In the machine, death is optional."

Ryn muttered, "Creepy bastards."

3. The Astral Forge

The central chamber held a hologram of a colossal ring, its surface covered in celestial runes.

"The Astral Forge," Lira breathed. "A device that can rewrite reality."

Darien gestured, and the hologram zoomed in—showing a black hole at the Forge's heart. "It was built by the first Starborn. But the Vorthax corrupted it. Now, it consumes."

Kael's sigil burned against his chest. "Why show us this?"

"Because you are the last Starborn," Darien said. "And the Forge answers to you."

A sudden blaring alarm. The Drake's voice crackled in their earpieces: "Vorthax signatures detected. They're here."

Darien's expression didn't change. "A shame."

4. The Betrayal

Lira whirled. "You led them here?"

Darien's mechanical fingers twitched. "The Vorthax promised me immortality. A fair trade."

The walls exploded inward.

Iron Reapers stormed in, their clawed feet screeching against the metal floor. Ryn drew her plasma pistol, firing—but the shots phased through one Reaper like smoke.

"Illusions!" Kael yelled, but too late—a Reaper's blade gouged Ryn's side. She snarled, countering with a vibro-knife to its throat.

Lira grabbed Kael. "The Forge's coordinates—they're in the hologram! We have to go!"

Darien lunged, his arm extending into a blade. "You don't understand. The God-Engine must wake!"

5. Zero-Gravity Duel

Kael barely dodged, but Darien kicked a console—gravity vanished.

They floated, weightless, in the chamber. The Reapers fired tethered hooks, anchoring themselves as they closed in.

"Dawnbreaker—now!" Kael shouted.

The sword flared white-hot, its light searing a Reaper's eyes. Kael kicked off a wall, slashing—but Darien caught the blade with his mechanized hand.

"Starborn blood is the key," Darien hissed. "Your death will open the path!"

Kael headbutted him, then wrenched the sword free. With a scream, he drove it into Darien's chest—not flesh, but wires.

Darien gasped, his human eye widening. "You… don't… know what you've—"

Kael ripped the blade sideways. Sparks erupted as Darien's body split in two, his mechanical halves twitching in the zero-gravity void.

6. Escape

Ryn, bleeding, grabbed Lira. "Drake—now!"

They fled through the crumbling monolith, Reapers giving chase. The ship's ramp lowered just as a Vorthax warship descended, its shadow swallowing the valley.

"Go, go!" Kael yelled.

The Drake's engines roared. As they lifted off, Kael saw it—the hologram's data, still flashing in his retinal display.

The Astral Forge's location.

And something else.

A familiar energy signature.

"Sylas…?" Lira whispered.

The Drake's voice was grim. "He's alive. And the Vorthax have him."