Alpha_Ruby

The air inside the High Sanctum of Eldrion crackled with magic.

Twelve archmages stood in a perfect circle, their robes embroidered with silver sigils, surrounding a glowing arcane glyph carved into the stone floor. The chanting was steady, like a rhythmic heartbeat of power pulsing through the chamber. Onlookers watched from behind crystalline barriers—nobles, generals, priests—all with the same hope in their eyes.

Their kingdom was on the brink of collapse. Demons surged from rifts in the east. The Spellknight legions were spread thin, and the Mageocracy’s rule faced uprisings from those who feared magic had grown too arrogant. Only one gambit remained:
Summon a Hero.

"Phase shift complete. Leyline convergence holding," said Archmage Varyn, voice brittle with age but strong with command. "Proceed to dimensional binding."

A younger mage in the circle nodded and touched the inner ring. A blue fire surged up from the glyph, forming a spiraling cone of mana that reached toward the domed ceiling.

From within the swirl, reality twisted.
A flash of silver. A burst of static.
And then—something went wrong.
The light turned red. The circle sparked. Screams echoed. A wave of unstable mana rippled outward like a blast wave, shattering part of the crystalline shield. Varyn’s wards held, but barely.

The cone collapsed inward—and dumped a figure onto the floor, smoking slightly.
Everything went still.
The figure groaned.
He was... different.
No armor. No sword. No magic aura.

Just a young man with short black hair, a battered hoodie, and jeans with burnt seams. He sat up groggily, coughing.
"Ugh... where... the hell am I?" he muttered.
One of the mages gasped. "That... that isn’t the Chosen Hero."
"No divine sigil. No blessing of the Light. No affinity to the Leylines."
"But... he was pulled through the Summoning Gate. That’s impossible."
Archmage Varyn narrowed his eyes. "Not impossible. Catastrophic."

The young man looked up, blinking in confusion. His name was Aiden Knox, a technologist from a world without magic.

And as the mages argued, Aiden’s vision blurred—flashing briefly with blue circuitry across his retinas.
A sound echoed in his ears, one that no one else heard:

[SYSTEM BOOTING…]
CHRONOFORGE INTERFACE v1.0
USER DETECTED: AIDEN KNOX
WORLD PROFILE INCOMPATIBLE. INITIALIZING INTEGRATION LAYER…
WELCOME, ENGINEER.

His eyes widened.
"What the hell... was that voice?"

No one answered him. The mages were already backing away.

To them, he was a mistake. A failure.
But to the world of Eltarion, this so-called error was about to become its most dangerous engineer

Chronoforge : The Engineer of Realms

The dawn brought a muted stillness over the ravine, broken only by the soft whirring of Aiden's Arc Turret as it scanned its assigned arc. The air was cool, but tense—a silence that carried the weight of coming danger.

Aiden stood atop the ridge, Kaela beside him, adjusting the straps of her chestplate. Brant sat below, inspecting his oversized sword with methodical focus.

"Caravan's location is northeast, four kilometers out," Kaela said, checking her crystal compass. "Should take us less than an hour."

Aiden nodded. "Let's keep a tight formation. We don't know who or what took that convoy."

The journey began with narrow trails winding through dense underbrush. Aiden toggled his visor's filtering mode, overlaying mana signatures and residual heat trails.

[Path Analysis: Recent Activity Detected – Estimated 36 Hours Old]

[Alert: Fragmented Technology Signature Detected Ahead]

He raised a hand, halting the others. "Something's up ahead."

What had once been a well-armored trade caravan now lay in shambles. Several carts were overturned, their contents scattered—half-melted crates, burnt scrolls, and strange metallic shards fused with arcane cores.

Kaela's eyes widened. "This wasn't a beast attack."

"No claw marks. No acid burns. These were precision strikes," Brant added, pointing to melted grooves along a transport's axle.

[Identified: Ley-Infused Alloy, Class IV]

[Detected: Electromagnetic Disruption Field Residue]

"EMP-like disruption," Aiden muttered. "Someone used tech—advanced tech."

Kaela picked up a fractured gem core. "These don't melt easily. It would take either Arcanum-grade heat... or something synthetic."

Brant stood over a fallen guard—armor scorched clean through the chest. "Looks like they never saw it coming."

"Not just theft," Kaela said, crouching. "This was an execution."

Aiden's HUD flickered with an alert.

[Anomaly Detected – Signal Interference Nearby]

[Warning: Unknown Surveillance Attempt Detected]

He spun, activating a defense sweep.

From behind a half-crumbled cargo unit, a small orb zipped into the air—smooth, metallic, and eerily silent.

Before Kaela or Brant could move, Aiden raised his left arm and triggered a pulse launcher from his gauntlet.

A burst of kinetic force slammed into the orb, knocking it to the ground. It hissed, then self-detonated with a bright flash.

[Trace Signal Sent – Estimated Host Response: 15 Minutes]

"They know we're here," Aiden growled. "We need to move. Now."

Kaela pointed northeast. "There's a ridge path—old war tunnels from the Eastern Conflict. It might hide us."

Brant lifted his sword onto his back. "Lead the way."

They bolted through the undergrowth, the system tracking the diminishing trace signal behind them.

As they reached the ridge, Aiden glanced back.

Whatever force had annihilated the caravan, it wasn't finished.

Chapter 5 – Echoes in the Wreckage Part-1