The Spark War
The forge had grown quiet.
Kael stood in the relic chamber with the lingering energy of Kesh's retreat still crackling through the walls. The relics, though stilled, hovered in slow, thoughtful orbit around the core. It was as if the forge itself was waiting to breathe again.
Nyra poked at a nearby relic console with one of her daggers. "So… what now? That guy shows up, drops cosmic trauma on us, then peace-outs through the ceiling?"
BITS buzzed. "Pretty standard family reunion, honestly."
Kael didn't respond. He was staring at the forge's central pillar—now humming with faint blue light. The moment he touched the Starkey to the core, a pulse of relic energy had shot through the room.
Something had awoken.
"Look," Kael said. A translucent interface appeared in the air, flickering with age. Words scrolled by in dead languages before translating themselves mid-flow.
> FORGE NODE: Veylan Prime Access Detected.
Run: Historical Archive > Spark War [Audio-Visual Record, Level 9 Clearance].
Warning: Contents may destabilize moral and ethical alignment. Viewer discretion is optional, but highly recommended.
"Optional?" BITS muttered. "That's never a good sign."
Kael exhaled and pressed his palm to the interface.
The chamber darkened—and the past came alive.
---
A three-dimensional projection unfolded around them, forming a vast, shattered city under a blood-orange sky.
Gigantic machines floated in the clouds. Crumbling spires rose from cracked earth. Above them all, a golden tower glowed with what looked like a living sun at its peak.
"Welcome to Solara," the system announced. "Date: Pre-Fall. Spark Cycle One. Initiating Chronicle."
A voice began to narrate—calm, official, and deeply disturbing.
> "The Spark War began not with weapons, but with hope. A hope to save a dying world. Earth's core was collapsing. Old power sources had failed. Civilization fragmented. In desperation, the Spark Project was born—an effort to extract pure kinetic memory from the world itself."
Nyra tilted her head. "Kinetic memory?"
BITS responded, voice dropping. "They tried to convert... movement, emotion, trauma—into energy."
> "The Spark Matrix," the narration continued, "was a living network. It absorbed echoes of memory and converted them into relic charge. At the center stood the First Spark. A human. Chosen. Altered. Wired into the city's heart."
Kael watched as the projection zoomed in on a figure standing within a chamber that looked exactly like this one.
The First Spark.
He looked human. Tall, gaunt, eyes glowing like Kael's did now when the Starkey flared. Tubes fed into his arms. Circuits were carved into his back. Around him floated dozens of relics.
"He looks like you," Nyra whispered.
"No," Kael said. "He looks like what I could become."
---
> "The First Spark powered Solara for thirteen cycles. But memory is unstable. Pain corrupts. Soon, the relics began to misbehave. Echoes bled through. Hallucinations. Time loops. Some believed the Spark had become sentient."
Nyra crossed her arms. "Sentient relics and ghost trauma. Great. What's next? A relic dog?"
BITS perked up. "We could call it Sparkles."
> "The war began when the Spark broke containment. He sought to free the relics—to end the experiment. The Council refused. He destroyed them."
The image shifted. War erupted across the city. Relics fired into the sky. Machines screamed. Citizens fled.
Kael clenched his fists. "He rebelled."
> "But he was not alone. Others were built—lesser Sparks. Prototypes. Shadows. They were deployed to stop him."
The screen flickered—and a younger version of Kesh appeared, facing off with the First Spark.
Kael's jaw dropped. "That's... him."
BITS zipped closer. "Or someone who looked like him. Maybe they kept cloning the design."
> "Project Veylan was initiated to create stable Sparks. The program failed repeatedly—until Subject 07 showed potential."
Kael's Starkey flared.
> "Subject 07: Kael Veylan."
---
The chamber went still.
Even the projection seemed to pause for effect.
Kael stood frozen, eyes locked on the screen as an image of himself was displayed — unconscious, floating in a tube, relic energy wiring him into the Forge.
"That's me," he said. "They made me... to fight the First Spark?"
Nyra put a hand on his shoulder. "You were never just a survivor."
Kael stepped forward. "But then why am I still alive? Why was I left in stasis? Why did they stop?"
BITS answered, unusually quiet. "Maybe they didn't. Maybe they just didn't finish."
---
> "The Spark War ended when the First Spark vanished. Some say he fused with Solara's heart. Others say he transcended. All that remained were fractured relics... and a warning."
The screen cut to static.
Then a final message played—corrupted, but mostly clear.
A voice Kael recognized.
His own.
> "This system... isn't just power. It's choice. Memory. Fire. Whatever comes next... don't repeat us. Don't become us."
---
The projection ended. The forge brightened. The relics resumed their slow, solemn orbit.
Kael stood in silence.
Nyra sat on a relic bench, arms crossed, eyes narrow. "So. You're a weapon built to replace a god, in a city that runs on ghosts, and you just watched yourself tell you not to repeat your own past."
Kael blinked. "That about sums it up."
BITS sighed. "I liked it better when our biggest problem was that vending machine monster in Sector Nine."
Kael turned to them, eyes fierce but calm. "This changes everything."
Nyra nodded. "So what now?"
Kael looked at the core.
"We find out what happened to the First Spark."
He clenched the Starkey in his palm.
"And we make sure I don't end like he did."
Author's Note — Kazuki Rei
The truth always comes with echoes.
What did you think of the Spark War? Was the First Spark a hero... or just the first mistake?
👉 Let me know in the comments!
👉 Chapter 15 is going to be intense: Kesh + Malrix = Trouble.
👉 Don't forget to add this to your library if you're enjoying the ride!
See you next chapter —
— Kazuki Rei 🔥