Broken Lines

Location: Gaia HQ – Main Assembly Hall

The briefing room was unusually tense. Screens flickered with recorded battle footage from Port Helion. Damaris, a former Integral Knight—corrupted, twisted, and destroyed—had left more questions than answers.

Ali Synthesis 13 stood with arms crossed, voice low but firm.

"So Nyroth's influence isn't just returning… it's embedded in our ranks?"

Joseph Synthesis 20 stepped forward.

"How many others like Damaris are out there? Forgotten? Unaccounted for?"

Thea faced the gathered Knights—Cyg, Eun-Ha, Charlotte, Hikari, Sylvia, Mia, Elaine, and Harriet among them. Her voice, though steady, betrayed fatigue.

"We have recovered thirteen names from corrupted Abyssal echoes… all former Knights believed to have fallen in missions decades ago."

"Thirteen…" whispered Mia, eyes wide. "He's reawakening them."

Sylvia frowned.

"No. Reclaiming them."

Cyg looked down at Aetheron—still laced with traces of Nyroth's red energy.

"Then we have to ask: What else did Gaia bury to win the Abyss War?"

"And what was the real cost?" added Eun-Ha.

Location: Orion Stronghold – Core Void Chamber

Within a hollow tower of pulsing black stone, Erebus watched the Port Helion data feed sent by one of his Mirror Blades. With him stood Astrael Valis—Codename: Revenant Mirror.

Astrael's face flickered with ghostly reflections.

"Gaia's pawns are awakening truths they can't comprehend."

Erebus remained seated, one leg crossed, Nihileth resting across his lap like a sleeping serpent.

"Good. Every truth they uncover loosens the lock on the Abyss Emperor's heart."

Astrael tilted his head.

"And when Nyroth wakes fully?"

Erebus didn't answer immediately. Instead, he raised a single hand—and the room dimmed.

"When he wakes… the war we're fighting becomes irrelevant. We'll all be shadows in his design."

"Even you?"

Erebus' grin was slow, sharp.

"Especially me."

Location: Gaia HQ – Dawnlight Terrace

Later that night, Cyg sat at the far edge of the terrace, alone with his thoughts. Stars shimmered overhead, but all he could think about was red. The red light of Aetheron. The red hue of Nyroth's eye.

Charlotte found him. She didn't say anything at first—just sat beside him, the silence soft between them.

"You blame yourself," she said quietly.

"Shouldn't I?" Cyg replied. "My Artifact is tainted. It obeys me, but it remembers him."

"Then use that memory. You're not his heir, Cyg. You're his mistake."

Cyg looked at her, surprised.

Charlotte smirked faintly.

"And I happen to know a thing or two about correcting errors in code."

Their moment was brief, but it warmed something frozen in him.

"Thanks, Charlotte."

"Don't thank me yet," she said, standing. "We've still got corrupted Knights to hunt—and a dead emperor whispering in your dreams."

Location: Abyss Rift – The Severed Spire

Meanwhile, a small strike team led by Ali, Raika, Tryce, and Iris approached an unstable rift pulsing in the wilderness of Eastern Eurasia. The breach here had expanded threefold in the past week.

"This is the third Rift with 'Knight echo signatures' this month," Tryce said, arrow drawn.

"Same etheric coding?" Iris asked.

Ali nodded, raising Gorrum.

"Same as Damaris. Same crimson distortion. He's rebuilding… something."

Raika scoffed.

"Whatever it is, let's break it."

They stepped into the breach. Inside, the world was fractured—mirrors of Gaia's cities twisted in black crystal. At the center floated a throne made of shattered Divine Artifact pieces.

"He's making a court," Iris whispered.

"Of fallen Knights," Ali added.

Suddenly, the Rift screamed—and a new corrupted Knight emerged: a woman bearing remnants of the Divine Artifact known as Velqor.

Irene Synthesis 3.

Location: Gaia HQ – Archive Depth Layer

Back at HQ, Thea, Astron, and Diane poured over the Artifact Trials' ancient logs. A pattern emerged.

"Cyg's Aetheron wasn't assigned randomly," Diane said. "The Trials responded to more than strength. They chose based on blood resonance."

Astron's shadows danced as he spoke.

"Meaning… Cyg was fated to claim Aetheron."

Thea narrowed her eyes.

"And fate is Nyroth's battlefield."

Final Scene: Rift Core – Battle for Irene

Ali's hammer struck down with divine fury, trying to break through Irene's corrupted shield. Iris sang hymns of light, trying to reach her spirit.

"You knew me!" Iris cried. "You were my sister in arms!"

Irene's eyes flickered. A crack in the red.

"I… remember…"

But then—Nyroth's voice came again.

"Memory is mercy. And I have no more mercy left."

A blast of red ether threw the team back. The throne of shards trembled… and grew.