Day 38
Yuren and Kaela had been transported to that ruin once Lyra gave her last breath.
The door sealed behind them.
Old stone. New silence.
The chamber was circular—fifty meters wide, with broken columns, shattered consoles, and one towering spire in the center: the Warden Seat.
Yuren and Kaela stood across from each other, the glyph slabs burning bright in their palms, reacting to the chamber.
Kaela's discs hovered around her like slow orbiting moons.
She looked at Yuren with a small, curious smile.
"I wondered why I felt a pull when I touched the fortress," she said. "I thought it would be Lyra."
Yuren said nothing.
She tilted her head.
"Did you kill her?" He asked, his expression unreadable.
"Maybe." Kaela responded, a half smirk on her face.
The glyphs flared.
The spire lit up behind them.
A voice—calm, low, but human this time—spoke from the stone itself:
"One survivor may claim command."
"Begin."
Kaela moved first.
A disc flew for Yuren's neck—fast enough to whistle.
He caught it mid-air.
Not with his hand.
With telekinesis.
Stopped it.
Held it.
Then sent it back.
Kaela blinked once as it spun toward her—
—and caught it without flinching, hovering it beside her hip.
Then smirked.
"Cute," she said. "Didn't think you had it."
Yuren tightened his grip. "Guess we're both full of surprises."
Then they both struck.
She launched all three discs.
He launched the wall behind him.
A fifteen-foot slab tore from the ruins, spun sideways into the air.
Her discs cut through the first edge.
But he threw it with Titan Grip strength and telekinetic momentum.
The sound split the room.
She ducked—barely—but one of her discs clipped her shoulder as it deflected.
Blood. First blood.
She grinned wider.
They circled.
Kaela lifted stones, broke them mid-air into shrapnel, and fired them like bullets.
Yuren caught them—some.
Let others slam into his arms.
He charged forward.
Grabbed a piece of the ceiling.
Threw it down at her like a meteor.
She caught it.
Mid-air.
With her mind.
And then—reversed it.
Yuren barely dodged as the block slammed into the floor inches from his feet, leaving a crater.
"Still learning," she taunted. "You're sloppy. Heavy-handed."
"Maybe," Yuren said, breathing hard. "But I've got more hands."
She raised an eyebrow.
And then he vanished into the dust.
From the rubble cloud, he sent two invisible lines of force at her legs.
She stepped over one, blocked the second with a disc.
But missed the shard of glass floating toward her.
It hit her cheek.
She flinched.
Wiped blood.
"Glass?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he crouched and pulled a small pouch from his belt.
Opened it.
And exhaled into it—hard.
The dust scattered into the chamber.
Invisible.
Weightless.
Microscopic.
Kaela paused.
She couldn't see it.
But she felt the shift in the air.
"Yuren…" she said, eyes narrowing. "What the hell did you—"
Then she blinked.
Her right eye didn't open again.
It bled.
She gasped.
Coughed.
Blood flecked her lips.
Yuren stepped forward.
Silent.
Watching.
Kaela tried to lift a disc—tried to focus—
But her telekinetic grip wavered.
Her eyes filled with red.
She opened her mouth to speak—
And inhaled.
The blood glass tore her from the inside.
Tiny, barbed grains slicing throat and lungs and windpipe.
She stumbled back.
Tried to scream.
No sound came.
She swung a disc wildly—missed.
The second one spun out of control and clattered against the wall.
The third never left her side.
Her nose bled.
Then her ears.
Yuren didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Just watched her fall.
One knee.
Then the other.
Then still.
When she collapsed, the chamber lights dimmed.
The Warden Seat flared gold.
And the voice returned—lower, grounded, almost reverent.
"Command claimed."
Yuren stepped forward.
Picked up her disc.
Placed it beside the seat.
And sat.
Not like a king.
Not like a hero.
Just a survivor with blood on his hands.
Day 39
It took hours for the dust to settle—literally.
Kaela's body lay motionless near the central column. Her discs had stopped spinning. Her glyph slab sat beside her, cold and blank.
Yuren didn't touch it.
The Warden Seat behind him pulsed warm.
Not threatening.
Not inviting.
Just… ready.
He stood before the throne but didn't sit again.
Not yet.
Instead, he stepped into the light of the control ring.
And the fortress woke.
Panels lifted from the stone. Holograms flickered overhead—maps, resource counts, weather monitoring systems, even Fall trajectory predictions.
Yuren barely understood half of it. But the basics were there:
Shielded food chambers.
Weapon forges powered by geothermal cores.
Medical rooms with dormant machines labeled in unknown scripts.
And—most important—access control to the outer wall, entrances, and training domes.
He looked down at his glyph.
Still glowing.
Still bound to the system.
He'd won.
But it didn't feel like victory.
It felt like weight.
He left Kaela's corpse where it was for now.
He had bigger problems.
Three Hours Later — Surface
Reika stood with Chloe, Mason, and a half-dozen others outside the jungle perimeter.
They'd followed the glowing marks the fortress began projecting into the treetops—pale gold sigils hovering twenty meters above the ground, like stars pinned to branches.
Chloe squinted up at one.
"That's a beacon," she said.
Mason lowered his weapon. "So?"
"So it means someone made it to the throne."
Then the jungle floor opened.
A circular door slid up from beneath the dirt—silent, seamless.
And Yuren stepped through.
He was bruised. Coated in sweat and dried blood. One disc strapped to his back. No emotion in his face.
But the glyph on his palm glowed bright.
They stared.
No one spoke.
Reika broke the silence first.
"Where's Kaela?"
Yuren looked past her.
Toward the jungle.
Toward the future.
"Gone."
That night, Yuren brought them into the fortress—only the core group for now.
Reika. Chloe. Mason. Denzel.
The central chamber lit itself.
No fire needed.
No fuel.
Just old tech breathing back to life like it had been waiting.
They stood in silence for a long time.
Then Chloe spoke.
"You gonna make a kingdom out of this?"
Yuren shook his head.
"No thrones. No crowns. Just walls, food, and room to train."
She nodded.
But didn't smile.
"You better mean that. Because this place… people are gonna kill for it."
He met her eyes.
And for the first time in days—
He didn't look angry.
Or afraid.
Just ready.