The cage was wrought of iron and shadow, its lattice humming with the cold light of restraint. Within, a woman lay chained by nano-wires that burrowed like veins of silver into her flesh. Her hair clung to her face in a tangle of dirt and exhaustion, and by her side rested a lone blade, its edge dulled with silence but never with defeat.
Her eyes...golden, radiant even in ruin glimmered faintly through the dark. They opened when she heard it: footsteps, steady and unhurried, approaching her prison.
With effort, she pushed herself upright, vision clouded, temples throbbing as though the weight of entire worlds pressed against her skull.
"Epsilon? Epsilon, can you hear me?"
The voice was muffled, distant, swimming through the haze in her mind. Her breath trembled. The ground pitched sideways. Darkness overtook her again.
The stranger froze, listening. Another set of steps echoed through the chamber, dragging against stone. Hastily, he retreated into the shadow of a column, eyes narrowed as he peered at the newcomer.
What entered was not a soldier, but a ruin of a man. Shiwunki...once proud, now pitiful walked without arms, his body broken, his gaze hollow. He shuffled forward, a phantom of misery.
The stranger held his breath.
Shiwunki grunted, hooked a foot against a discarded chest, and dragged it before the cage. With slow, awkward movements, he sat, then stomped against the bars until the metallic reverberations shook Epsilon awake.
Her lashes fluttered. She blinked against the blur until his figure resolved.
"Some...thing you don't see every day," she whispered, her voice thin, broken at the edges.
Shiwunki's reply carried no life, only fevered obsession. "It is almost here, Epsilon. Soon, we shall reign over Helixia and her people."
Her lips curved into a bitter ghost of a smile. "Last I checked, Dr. Gerald Omicron nursed that same ambition before he was cast out in disgrace. Then Xypher Omicron raised the dream anew, only to be cut down by four kids plucked from the outside world by Gerek. And now...this same tired fire dressed in ashes, burns again?"
The words cut. Shiwunki growled, teeth clenched, eyes burning with impotent fury.
"Those kids aren't here anymore ."
Epsilon's voice steadied, each syllable a blade. "At least one is. Looking at you now, I would say she's the reason you look so... pitiful. What a shame."
The insult struck like venom. He surged to his feet, spinning away before his rage devoured him whole.
"When the hour comes and battle begins, I will find him. And before I end his life, I'll be sure to whisper in his ear that his wife yet lives."
Epsilon's heart stuttered. Her face drained pale. She gripped her chains, silent, her golden eyes clouded by dread.
When Shiwunki's steps faded, the stranger emerged.
"Epsi," he murmured.
Her head snapped up. Recognition flared. "Vil...Vildar? What in God's name are you doing here?"
Without pause, he raised his arm. His Discipline—Gunner—flared, and a cannon burst shattered the cage. Another searing round obliterated the nano-wires coiled around her.
He pressed a drive into her palm. "Everything is here...research, plans, motives. Go. Now."
She snatched her blade, strength returning in fragments, when the shadows stirred.
A voice lilted from the darkness, fractured, mechanical.
"Ohhh... I seeeee. An intruuuuder hidden amongst us all along."
From the rafters descended a shape: an android, mothlike yet humanoid, its wings folded like steel prayers, its round head crowned with two vast violet eyes.
Epsilon's breath hitched. "A Vertex…?"
Vildar's jaw tightened. "Yes. Mot-Suna... built from the remnants of PSI itself."
Before either could move, their bodies rose into the air, caught in invisible snares.
"Antigravity," Mot-Suna hummed. Her hand lifted, cold and deliberate. "Acceleration."
Epsilon felt the crushing force, but in that heartbeat, Vildar turned his cannon against her, blasting her out of the field's range. She tumbled to the ground....free. He remained suspended, crushed beneath the weight of unseen gravity.
"No!" she rasped, staggering to her feet. But it was too late. Vildar was broken in an instant.
Her hand tightened on her blade. Tears burned behind her eyes. Then she ran.
She burst from the underbelly of the facility, the taste of dust and iron in her mouth. Above, upon the roof, a silhouette awaited her. A shadow crowned in malice.
T-drones swarmed, rising like a hive awakened. Zeta androids marched from the darkness, weapons primed.
A voice thundered above. "Epsilon Shyron. Fifth Seat of the Seven Shadows. The Golden Storm. There is no escape. And even if there were, you cannot stop what comes."
Her golden eyes flared, light searing from her hair as if the sun itself had chosen her as vessel.
"Escape?" Her blade trembled in her hand, not with fear but with fury. "I am not here to flee. I am the storm they forged their machines to withstand. And still...they failed. So descend, shadow. Bleed with the rest."
The figure's red eyes gleamed. Its arm raised.
"Kill her."
The command loosed the horde.
They fell upon her like a tide. She met them like fire.
Steel sang as she spun, her blade carving arcs of golden fury. T-drones shattered in bursts of sparks. Zeta androids split, their bodies collapsing in halves.
She vaulted, spun midair, and brought her blade crashing down in a luminous strike...Solar Divide, the move whispered across Helixian legend.
Still they came.
Bullets screamed. She blurred into superhuman speed, weaving through their paths, then severed gunmetal heads with precise fury.
A towering Zeta emerged, its axe glowing like molten suns. She darted beneath its swing, leapt skyward, and with a single golden slash cleaved it in two.
Landing on one knee, she rose, her eyes burning brighter, her aura spilling into the ground.
With shadow essence, she called forth doubles of herself, clones born of void. Together they turned the tide, dismantling the swarm until silence reigned.
But silence is never victory.
From the ruins, twelve colossal Zetas advanced, each towering red and bearing axes larger than temples.
Epsilon exhaled, lifted her blade skyward, and drove it into the ground. "Bladefall."
From the heavens, twelve ethereal swords descended like judgment itself, impaling the giants and shattering them into ruin.
Dust swirled. Her breath came ragged. Yet her stance never faltered.
Above, the shadowed figure crouched, knee bent, one hand on its leg, watching.
"Impressive. You've nearly destroyed my war host. Shall I assume... I'm next?"
She said nothing. Her eyes hard, golden, merciless...spoke enough.
Dragging her blade, sparks igniting beneath each step, she approached.
And vanished.
Reappearing behind the figure, blade poised for the kill.
But its arm split open, unveiling curved blades that caught her strike with a scream of metal.
Rain fell, sudden and cruel, each drop alight in her golden glow.
They clashed...steel against shadow, light against void.
The figure split, three forms rushing her. She whirled, her blade a sunlit wheel, annihilating one. The second struck from above parried, shattered. But the real one lunged too close.
She stepped aside. Drove her blade back, piercing through its chest.
"Fade."
The shadow unraveled. But not destroyed.
From the rubble, it rose again. "Futile," it hissed.
She raised her blade in oath.
"By the steel I've honed and the blood I've spilled, I do not rise as a warrior...I awaken as judgement. Let my blade remember: I am storm, silence and the end."
Nanotech fibers surged, forming armor around her body. Her blade swelled with ethereal light, vast enough to tear the sky.
The shadow's hand bloomed with violet orbs, a storm of annihilation.
They charged.
Light met shadow. Blade met fist.
Helixia detonated.
When the dust cleared, she was broken. Her body bled, armor shredded. The figure, no longer shadow, revealed himself: a man, hair spiked, eyes veiled, smirk curved cruelly.
He lifted her by the neck, effortless.
Her breath came ragged. "You...? No. It cannot be you."
His grin deepened. "Yes, Epsi. It's me. Did you think Ivo would carry the Omicron's torch?"
Her lips trembled. "I never thought it would be you."
"I invited Ivo," he said. "He refused. Claimed he had no interest in his family's dream. But I..." his hand tightened, "I walked the outer world. And there, I was gifted a Hailox. Not technology. Not Discipline. A power to rival them both."
Her golden eyes widened. "Impossible. No Heli....."
"Not impossible. Inevitable." He raised his fist. "Now, since you've seen my face...you cannot live."
He strangled her, her body shaking in weakness, breath slipping away.
But the cannon roared.
Explosions forced him to drop her. From the rubble rose Vildar, battered, armor in tatters, yet alive. He seized her and fled.
Mot-Suna gave chase, warping gravity to slow them.
Vildar cursed, releasing a sky drone. "Take her to Avril!"
The drone latched onto Epsilon's back, carrying her into the skies.
He turned, weapon raised, to face Mot-Suna only to be crushed beneath her blow.
She surged after Epsilon.
"Wait," the man commanded.
"She is escaping," Mot-Suna replied, voice edged with death.
"She is already dying. Let her go. It is time."
The two vanished into the ruins. And from the debris, war machines rose.....T-drones and Zetas, a legion of iron and shadow.
The engines of war awakened. Helixia's end had begun.