The next morning, Haruto began to build. He led them to the collapsed main gate of the fortress, a massive breach in the outer wall.
"This is our biggest vulnerability," he stated. "We will seal it."
"With what?" Riku asked, gesturing to the scattered rubble. "It would take twenty men a month to rebuild this wall, and we have no mortar."
"We have something better," Haruto replied. He walked to the center of the breach and placed his palm flat against the jagged edge of the broken wall. He closed his eyes, focusing. "Akari, activate the fabricator protocol. Use local rock dust and carbon as raw material. I want a seamless, reinforced wall, ten meters high, three meters thick. Integrate a defensive choke point and firing slits."
**
A low hum emanated from Haruto's body. The ground at his feet began to vibrate. Before the astonished eyes of Himari and her guards, the dust and small pebbles on the ground began to flow like liquid. The gray powder swirled up the wall, tracing the lines of the breach. It wasn't just filling the cracks; it was fundamentally restructuring the stone itself on a molecular level.
The breach sealed itself, the new stone a smooth, dark gray, devoid of seams or mortar lines. It rose higher and higher, forming a solid, impenetrable barrier where moments before there had been only a ruin. A single, narrow gateway, reinforced with the same strange, seamless material, was the only opening left.
Kaito reached out and touched the new wall. It was impossibly smooth and felt harder than any stone he had ever known. He drew his short sword and struck it with all his might. The blade rang with a high-pitched shriek and bounced off without leaving so much as a scratch.
He looked at his sword, then back at the wall, then at Haruto, who now leaned against his creation, a light sheen of sweat on his brow.
"By the gods…" Kaito whispered. He dropped to one knee. Riku, seeing his comrade's action, did the same.
Himari simply stared, her mind struggling to comprehend the scale of the miracle she had just witnessed. He had not just healed her body; he was healing the very bones of this fortress. He wasn't a sorcerer. Sorcerers manipulated magic. This man commanded the very essence of creation itself.
"Get up," Haruto said, his voice tired but firm. "There's more work to do."
He had secured their position. He had stabilized his assets. Now, it was time to expand. He had given them safety. He had given Himari hope. And in doing so, he had just laid the first stone of a new, unseen kingdom, forged in the fires of technology and born from the ashes of a fallen starship.
As he turned to survey their new, secure home, Akari's voice spoke, for his ears only.
**
Haruto's head snapped north. He wasn't the only survivor. He wasn't alone.