7th Cycle of the Year 312, Month of the Black Mists

  Kael’s camp had settled on the outskirts of the ruins, amid a field of shattered stones and collapsed structures stretching as far as the eye could see. Though the men busied themselves repairing weapons, tending to wounds, and preparing for the next move, an invisible tension loomed over them.

  Since the battle against the Guardians of Silence, no one spoke loudly at night, and campfires were more numerous than usual, as if the light could ward off the creeping shadows of the forgotten remnants.

  Kael, however, found no rest.

  Inside the war tent, under the flickering glow of a lantern, he stood before a makeshift table, staring at the corpse they had retrieved. A human body, yes, but… not entirely. Beneath the torn flesh, metallic plates and black cables, like veins of shadow, intertwined with shattered bones.

  He briefly closed his eyes.

  It was the first time he had seen such a thing. Yet, deep down, a strange sensation told him he had encountered something similar before… A distant, hazy memory buried somewhere in the depths of his mind.

  Lysara, sitting cross-legged a few steps away, observed the corpse with a mixture of fascination and fear.

  — "This is… impossible."

  Darius, leaning against a barrel of provisions, crossed his arms.

  — "You mean a man can’t be like this? Open your eyes, Lysara. We all saw it move, we all saw it bleed… but not like us. It didn’t even scream when we struck it."

  Kael clenched his jaw. He remembered the battle vividly. These things moved with mechanical precision, as if they anticipated strikes, as if they followed a program rather than a survival instinct.

  — "It wasn’t a spirit, nor a beast," he finally said. "It may not have even been a man anymore."

  A heavy silence settled over them.

  Lysara shook her head and looked at Kael with grave intensity.

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  — "They were guarding the ruins. That means they were protecting something."

  Kael slowly nodded.

  — "Then tomorrow, we find out what."

  The dawn cast a spectral gray hue over the sky as Kael and his small group slipped into the gaping maw of the ancient world. The air was colder, stagnant, laden with a metallic scent reminiscent of rusted blood.

  Beneath their feet, debris littered the ground—stones blackened by time, fragments of what seemed like glass, and at times… stranger things.

  Lysara picked up a piece of smooth metal, thinner than a dagger’s blade yet incredibly resilient.

  — "This isn’t ordinary forge work…" she murmured.

  Darius took the lead, his axe raised, scanning the walls covered in strange symbols. Murals stretched across the stone, telling a lost story.

  Kael ran his hand over one of them.

  An immense city was engraved, stretching beneath a sky filled with what appeared to be… artificial stars. Suspended roads, towers so high they seemed to pierce the firmament. But most of all, there were human figures… standing beside creatures of metallic appearance.

  — "Was this world once ruled by beings like the ones we fought?"

  He shook his head. No. Too many missing pieces to this puzzle.

  They moved cautiously through a corridor, its partially collapsed ceiling threatening to cave in at any moment. Underfoot, something crunched—bones.

  Kael crouched. These weren’t normal bones. They were smooth, almost polished, and some were embedded with what looked like minuscule circuits.

  He exchanged a look with Lysara and Darius.

  — "What happened here…?"

  Then, they reached a vast underground chamber.

  Kael stopped abruptly.

  Before them stood an imposing structure, untouched by time. A massive door, black as obsidian, adorned with a strange symbol: a circle crossed by a stylized lightning bolt.

  Darius squinted.

  — "That’s… not normal."

  Lysara stepped forward, reaching out to brush the door’s cold surface.

  — "It’s like… ice."

  Kael, however, felt something else. A sense of presence. Of being watched. As if, on the other side, something was waiting.

  He took a step back.

  — "We don’t touch it."

  Darius groaned.

  — "We came all this way, and we’re leaving empty-handed?"

  Kael shot him a hard look.

  — "We don’t know what’s behind it. And those things outside… they might have just been sentinels."

  Darius gritted his teeth but eventually nodded.

  — "Then we come back better prepared."

  Kael cast one last look at the door.

  In the darkness, a faint bluish light flickered for a brief moment.

  And deep within, one certainty took hold:

  This world is built upon ruins older than we ever imagined.