Commander Vezan let out a hollow chuckle. He was the fifth, a brute among scholars. His gauntlets were made from shattered relics, and his teeth had been filed into a crown-like snarl. "Yaah that's amazing but troubling. No. Entertaining. Let them grow. Let them burn brighter before we snuff them out."

"They will not burn long," Commander Kael muttered, the youngest of the circle. His armor resembled a knight's grave, all chained bones and cracked plates. "The Core's hunger is mindless. It will not wait for ceremony."

Azuel stood still near the throne, hands clasped beneath his sleeves. "The king has not ordered war," he said, eyes closed. "He has ordered return. Rest. Recalibration. The Origin Core has awakened. That alone is enough. The king's motive is vast."

Sirael clenched his fists. His voice held no defiance, only frustration. "Ten years I spent watching the skies over Qiyun. Studying. Planning. That planet was not ready. Their evolution was scattered. No civilization should ascend like that. Really that's amazing. After all, all happens bcz of that boy."

The 3rd commander spoke again, voice like a verdict etched in stone. "Not a civilization. A convergence. You are right. That boy have something unique. He have some unique powers. If he not present their our first commander not die."

The commanders fell silent.

4th commander took a slow step forward, robes dragging over the carved stone. " You are right. If he was not present their, our first commander not die. Anyway, a convergence," he repeated. "Multiple anomalies awakened in unison. Unpredictable forces. Possibly even artifacts from beyond our sealed reaches. That is the reason we fell back. Not from fear. From necessity. The threads of prophecy blur when convergence occurs."

Vezan growled, one finger tapping the hilt of his broken-axe blade. "So you fear them."

4th commander turned to him, eyes calm. "I fear nothing. But I obey the king. And the king waits when time requires patience."

Another commander stepped forward. She had not spoken before. Her name was Vaena, sixth in rank, the strategist. Her voice was crisp and calculated. "We will need new measures. If planetary awakening happens again outside our control, the other sealed planets may awaken as well."

"We will study the Core's pulse," 3rd commander said. "Trace it. Map the rhythm of its hunger."

Commander Kael frowned. "And if another seal breaks?"

"Then," the 3rd commander said, "we move in full."

His voice carried a weight that silenced even the oldest of them.

Vaena bowed her head. "Then I will begin recalibrating the Dream Tether."

Sirael stepped back from the throne, more composed now. "I understand. But simply… regret letting them live."

The 3rd commander's eyes finally met his.

"They are not living," he said. "Not yet. They are only waking. Walking towards their destruction."

★★★

Beyond the chamber, deep in the ship's underbelly, engineers of magic and architect adjusted the paths of mana flowing through the fortress. Entire divisions of Vestige scribes worked in silence, charting cosmic patterns, adjusting glyph-machinery that churned like lungs and veins of an ancient beast.

In a chamber sealed behind a thousand runes, the Dream Tether pulsed a lattice of memory and warpspace that linked the minds of Vestige seers across time. It shimmered like a giant serpent of light, wrapped in chains and whispering forgotten languages.

Vaena entered with her lieutenants. "We'll need new simulations," she said. "The Core's signal must be refracted. If Qiyun's anomalies are part of a larger web, we cannot let them awaken the others."

Behind her, an acolyte trembled. "Commander… there is something else."

Vaena turned. "Speak."

"The signal from Qiyun. It… split. There was another wave. A smaller one. It did not match the Core's resonance."

"Another source?"

"No. A being."

Vaena's eyes narrowed. "Human?"

"We cannot confirm. But its mana… was not natural. It resembled something else."

Vaena stood still for a moment. Then she turned and walked away, her voice sharp as a blade. "Notify Azuel. And keep this quiet. If the king wishes to know, he will ask."

★★★

Back in the throne chamber, Azuel stood in quiet prayer. He felt the pressure shift in the flow of space. Something was watching them not a god, not a foe, but someone's gaze.

He did not speak it aloud.

The king already knew.

His throne pulsed once with an ancient heartbeat, and the bones in his crown flared white, as if sensing something far, far away.

The commanders waited.

The king remained still.

In the cold silence of space, the Vestiges continued their journey home not defeated, not broken, but preparing.

The Origin War had not yet begun.

But its fate was decided.

"Who? Who's gaze have power to reach here. My lord." Azual asked king. His eyebrows ascended. In his hands goosebumps seen. He amazed.

"I am not sure but may be this gaze was him." King simply without any emotions replied.

"Who? Who my lord." Azual asked again.

"He is powerful than us. He hold power beyond our imagination." King replied.

"Ren. Ren Calder. But my lord he is unconscious." Azual said.

"May be it's his gaze or not. I am not sure also. But if he is not than that man may be."

King said. Throughout his body fear seen. His entire body was shivered.

Azual said with crumbled voice...

"Really... I mean... Sorry my lord. But really, he is Huo Tian."

His entire body shivered.

★★★

We saw a broken battlefield.

Smoke lingered over the battlefield long after the screams had faded.

The wind returned at last, brushing gently across the scorched earth. It carried the scent of charred steel, burnt magic, and blood gone dry. Ash drifted like snow, settling on the silent dead and the shattered mountains.

In the shadow of the ruined field, the survivors worked in silence.

No horns sounded. No orders were barked. What remained of Qiyun's army had no voice left for commands.

They moved with hollow eyes. Hands raw from digging, they pulled stone from collapsed mountains to take bodies of dead. They wrapped bodies in what cloth they could find. They carried the young and the old, the brave and the foolish, to the rows of makeshift graves behind the shattered wall.

Above them, a pyre burned for those too broken to return home.

Frein moved between the wounded like a ghost. His hands trembled now, from fatigue. Seroi sat side part of the mountain, still barely breathing. Her wounds had stopped bleeding, but her eyes now opened.

Ren remained unconscious, his body untouched, lying as if in peaceful sleep. Nyxa never left his side. She watched his chest rise and fall, over and over, searching for something anything that might explain the unease twisting in her gut. But later after she felt relaxed.

None of them spoke about what they had seen. Not yet. Not while the sky still burned red.

★★★

Old Lark stood alone at the field.

It had been pierced, torn, and burnt at the edges. But it still stood.

Behind him, the mage's body had been remained away. What remained of the Twelve stood in silence, their robes darkened with blood and shame.

No one argued with Lark now.

He watched the horizon with narrowed eyes. The Third Commander had disappeared, but his presence still lingered. Lark could feel it in his bones. In the quiet. In the way even the birds refused to sing.

"They're not done," he murmured.

No one replied. They knew it too.

★★★

At the southern ridge, Elara stood. Her eyes stucked towards the battlefield. The wind pulled her hair gently, but she didn't move.

She was watching the ruins of the plains where it all ended. Her eyes were hard. Her hands clenched at her sides.

"He should have awakened," she whispered.

There was no answer.

Only the sound of crackling pyres behind her.

She waited. Minutes passed.

Then, slowly, the voice returned, colder than before.

"Something interfered."

"What?" she asked, her voice nearly breaking. "You said our time would begin. That his awakening would trigger everything."

"And it should have. But I was wrong. There is something inside him. Something buried too deep even I could not sense it. Vestige's know some forbidden magics. They try to destroy his mana core and they was succeed. But at the right moment I arrived their and now I fixed it. I was sealed his core."

Elara turned to look back at Ren's still form. "Then what happens now?"

The voice was silent for a long time.

Then it answered.

"We wait. But not forever. The next fracture will break him… or reveal him. He will doing something. We can't do anything. He will have to heal his core."

Elara didn't know which answer she feared more.

★★★

In the mana sea, darkness began to curl.

The golden sky above the black ocean pulsed faintly. Lights swirled in slow rhythm, like stars trembling in water.

Nyxa sat at the edge of the void, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

She could see it. The changes. Something had started to open. No, unravel beneath the surface. But Ren's body didn't reflect it. Not yet.

She whispered Ren's name once.

There was no reply.

But the sea started to move. A black thunder beneath the waves seen. Waves carried that thunder too. All thunder surrounded the Ren's body.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.