Imperial legions descended upon the surface like a judgment from the heavens. The occupation forces, caught between a collapsing command structure and a relentless assault, broke within hours.

Halcyon Verge was reclaimed before its primary sun could complete a single cycle.

​The next world fell faster. Then the next.

​Kharos resistance stiffened as the Dominion realized the nature of the man they were fighting. They committed their heavier assets, unleashing sovereign-class champions and activating forbidden war constructs that defied the laws of physics.

​Vahn met them all.

​On the Ashkara Rift, he annihilated an enemy war-god construct with a single, localized compression of void-law, collapsing its massive core into a point of nonexistence. On the Dawnreach Expanse, he stood alone before an entire Kharos battalion and forced them into a panicked retreat without striking a single blow; his mere presence was enough to shatter their collective morale.

​The message spread across the stars with terrifying speed. This was not a war of attrition. This was reclamation by sheer force of will. By the time the Astralis forces reached the deepest occupied system, the enemy had begun to withdraw preemptively, abandoning positions they knew they could not hold against a force that moved like a force of nature.

​It was there, in the final system, that Vahn discovered the rot.

​The enemy command nexus lay hidden beneath the surface of a scarred, airless moon, shielded by layered deception arrays. Vahn entered the facility personally, accompanied by only a small guard of elite shadows.

​The camp was abandoned, the air still smelling of ozone and hasty departures. Data cores still glowed faintly in the dark, purged of their primary files but not entirely destroyed in the rush to escape. Tactical maps were still projected in the air, showing Astralis defense layouts that should have been classified beyond even high-command access.

​Vahn stood before one particular projection longer than the rest. A familiar insignia flickered briefly in the corner of a logistics report before the file collapsed.

​It was Celestine's family crest.

​His expression did not change, but the air in the room grew noticeably colder. "Restore the data," he ordered.

​The engineers hesitated, their hands hovering over the consoles. "Your Majesty… the encryption is an imperial blood-seal. We cannot bypass it without—"

​"I know," Vahn said.

​The Void touched the console. The blood-seal, designed to be unbreakable by any outside force, unraveled as if it were made of smoke. What emerged was not speculation or hearsay. It was proof.

​Communications. Resource transfers. Strategic delays intentionally seeded into the border reinforcement schedules to ensure the Kharos strike would succeed. And at the center of the web, a single name was repeated across every encrypted channel.

​Prince Kael. Celestine's brother.

​The chamber was silent as the final data compiled into a readable format. The motives surfaced next, laid bare in Kael's own words. He believed the throne should never have gone to an outsider—a "stray" from the lower realms. He believed Celestine had betrayed their imperial blood by standing at Vahn's side. He believed the Old Emperor had grown weak in his final days.

​Kharos had promised him support for a "restoration." A civil fracture, timed to coincide with the external invasion, would have allowed Kael to sweep in as a savior while Vahn was occupied at the front.

​Vahn stared at the projection for a long, heavy moment. The Void within him trembled with a surge of focused anger. He closed his eyes briefly, centering his spirit. When he opened them, his gaze was as steady as a mountain.

​"Secure all data," he said, his voice a low rasp. "No leaks to the press or the ministries. Not yet."

​One of the guards hesitated, his voice low. "What about the Princess, Your Majesty?"

​Vahn's jaw tightened imperceptibly. "She will be informed," he said. "By me."

​The final occupied world was reclaimed within the hour. The Astralis banner rose once more across the border systems, snapping in the artificial winds of the recovery hubs. The war ended as abruptly as it had begun, but its echo was a discord that threatened the very heart of the palace.

​Vahn stood alone on the command deck of his flagship as the fleet regrouped for the jump back to the Core. The stars beyond the viewport burned with a cold, distant light.

​Celestine was waiting for him the moment he stepped off the shuttle in the capital. She knew something was wrong the moment she saw the way he held his shoulders.

​"You found something in the ruins," she said quietly as they reached the privacy of their chambers.

​"Yes," Vahn replied. He did not soften the blow. He told her everything—the collusion, the motives, and the calculated betrayal of her own kin.

​The silence that followed was heavy enough to crush stone. Celestine sank slowly into a chair, her hands trembling despite her iron control.

"My brother…" she whispered, her voice breaking. "He would never… he couldn't have."

​Vahn knelt before her, taking her cold hands in his. "He did. And in his own twisted way, he believed he was doing it for the good of your bloodline."

​Tears welled in her eyes, not born of weakness, but of the absolute agony of betrayal.

"What will you do?" she asked, looking at him with a raw, searching gaze.

​Vahn met her eyes, his heart heavy but his path clear.

"I will uphold the law, Celestine. I will do what I must to protect the Empire, even when it hurts us both."

​She closed her eyes, and for a moment, the silence was absolute. When she opened them again, a new resolve burned beneath the grief.

"Then I will stand with you. As Empress. As your wife. If there is rot in my house, I will help you cut it out."

​Vahn exhaled slowly, the weight of the war finally lifting, only to be replaced by the weight of justice. The borders had been reclaimed and the external threat repelled, but the most dangerous fracture had revealed itself from within.

​This time, force alone would not be enough to mend the break.

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