The canyon walls loomed like the ribs of a long-dead leviathan, their jagged edges glowing faintly with residual Voidwell energy. Celia traced her fingers over the symbol carved into the stone—a heart split by a jagged fissure, its edges smoothed by centuries of wind. The air tasted metallic, and the ground vibrated faintly, as though the earth itself were holding its breath.
"This is it," Jax said, his voice hoarse. His Arc Core flickered weakly, the corrosion now creeping past his collarbone. "The Third Heart's tomb."
Celia glanced at the Reality Shard in her palm. Its light pulsed in sync with the tremors beneath their feet. "Tomb? You think it's… alive?"
Jax didn't answer. He knelt, brushing sand from a slab of obsidian embedded in the canyon floor. Ancient Lobenstein numerals glowed faintly beneath his touch: Entry Protocol: Blood of Sundered.
"We need to go back," Celia said suddenly. "There's still time to find another way—"
"There is no other way." Jax stood, his movements stiff. "You saw the enforcer. The Council won't stop. And your uncle's drones will burn this canyon to ash once they track us." He nodded at the Shard. "That thing's our only leverage."
Celia tightened her grip on the Solaris Veil. Its golden surface was now tarnished, the sigils along its edge warped and unreadable. Like me, she thought.
---
The path into the canyon was a narrow spiral, its steps worn smooth by time. Celia counted them as they descended—seventy-three, seventy-four—each one colder than the last. The walls closed in, dripping with bioluminescent moss that cast a sickly green light. Halfway down, they found the first corpse.
It was a Veythari nomad, their body mummified by the dry air. One hand clutched a Luminar Code sigil; the other was fused to a Lobenstein Arc Core. Jax crouched, prying the Core free. "They tried to merge them," he muttered. "Idiots."
"Why?"
"Power. The Veythari think combining our families' tech and magic will make them… something else." He tossed the Core aside. "But it just kills faster."
Celia stared at the corpse's face, frozen in a scream. "What's worse than death?"
Jax tapped his corroded chest. "This. Knowing you've got months. Weeks. Days."
The Shard flared suddenly, projecting a hologram—a memory. A young Veythari woman, her eyes bright with hope, pressing the Core and sigil together. Light and machinery fused, then detonated, tearing her apart.
"A warning," Celia whispered.
"Or a dare," Jax said.
---
The spiral ended in a vast chamber, its ceiling lost to darkness. Pillars of fused stone and steel ringed the room, each etched with hybrid symbols—Lobenstein numerals intertwined with Ashorex holy script. At the center stood a dais, and atop it, a crystalline orb cracked down the middle. The Third Heart.
But it was inert, dormant.
"Anti-climactic," Jax said, though his voice wavered.
Celia approached the dais. The air thrummed with a low, resonant frequency, like a hymn sung through static. She reached for the Heart—
—and the floor vanished.
They fell.
---
Celia landed in sand, the heat of a twin suns scorching her skin. Jax groaned beside her, clutching his Arc Core. "Where the hell—?"
Before them stretched the Sundered Forge, but whole. The crater was a bustling city, its skyline a blend of golden spires and smokestacks. Ashorex and Lobenstein walked side by side, their children playing in streets lit by both sunlight and neon.
"A memory," Celia realized. "The Shard's showing us the past."
A figure approached—a woman with Celia's eyes and Jax's sharp jawline. Dr. Lira Veythar, her nameplate read. She carried a prototype of the Third Heart, its light pure and unbroken.
"The unification is complete," Lira announced to a crowd of Ashorex and Lobenstein leaders. "The Heart will sustain both magic and machine. No more sacrifices. No more decay."
But as she activated the Heart, the crowd erupted into chaos. Ashorex zealots accused the Lobenstein of heresy; engineers demanded control of the Heart's power. A blast rang out—a Lobenstein weapon misfired, striking Lira.
The Heart shattered.
The vision fractured. Celia and Jax watched as the families turned on each other, the city crumbling into the crater now known as the Sundered Forge. The Third Heart's shards were buried, its creators erased from history.
And in the shadows, hooded figures—the first Vult Council—collected the debris.
---
They awoke back in the chamber, the Third Heart now glowing faintly. The ground trembled violently, dust shaking loose from the ceiling.
"It's here," Jax said.
A roar echoed through the chamber, guttural and mechanical. From a fissure in the wall emerged the guardian—a towering amalgamation of Ashorex light and Lobenstein steel. Its body was plated with golden armor, but beneath the gilt, rusted gears ground together. One eye glowed with Luminar Code; the other was a cracked lens oozing black fluid.
"Intruders," it boomed, voice a discordant blend of choir and static. "The Heart… must not… be taken."
Jax raised his plasma wrench, but the corroded device sparked and died. "Damn it—"
Celia stepped forward, the Solaris Veil in hand. "We don't want to take it. We want to fix it."
The guardian paused, its lens eye focusing on her. "Lies. All lies. The families… only destroy."
"We're trying to stop the cycle!" Celia's voice broke. "Please—let us prove it."
The guardian shuddered, its golden plates sloughing off to reveal the truth beneath: a humanoid figure fused into the machine, their flesh half-melted. "Prove… purity," it rasped. "Merge… the energies. As she… intended."
Jax stiffened. "It wants us to combine your magic and my tech. Like the Veythari."
"That's suicide," Celia said.
"Yeah." Jax met her gaze. "Got a better idea?"
The guardian lurched closer, its claws scraping the floor. "Begin."
---
Celia gripped the Reality Shard, Jax's hand over hers. His Arc Core whined, its light mingling with her frayed holy magic. The chamber trembled as energy spiraled around them—gold and blue twisting into violet.
"Focus," Jax gritted out. "Channel it into the Heart."
Celia's veins burned. The Shard's visions flooded her mind: Lira's hope, the Council's betrayal, her own coronation gone wrong. She felt Jax's pain too—the corrosion eating his lungs, his mother's voice in the static.
"You're killing him," the Light Dominion's dying whisper warned.
*"You're saving him," the Voidwell countered.
The Third Heart ignited, its cracks sealing as their combined energy poured into it. The guardian watched, its human eye wide with something like hope.
Then the Vult Council enforcer appeared in a burst of black smoke.
"Thank you for reactivating the Heart," they said, voice slick with triumph. "It will serve well in the coming purge."
The enforcer raised a blade of pure shadow—and plunged it into the guardian's chest.
---
The guardian screamed, its body disintegrating into ash and sparks. The enforcer seized the Third Heart, its light now tainted with inky tendrils.
"No!" Celia lunged, but Jax pulled her back as the chamber collapsed.
They ran, the enforcer's laughter chasing them up the spiral. Behind, the canyon imploded, the Third Heart's light snuffing out like a dying star.
At the surface, dawn was breaking. Jax collapsed, coughing black fluid. The corrosion had reached his heart.
Celia knelt beside him, her hands glowing with unstable light. "I can heal you—"
"Don't." He caught her wrist. "You'll kill us both."
The Reality Shard flickered between them, its light dimming. Somewhere, the Third Heart's pulse echoed—weaker, corrupted, but still alive.
"They'll come for it," Jax said. "The Council. Your uncle. We're the only ones who know…"
His voice faded. Celia gripped the Shard, its final vision flashing—a map to the remaining Heart fragments, scattered across Gaia.
"We'll find them," she said, more to herself than him. "We'll finish what Lira started."
Jax didn't answer. His eyes closed, the Arc Core's light guttering like a candle in the wind.
---
End of Chapter 3