Year 217 After the Era of Scourge

  26th Day of the Month of Ashes,

  The sun struggled to pierce through the thick layer of gray clouds covering the sky. Ash-laden winds lifted a fine dust across the ruins of the forgotten city, tracing ghostly swirls between the collapsed buildings.

  Kael, Lysara, and Darius had taken refuge in an old structure, perhaps once an administrative center or a temple. The worn walls still bore the scars of brutal destruction—marks of unknown weapons, engravings eroded by time, and a heavy atmosphere, as if the place had been holding its breath for centuries.

  Seated against a broken pillar, Kael tightened his grip on his sword, his eyes alert to the slightest movement in the shadows.

  They were not alone.

  They had understood this after the battle with the mechanical guardians. The ruined city was not as abandoned as it seemed. Something still lurked here, hidden beneath the surface, concealed among the remnants of a lost world.

  Before them stood a towering structure, its broken peak seeming to pierce the veiled sky. Its dark stone walls were partially covered in blackened ivy, yet despite the ravages of time, it still stood, defying oblivion.

  Kael observed the edifice, a strange sensation knotting his stomach.

  — “We have to go in.” he declared, his gaze fixed on the gaping entrance.

  Darius, arms crossed, was unconvinced.

  — “I’ll follow you, but I hope it’s not just to get devoured by another metal abomination.”

  Lysara, meanwhile, placed a hand on the exterior wall, her fingers brushing the texture of the stone with curiosity.

  — “This architecture… It resembles nothing we know. It’s as if it was built by a civilization completely unrelated to the clans that rule today.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Kael nodded. He shared the same feeling.

  They stepped inside.

  The entrance hall was immense, dominated by ancient pillars, some of which had collapsed into a tangled heap of rubble. The air was cold, carrying a metallic scent.

  Through the beams of light filtering through the cracks in the ceiling, they distinguished elongated shapes on the floor.

  Corpses.

  Some were human, reduced to bones bleached by time, while others had a more unsettling appearance—mechanical figures, rust-eaten, with featureless metal faces.

  Kael knelt beside one, running his hand over the tarnished insignia on its chest plate.

  — “A forgotten army…” he murmured.

  Darius kicked one of the carcasses, which crumbled into dust.

  — “If these things are dead, it means something even worse was here.”

  Lysara shivered.

  — “I don’t like this…”

  A side corridor caught their attention. On the walls, engraved symbols—unintelligible, yet possessing an almost surgical precision.

  They proceeded forward.

  After several minutes of walking through the oppressive darkness, they emerged into a vast circular chamber.

  At its center stood a monolith of black glass, fractured in multiple places. Once majestic, it was now cracked but still pulsed with a strange energy.

  Kael stepped forward cautiously.

  As he placed a hand on the cold surface, a reddish glow coursed through the fractures, and suddenly, images flickered within the monolith.

  A city, thriving and full of light.

  Stone-paved streets teeming with life.

  Then, a colossal shadow darkened the sky.

  An explosion.

  The ground trembled. Screams echoed.

  The towers collapsed one after another as waves of fire consumed the city.

  And then… the silhouettes of metal.

  The same ones they had fought earlier, but this time, they marched in tight formations, exterminating the survivors.

  An army of machines.

  Lysara staggered back, her hand covering her mouth.

  — “This was… a war?”

  Darius, his expression tense, observed the vision warily.

  — “Or worse… a purge.”

  The monolith flickered one last time before going dark, leaving the chamber in heavy silence.

  Kael closed his eyes.

  This world had already burned once.

  As they prepared to leave the room, a deep sound resonated behind them.

  A wall slowly slid open, revealing a hidden passage.

  Kael exchanged a glance with Lysara and Darius.

  — “It looks like we’ve been invited.”

  Darius drew his sword.

  — “An invitation to a trap, more likely…”

  Kael did not reply.

  His instincts urged him forward.

  The past was calling.