4th Cycle of the Year 312, Month of the Black Mists

  The wind howled through the valley, carrying a fine, acrid dust that clung to Kael and his men’s clothing. The ground, cracked and barren, bore witness to a cataclysm so ancient that no one remembered its cause. The remnants of a forgotten civilization dotted the horizon: cracked roads, skeletal structures eroded by time and war, metallic carcasses with strange shapes, some half-buried beneath dunes of ash.

  Kael pulled on his mount’s reins and observed the ruins rising before them. Torn-apart buildings twisted under a grayish sky, their silhouettes eroded by centuries of abandonment. The air was heavy, almost suffocating.

  “It’s a graveyard,” Lysara murmured as she scanned the surroundings.

  Darius sniffed, gripping the hilt of his sword.

  “Whatever it was before, now it’s just a pile of dead rocks.”

  Kael didn’t share his view. He felt something strange here. Not just desolation… but an invisible presence, as if shadows of the past still lingered, watching over this forgotten place.

  “Stay on guard,” he ordered. “Lysara, have you spotted anything?”

  The scout nodded.

  “Movement to the west. Subtle, but constant. I’d say about twenty men. They move like trackers.”

  Kael thought quickly.

  “Not raiders then. Too organized.”

  “A local faction?” Darius asked.

  “Maybe. But why stay here? There’s nothing to plunder, not even enough to survive…”

  A shiver ran down Kael’s spine. His gaze settled on a massive, cracked stone fa?ade, where time-worn letters formed a half-erased inscription.

  “Central …nergy …erial”

  Kael ran his fingers over the cold surface. A faded red paint remnant formed a strange icon: a circle crossed by a stylized lightning bolt.

  “This symbol… I’ve seen it somewhere before,” he murmured.

  Lysara and Darius stepped closer.

  “There have been many stories about these lands,” Lysara said. “Legends of a golden age, of shining cities where men commanded the stars… and of a fall that consumed everything.”

  Darius let out a laugh.

  “Stories to scare children. Nothing has ever commanded the stars.”

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  Kael didn’t respond. His instincts screamed that this place hid a far greater secret than they could imagine.

  A dull sound shattered the silence. A metallic echo resonated through the ruins. Kael raised a hand, and immediately, his men froze.

  A shadow slipped between two broken pillars.

  Then another.

  And suddenly, a voice rang out.

  “You should never have come here.”

  Weapons were drawn in an instant.

  Silhouettes emerged from the rubble—a score of men dressed in rags and dark cloaks. Their faces were hidden beneath crudely stitched hoods, and their weapons gleamed with a strange light under the dim daylight.

  Kael frowned. Those blades… they weren’t ordinary metal. A bluish reflection pulsed on their surface, almost alive.

  One of the strangers stepped forward, his face masked by torn fabric.

  “You desecrate sacred ground.”

  Kael tightened his grip on his sword.

  “We do not seek war, but we are not afraid of it. Who are you?”

  The man tilted his head slightly.

  “The Guardians of Silence.”

  Kael exchanged a glance with Darius and Lysara.

  “Guardians of what?” he asked.

  “The ruins. That which sleeps beneath them. That which must never be awakened.”

  A chill ran down Kael’s spine.

  “What are you talking about?”

  The stranger did not answer.

  Then, in a flash, everything fell apart.

  The “Guardians” scattered with inhuman speed. The battle erupted in a storm of steel and cries.

  Kael dodged a first strike and countered with a swift blow. His sword clashed against his opponent’s blade, and a strange vibration rang out, as if the weapon pulsed with an invisible force.

  “What the—”

  The enemy gave him no time to think. He attacked with terrifying speed, forcing Kael to retreat. Around him, his men fought with fury. Darius felled a warrior with a brutal axe swing, but the man’s body convulsed strangely before collapsing.

  Lysara, faster than lightning, leaped behind one of the attackers and plunged a dagger into his neck. But instead of a cry of pain, a strange gurgle escaped the dying man’s throat.

  Kael dodged another attack and finally managed to wound his opponent’s shoulder. The man collapsed… but something was wrong.

  Beneath the mask, beneath the flesh… a pale glow pulsed, and Kael caught a brief glimpse of a metallic surface beneath the torn skin.

  “What the hell is this?!”

  A heavy silence suddenly fell over the battlefield.

  The last of the Guardians, seeing their secret exposed, dropped their weapons and fled into the shadows of the ruins.

  Kael knelt beside the body of the man he had just slain. He tore away the cloth covering his face… and felt his heart clench.

  Beneath the wounded flesh, metal plates were fused to the skull. Broken circuits faintly glowed under the skin.

  This was not just a man.

  It was something else.

  Something ancient.

  Behind him, Lysara and Darius stared at the scene, their faces marked by incomprehension and a fear they could not hide.

  Kael slowly rose. He knew that what they had uncovered here was only the beginning.

  “We need to leave,” he said in a grave voice. “But we will return.”

  He cast one last glance at the silent ruins before turning away.

  In his mind, a single thought echoed:

  What has the world forgotten?