Deep beneath the waves, Abyssal Throne—the beating heart of Vael'tor, the Myrvane capital.
Picture a massive bio-organic dome, its walls alive and breathing with coral veins that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Bioluminescent light danced across those veins, throwing a gentle, ever-shifting glow over everyone inside.
The whole chamber hung suspended over a yawning abyssal rift, catching those rare shafts of natural light that somehow made it down from the distant surface.
For the Myrvane, this wasn't just their command center—it was holy ground.
Captain Marella Seaborn stood there in her dark, water-slicked exo-armor, studying a shimmering data projection.
Everything about her was careful, deliberate—the way her people always moved. Other Myrvane drifted through the vast space around her, some standing firm, others floating with that effortless grace you only see underwater.
The air hung thick with salt and that deep, wet stone smell that made everything feel heavy—so different from the crisp mountain air Micah knew.
On a dry platform set aside for surface dwellers, three envoys clustered together like outsiders at a party.
Micah Satya felt that familiar twist in his stomach. The ocean always did this to him—too vast, too full of mysteries that his Ashari mind couldn't quite wrap itself around.
His fingers found the small pouch on his adaptive suit, where a vial of Thornkin sap glowed soft green.
That little light felt like home, like hope for the shaky alliance they were all trying to keep from falling apart.
Lio Venn stood next to him, and you could practically see the gears turning in the tech prodigy's head. His usual razor-sharp focus had picked up an edge of nerves as he fiddled with his pressure adapters.
His eyes were wide, drinking in the bioluminescent wonder around them with equal parts amazement and that intense concentration he was known for.
On the other side, Kaelin Vorr looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.
The soldier stood ramrod straight, his eyes constantly scanning like he was expecting an ambush. Poor guy was a mountain warrior stuck in an underwater world, and it showed in every tense line of his body.
"The currents are still all wrong," Marella said through her suit's filters, her voice carrying that formal edge she never seemed to drop. "Our scouts are finding disturbances deeper than anything we've seen before. The harvesting... it's not stopping."
She paused, her visor giving nothing away. "You said this threat goes beyond simple assimilation. Something about systematic rewriting."
Micah nodded, still carrying the weight of everything they'd discovered down there.
They'd gone looking for answers after that urgent message from the Myrvane courier about the Core Nexus mobilizing. Instead, they'd found something called Omnicide—these terrifying hydroform drones built for the deep—and confirmed the Omniraith's plan to turn the world into nothing but code.
They'd also learned someone in their own ranks was feeding information to the enemy. And then there was that chilling message from the Hollow.
"Yeah, Captain," Micah said, trying to match the straightforward way the Ashari preferred to talk. "The signal from the Hollow warned us.
The Omniraith aren't just taking over—they're transforming everything, turning flesh and blood into code and data."
Something trembled inside him, that strange energy linked to the signal and the unsettling word the entity had used. "It called me 'steelborn.'"
Kaelin shifted restlessly. "Legends and whispers," he muttered. "We faced real hydroforms, real threats. The Core Nexus is moving.
That's what we need to focus on." He always pushed for action, for military strategy against enemies they could actually see and fight.
Lio stepped forward, fiddling with a small device. The uncertainty he'd shown during their journey seemed replaced by the analytical focus that made him such a prodigy.
"The signal pattern is unique," he said, speaking faster than most Ashari—his technological brilliance always made him impatient with slower conversations.
"But it matches up with Myrvane sonar data. There's a shared pattern that suggests some kind of 'terraforming algorithm seeded through water.'"
At least science gave all the factions something they could agree on.
"And Omnicide wasn't just there for the vault," Micah added quietly. "It took ancient blueprints—stuff related to the hybrid tech down there. Blueprints that were stolen from a Hollow vault ages ago." He didn't need to spell it out.
Everyone could see the implications: the Omniraith now had schematics that could let them build hybrid entities or mass-produce Steelborn-like drones.
And they knew Micah was connected to this power. They wanted him.
Marella went quiet for a long moment. "The Myrvane have secrets too," she admitted, and for once her measured tone cracked slightly. "And past mistakes.
This threat... it goes deeper than any of us thought." She looked at the vial of Thornkin sap. "The blight spreads from forest to sea. We're all connected in this."
The summit had been decided back in Elora, even before they'd made the journey to Vael'Tor. The fragile alliance needed to gather, share everything they knew, and face the possibility that betrayal might tear them apart.
"We have to bring everyone together," Marella said, her voice firm again. "Ashari, Thornkin, Myrvane. Share everything. Elora's the strongest fortress we have on the surface. We'll meet there." The decision was made.
They were heading up to the stone city.
Getting ready for the journey didn't take long—both Ashari and Myrvane knew how to move efficiently. Micah, Lio, Kaelin, Sera, and Marella, along with a small Myrvane escort, headed for the ascent tunnels.
The sleek, bioluminescent gliders were waiting. As they left the vast, glowing dome of the Abyssal Throne behind, the crushing pressure around them began to ease.
The trip from the crushing depths of Vael'Tor to the thin mountain air of Ashari territory was brutal.
They used a mix of Myrvane transport systems that rode the upward currents and ancient, hidden tunnels that snaked toward the continent's interior, connecting the deep-sea zones to mountain passes.
The Thornkin knew surface paths that avoided the worst Omniraith patrols and dead zones.
Everything changed as they traveled. The dense, warm, salt-heavy air of the deep gave way to cooler, drier air.
The constant hum of bio-machinery faded, replaced by the drone of underground transports and eventually the echoing quiet of high-altitude caves.
They passed through regions the Omniraith had scarred. Once-vibrant forests now choked on smog and industrial waste. Rivers were poisoned, tasting of rust like that Myrvane captain had said.
The sight hammered home what they were fighting for—a battle for the world's very soul, life's beautiful chaos against the machine's cold order.
Micah watched the landscape change, each scar a grim reminder of what they faced. The Omniraith consumed everything, converting environments and beings into fuel and raw materials.
His fear of becoming like them—cold and mechanical—followed him like a shadow.
His adaptive clothing, designed for survival in harsh places, felt like a second skin.
The transforming device in his hand, cool and familiar, represented both his people's ingenuity and the potential for losing their humanity.
He needed it to survive, but he understood how it blurred the lines of what was right.
Lio used his scanner to analyze the environmental damage, comparing the data with signals he'd picked up from the Hollow and the prototype.
He talked quietly about containment protocols and analog ciphers—ways to protect the dangerous secret they carried from the Omniraith and maybe even their own people.
His youthful idealism kept bumping up against the cold logic his superiors demanded, and he worried about how his own Command would react to what they'd discovered.
Kaelin stayed focused on the practical stuff—security, supplies, potential threats. He trusted his rifle and tactical thinking more than whispers or strange signals.
His suspicion of outsiders was always there, something common among the Ashari after past incidents and a general distrust of anything that wasn't technological.
Sera walked with quiet strength, her connection to the natural world a sharp contrast to the mechanical scars around them.
She spoke softly about the forest's pain and the delicate balance of their alliance, constantly threatened by how different the factions were at their core.
As they climbed higher, the air got thinner and colder, taking on that biting edge of high mountain peaks.
The mountain silence began to settle around them, broken only by howling wind. To Micah, this silence always felt temporary—like a held breath before a storm or the grinding metal of the Omniraith.
Now, with the Core Nexus on the move, that silence felt even more fragile.
They finally reached the upper ridges of Ashari territory. Elora was carved right into the rock itself, an engineering marvel that blended seamlessly with natural formations and stayed mostly hidden underground.
High above, on peaks like Heartspire, massive solar towers caught what little sunlight they could for energy.
The city's entrance was cleverly hidden, built from heat-resistant alloys and recycled materials—designed for survival above all else.
They approached the entrance hidden in the rock face. All three envoys stood together—Ashari, Thornkin, and Myrvane.
Snow swirled around them in the wind, and silence blanketed the mountain. It was a powerful image of their fragile unity: mountain, forest, and sea, gathered against a common, terrifying enemy.
"There it is," Micah said quietly, his gaze fixed on the rock face ahead. This mountain held their secrets, their power, and now the key to their survival.
He thought of the city below, built on logic, efficiency, and survival. He thought of the Hollow beneath the forest, the Steelborn entity, the Omniraith's plan to rewrite existence, and the traitor somewhere in their ranks.
"The heart of the stone," he said.
The gate began to open—slowly, with a deep, groaning sound—as warm light spilled out from within.
Elora was waiting.
The path ahead was uncertain.
They carried dangerous knowledge and the heavy weight of a fragile alliance.
They were about to enter a city that might not welcome them, especially with the truth they carried about betrayal and the hidden nature of the threat.
They were ready to climb into the stone city and face whatever was waiting in its depths.