Opening – The War Room Awakens
The tension in the Awakened war council is palpable.
Word of Zarxes' retaliation has shaken even the most seasoned leaders. Outposts lost. Allies slaughtered. Civilians burned beneath the crimson sigil of the Hounds.
But now, they strike back.
Rhoan slams down a map of enemy facilities—three key Isu command nodes that fuel Zarxes' communications grid.
Rhoan:"We hit these, we blind him—at least for a while."
Calyra leans over, eyes sharp.
"We'll need stealth, not force. He'll expect vengeance, not precision."
Taryn:
"I've got teams ready. Let's make him bleed."
Kaelen stands slightly apart, still pale from the memory event. Seren watches him—knows what's coming before he speaks.
Kaelen:"You launch the strike. But Seren and I... we're heading to the Broken Vault."
A hush.
The Broken Vault—an off-grid Isu archive sealed since the fall. Rumor says it held Vael'Ruun's failsafes, if he were ever lost. And perhaps... the key to stopping Zarxes without repeating the same mistakes.
Kaelen:"If Vael'Ruun had a final plan, it's buried there. We need to find it—before Zarxes does."
The Counter-Offensive Begins
The Awakened forces move under cover of a geomagnetic storm. Skimmers streak through canyon passes. Rhoan leads the strike himself—silent, brutal, fast.
Three teams hit simultaneously:
A data relay buried beneath a glacier
A sky-spire tower disguised as Isu ruins
And a blacksite facility that once held rebel test subjects
Each battle is rendered in sharp, chaotic bursts—fire and fury, followed by silence. The Awakened win the night—but at a cost.
Rhoan's second-in-command falls. Calyra's arm is crushed. Taryn's drone support is lost.
But Zarxes' grid? Dark.
For the first time in weeks, they have room to breathe.
Kaelen and Seren – The Road to the Vault
Meanwhile, Kaelen and Seren traverse treacherous terrain—snow-choked canyons, dead Isu towers flickering with corrupted AI fragments.
Kaelen, still shaken by the memory of Vael'Ruun's fall, feels the weight of legacy pressing tighter. Seren walks beside him in near silence, but her hand never strays far from her blade.
Seren:"You think Vael'Ruun knew this would happen?"
Kaelen:"I think... he hoped someone would survive long enough to fix what he couldn't."
They reach the Vault after two days of silence and snowfall. A massive door, half-buried in ice, responds to Kaelen's presence. It sings—low and ancient—as it opens.
Inside: preserved chambers, glowing with dormant Isu code.
And whispers.
The Vault's Revelation
Within the Vault, they find remnants of Vael'Ruun's private logs—encrypted records even the Isu elite never saw.
One activates:
"If you are seeing this... then I failed. Or I was silenced. The Rebellion was never about freedom alone. It was about evolution. Zarxes feared what we could become—what he could not."
Another message references a weapon. Not of destruction, but of transformation.
"Not every mind can survive what is coming. But some might evolve. If they dare to change."
Seren frowns.
"A weapon that... rewrites?"
Kaelen:"Not just minds. Histories."
They look at each other. Realization hits. Vael'Ruun wasn't planning to win the war. He was planning to reshape its consequences.
And maybe—Zarxes found out.
"That's why he's afraid."
Closing – Storms on the Horizon
As Kaelen and Seren prepare to leave, an alarm chimes. Someone is accessing the Vault from another location.
"We're not alone."
Back at the Awakened base, Rhoan receives a transmission: intercepted Isu chatter. Zarxes knows the Vault has been breached. And he's sending something far worse than Hounds.
A new figure steps from Zarxes' shadows—a warform unseen until now.
Nyxith:"Dispatch the Soulburner."