The obsidian-clad entity towered over them, its shifting form pulsing with an ancient energy that felt both familiar and alien. Celestine stood firm, her fingers still wrapped around the hilt of her blade, but she did not strike.
Not yet.
"I was the first," the being had said.
Elias shot Celestine a sideways glance. "Tell me we're not about to have a conversation with a relic from a dead civilization."
Alistair, always the pragmatist, had already shifted into a defensive stance. "If it's hostile, we strike first."
But Celestine didn't move.
Instead, she took a slow step forward.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice steady.
The entity's glowing silver eyes locked onto hers. The flickering runes along its limbs pulsed in response, as though the very air carried their whispers. Then, it spoke.
"You have their blood, yet you are not them."
A shiver ran down Celestine's spine. "Whose blood?"
The entity tilted its head, its body flickering between solid and ethereal, as if it struggled to maintain its form. Memories fought to surface.
"The Architects."
Silence filled the chamber.
Celestine's breath caught. The Architects.
The lost civilization. The ones who had built Noctis-Lux before the Council erased them.
She could feel Alistair and Elias watching her, waiting. The truth loomed before her, a cold realization settling deep within.
She was connected to them.
The entity took another step forward. "You carry their remnants," it said, its voice a layered whisper. "A fragment of what was lost."
Elias muttered a curse under his breath. "Great. Now we've got ancient ghosts telling us Celestine's special."
Alistair ignored him. "If it knows the truth about the Architects, we need answers. Before the Council gets to it first."
Celestine took a measured breath, forcing herself to focus. The Council had stolen history, rewritten it, and buried the past beneath lies. If this being held the truth—
She had to know.
"What happened to the Architects?" she asked.
The entity hesitated. Then, the runes along its arms flared, and a vision rushed through Celestine's mind.
She saw it—Noctis-Lux, but different. A city of pure energy, suspended between realms, its power drawn from the very cores that now fueled the modern world. She saw people, not of flesh, but of light and metal, beings who had once walked as gods.
And she saw their fall.
A cataclysm. A betrayal. A war that ended in fire.
Then—darkness.
Celestine staggered back, gasping. The vision faded, but the truth remained.
The Council hadn't just erased history.
They had been the ones to end it.
She turned to Elias and Alistair, her heart pounding. "We have to move."
Elias arched a brow. "Care to elaborate?"
Celestine's gaze hardened.
"The Council isn't just stealing power." Her grip on her sword tightened. "They're finishing what they started centuries ago."
The entity's eyes flickered once more. "Then choose, descendant," it murmured. "Will you follow the path of the Architects? Or will you let history repeat itself?"
The question burned in Celestine's mind.
She already knew her answer.
The war for the truth had begun.