The Flamecore lit the sky.
Its light wasn't fire in the ordinary sense. It wasn't heat or combustion—it was memory, alive and weaponized. As Reven raised it, the pulse from its core blasted outward in a ring of searing white-gold, striking the glass field with a shriek of refracted force.
The first wave of Supreme soldiers vanished mid-step.
Not incinerated—_erased_.
Their bodies dissolved into threads of flickering code, scattered to the wind like fractured ghosts. The rest fell back, staggering as the pulse slammed into their internal systems, scrambling their comms and disarming their weapons with a single electromagnetic surge.
Reven dropped to one knee, the Flamecore trembling in his hand.
Kaela caught his arm. "You okay?"
He gritted his teeth. "It's too much. It's not just me using it anymore. It's using _me_."
Kaelex's voice rang out from behind them. "Don't stop. It needs your imprint. You're stabilizing it through will."
Reven rose slowly. His knuckles were white against the core, his breath ragged.
"Then let's finish this before I forget who I am."
The Supreme formation reorganized with terrifying speed. Even scrambled, their tactics were flawless. Within seconds, two flanking squads advanced around the outer ridge while a heavy unit—taller than the rest, plated in exo-armor—charged through the centre with an energy halberd crackling in both hands.
Kaela moved first.
She intercepted the lead vanguard, her twin blades flashing silver in the low light. Her strikes were clean, vicious. One cut dropped a soldier at the knee; a second ended him before he hit the ground. Another lunged, and she caught the strike with a parry that turned into a neck break.
Reven turned, barely raising his arm before the exo-unit slammed into him.
He flew backward, hit the ridge wall, and slid down hard.
"Reven!" Lirien shouted overhead, wings flaring wide. She dove from above, throwing a cascade of razor-sharp feathers into the advancing soldiers. They struck like precision shrapnel, pinning two soldiers against their armour seams.
The exo-unit turned toward her.
Too slow.
Reven was already moving again.
The Flamecore spun mid-air beside him, levitating like a star trying to break free from gravity. As the exo-unit raised its halberd again, Reven surged forward. He wasn't fast—he was _precise_. One strike. Palm to core. Fire straight into the armour's neural lining.
The machine shrieked as it locked in place, glowing white-hot.
Then it collapsed, motionless.
Atop the southern rise, Kaelex activated her final defence sequence.
Her hand spread over the node-trigger on her wrist. The ground beneath the enemy units cracked—and out of the glass stepped pillars, rising like teeth. Old Dominion tech. Defence constructs—half-alive, all lethal. They recognized her.
And they obeyed.
Four went active, rotating energy cannons toward the remaining soldiers.
The battlefield lit with piercing beams of memory-charged plasma.
Supreme units fell in staggered rhythm, one by one, until the valley returned to silence.
The enemy's last transmission crackled once—then vanished from the open air.
Later, they stood in the ruin.
Charred suits. Scorched stone. The Flamecore, now dimmed, rested against Reven's palm like a dying sun.
Kaela cleaned her blades with slow, deliberate movements. "You didn't burn out."
"No," Reven said. "But I saw the edge."
"You almost crossed it."
He nodded. "If I do… don't let me come back."
Kaela said nothing.
Then: "That's not how this works. We carry each other, remember?"
Lirien touched down beside them, eyes scanning the horizon. "They'll send more. This wasn't retaliation. It was a test."
"And we passed," Kaelex said, stepping forward from the ridgeline.
Reven turned to her. "The Supremes know I've accessed the node. What's their next move?"
"They'll shift the strategy," she said. "If they can't kill you, they'll try to _claim_ you. Use your memory as a replacement for their failing lattice. You're not just a target anymore. You're a resource."
Reven looked toward the east, where the next shard's signal now flickered at the edge of his awareness.
"Then let's make sure I'm too dangerous to be claimed."
Kaela stepped beside him. "Where next?"
He didn't look back.
"North," he said. "To the Iron Spire. That's where the next Core is buried."
Kaelex's voice was almost a whisper. "The Iron Spire was where they made the first Flameborn."
Reven closed his fingers around the core.
"Then it's time I met the rest of me."