The wind howled across the snowy mountain peaks, carving thin white lines over the ridges like claws raking through stone. Dozens of miles away, Centauri City shimmered faintly beneath the pale horizon—tiny, distant, almost unreal from this elevation. Yet atop one of those frozen summits stood an estate that seemed to defy the very harshness of its surroundings. From its balcony, one could survey the entire expanse of the Centauri northern range.
It was from this balcony that Emery watched the clash unfolding in the courtyard below.
A white-gold humanoid golem, rune-veined, and radiating ancient mechanical might—lunged forward with thunderous momentum. Its fist, dense as a collapsing star, collided with a granite-skinned forearm belonging to an elderly man clad in living stone armor. The impact shook the entire mountain ridge. Wind rippled outward in violent rings and snow avalanched off the nearby cliffs.
