Youri walked toward Altopereh in silence. The colossal machine stood on the fractured stone of Gaisen's domain with its towering frame scarred from battle, and dark, shifting hues still crawled over the damaged sections of its armor like living tar — patching fractures, sealing ruptures, re-forming what had been shattered — while every few seconds a pulse of black light ran through its limbs, proof that the restored main core was alive again. Breathing. Thinking. Waiting.
Above them Tartarus was unchanged, the crimson sky stretching endlessly in every direction like a blood-red dome cracked with distant streaks of black lightning, and the desert beyond the cliffs rolling like a sea of ash that swallowed whole horizons. Somewhere far away, other Domain Rulers stirred, their presences like faint tremors beneath the surface of reality. But here, for a fleeting moment, there was quiet.
Youri stopped at the foot of Altopereh's lowered cockpit hatch and looked back. Lea was still beside Gaisen. The massive dragon lay curled in its weakened regeneration form, a sphere of folded wings and scaled armor breathing slowly and softly, almost peacefully. The fury that had once defined it had gone dormant, for now. Lea's gloved hand rested gently on its side, and she didn't look at Youri right away. She kept her gaze on Gaisen while her silver hair danced in the wind beneath the hood of her black cloak, and only after several long seconds did she speak. "You should go."
He frowned. "You're not coming?"
She turned at last, the wooden mask catching the crimson sky in uneven patterns. "I never said that."
He breathed out through his nose, almost amused, and glanced at Gaisen. The dragon had saved him, more than once, and now it was wounded because of him. He stepped closer to her. "You should come with me. It's safer." She stiffened and said nothing. He looked back at the dragon. "It's in no shape to fight, and I don't want it involved anymore."
That made her pause. She turned slowly toward the dragon again, and the words struck deeper than he had meant them to, because she understood. Gaisen wasn't simply a Domain Ruler to her. It was family — companion, guardian, perhaps the only being in all of Tartarus that had stayed beside her through endless ages. And now, because of Youri, it had nearly died.
She lowered her head. "You are right," she said, barely louder than a whisper.
For a moment she stood still. Then she reached out and pressed her palm gently against Gaisen's armored side, and the dragon breathed out, a deep, rumbling sound that shook the cliff beneath them. Its eyes opened slightly, two glowing amber slits that looked first at Lea and then at Youri, with no hostility in them, no anger. Only understanding. Lea leaned forward and rested her forehead against its scales. "I will come back," she whispered. The dragon's eyes closed again and its breathing deepened. It had accepted her choice.
She stepped back and turned toward Altopereh. "Move."
Youri blinked. "What?"
She pointed at the cockpit. "You invited me."
He smirked. "Right."
Together they approached the giant machine, and as they climbed the sloping plating toward the open hatch, Altopereh's voice sounded in Youri's mind, amused. "So she is coming." He ignored it.
Halfway up the hull Lea stopped, her gloved hand on the black armor, and froze. For the first time since he had met her, Youri saw something like fear in her. "What is it?"
She looked at her fingertips, where a dark residue clung to them. "It's alive," she whispered.
He looked confused. "It's always been alive."
She turned slowly to face him. "No. You don't understand." Her eyes narrowed behind the mask, and she tapped the plating. "This metal is not inert. It remembers."
He frowned. "What does that mean?"
She went on climbing. "It means your machine is not a machine."
Altopereh laughed in his head. "Oh, I like her." Youri rolled his eyes.
When they finally entered the cockpit, Lea stopped dead. She had expected complexity — buttons, levers, displays. Instead she had walked into a cathedral. Altopereh's cockpit was enormous, far larger than any ordinary Orbiton's, its dark polished surfaces curving around them like obsidian bone while holographic systems floated in the air in layered rings and ancient runes pulsed beneath transparent panels. The pilot's chair sat at the center, suspended above a glowing circular floor panel and joined to it by black cables that looked like veins. Beyond it, at the heart of everything, floated the core — a sphere of impossible darkness. Alive. Breathing. Watching.
Lea took an involuntary step back. "This is wrong."
Youri climbed into the chair. "No. It's just Altopereh."
"That thing," she said, pointing at the core, "is older than your Empire."
Altopereh's voice boomed through the cockpit. "Much older."
Lea spun around. "Can he hear me?"
"Yes," said Youri.
"Can he always hear me?"
"Yes."
Altopereh chuckled. "She is nervous."
"I am not nervous," Lea snapped.
"You smell nervous."
Youri almost laughed. "Can we not do this?"
Lea glared upward. "I liked you better when you were sealed."
Altopereh sounded delighted. "Oh, now I definitely like her."
Youri brought the systems up. The cockpit came alive as power cascaded outward and the displays lit one after another. Main core: stable. Secondary Brion core: active. NEO mode: disengaged. Full combat mode: available. The machine hummed beneath them. Outside, its massive engines ignited and the cliffside trembled. Lea grabbed the side rail by instinct. "Warn me next time."
"You'll get used to it," said Youri.
"I sincerely doubt that," Lea replied.
He laid both hands on the controls. "Destination?"
She folded her arms. "Kalian's domain."
"The Spear," said Altopereh at once.
Lea looked upward. "You know him?"
"I know all ten."
That silenced her.
Youri tilted the machine forward, the hatch sealed, the cockpit darkened — and with a deafening roar, Altopereh launched. It burst from Gaisen's cliffs like a missile, shattering stone beneath its feet and leaving an explosion of snow and ash behind it. Within seconds they had crossed the edge of the domain. Ahead lay the endless desert — Almesis's domain — stretching on forever, its dunes like mountains and its storms of red sand rolling beneath cracks in the sky. The moment Altopereh crossed that boundary, the crimson sky reacted with a pulse, and a line of glowing red light formed overhead.
Lea noticed at once. "The signal."
Youri remembered her warning. "When someone enters the desert, the sky reveals them."
She nodded grimly. "Yes."
Altopereh accelerated and tore across the desert while the sand exploded beneath its thrusters. Hours passed, or perhaps only minutes — time in Tartarus never obeyed any rule — until at last Youri noticed something far ahead. A shimmer. Not heat, and not light. Metal. Something enormous was reflecting the crimson sky.
Lea stepped closer to the display. "There."
At first it looked like mountains. Then Youri understood. They were spears — millions of them — a forest of colossal metal spires rising out of the desert, each one larger than a city and each one forged of silver-black metal, piercing the sky like the bones of dead gods.
"Kalian's domain," Lea whispered.
As they came closer, the air changed. Magnetism filled the atmosphere, the systems flickered, and Altopereh growled. "I hate this place."
"Why?" asked Youri.
"Because he is insufferable."
The moment it finished speaking, something moved. One spear bent, then another, then thousands. They rotated and shifted and realigned until the whole landscape had become one enormous mechanism. At its center a figure rose — humanoid, massive, forged entirely of silver metal. Its body was elegant and sharp, its limbs long and spear-like, its head crowned with a blade pointing skyward, its eyes glowing blue. Its voice rang out like steel striking steel. "Altopereh."
The God Unit stopped, and the desert went silent.
"You return."
Altopereh's voice deepened. "Kalian."
The ruler stepped forward, and every movement it made set the spear forest trembling. "You bring a mortal."
Youri stood. "I need your help."
Kalian's glowing eyes moved to him. "And why would I help something so temporary?"
Lea stepped forward. "Because Atlantis has awakened."
That changed everything. The spear ruler went still, and its eyes narrowed. "You speak that name too easily."
Lea lifted her chin. "I was once a Sacrosian."
Kalian studied her, and then turned slowly back to Youri. "And you seek passage there."
"Yes," said Youri.
"To leave Tartarus."
"Yes," said Lea.
Kalian raised one metal hand, and the whole domain shook as the spears rose higher. "You may pass."
Youri blinked. "That easily?"
"No." The metal giant pointed at Altopereh, and its eyes burned brighter. "But first, I repair the broken king."
All around them, the entire spear forest moved. Millions of shards launched into the sky and raced toward Altopereh. Lea stared upward. Youri tightened his grip. And Altopereh laughed. "Oh yes," it said. "Now this is going to hurt."