Unknown
Obsidian District, New Boston
North Atlantic Federation Arc Zone
Western Hemisphere, UEF
2435 A.D
"So you've been tracking them for six years now," Ellira said, her voice low. They had reached the area where Ryn had traced the residual energy source—an isolated pocket at the far edge of the Obsidian District. The streets around them were desolate, the kind of place the city had long forgotten. Half the buildings were hollow shells awaiting demolition, the others marked with hazard signs and overgrown with cables and rust.
The night air was still, heavy with the smell of metal and ozone. Elias nodded slightly, his gaze fixed on the structure in front of them.
"Six years," he said, his tone flat. "Since the first bombing linked to them. Ever since the bombing in Lyon Station."
Ellira glanced at him. "That was after Naia lost her arm?"
Elias's jaw tightened. "That was the start of it."
Xerna and her group—the Unveiled Choir, as Elias had called them—were inside the building across the street. The structure was industrial and wide, its upper floors dark except for the occasional flicker of blue light that escaped through the cracks of sealed windows. It looked abandoned from the outside, but Ellira could feel the Luminis pulse faintly in the air—controlled, layered, and deliberate. Plus, it didn't help that there was a powerful barrier set up that covered most of the building.
They had set up their base there. Elias recognized the type of barrier it was. It was the same one they had found in the Old Rind District, a camouflage barrier that was able to slip away from one's perception. But thanks to Ryn being unaffected by such a thing, he was able to point it out to them.
The three of them—Elias, Ellira, and Ryn—had taken position on the rooftop of a nearby building, the closest they could get without triggering any perimeter sensors. From this vantage point, they could see the entire compound clearly.
Ryn crouched at the roof's edge, his eyes reflecting faint blue light as his resonance tendrils probed the air.
"There's activity," he said quietly. "Energy fields beneath the upper levels. Shielding, possibly. I count at least six life signatures. All within the central wing."
Elias shifted slightly, his radiant vein eyes observing the entire building. He was searching for Naia's energy signature, and sure enough, he was able to find it. It was isolated from most of the Heat signature he saw within the building.
Ellira glanced at him, studying his face in the dim light. His expression was calm, but the tension in his jaw told another story. Six years of chasing Xerna—of watching her slip through his fingers, over and over again—had left its mark. She wondered why he was obsessed with going after the Unveiled Choir. Ellira had yet to tell him the truth of her relationship with Xerna.
She turned her gaze back to the building. The lights flickered again, and for an instant, she thought she saw movement—shadows crossing behind the frosted glass.
"This is it, then," Ellira said quietly, her golden eyes fixed on the building across from them. "Elias… there's something I have to tell you."
Elias didn't answer right away. He was crouched near the edge of the rooftop, hands steady as he adjusted his vision. His eyes were narrowed, sweeping over the building's external layout—entry points, structural weaknesses, potential surveillance. Every detail mattered.
Around them, the rooftop was silent save for the distant hum of power lines and the soft clink of Ryn's resonance tendrils shifting through the air. Then, without looking at her, Elias finally spoke.
"I know about you and Xerna."
Ellira's breath caught.
He turned his head slowly, green eyes meeting hers with a sharp, unwavering intensity. "Don't let your relationship with her stop you from doing what you're supposed to do."
His voice wasn't accusatory. It wasn't angry. If anything, it was distant—like he was speaking more to himself than to her. The words carried the weight of a man trying to hold himself together, trying to draw a line in the sand between duty and emotion. Ellira opened her mouth to respond, but before she could form the words, Elias stood.
Without hesitation, he stepped off the edge of the rooftop. For a moment, she thought he was falling—but then his foot struck something invisible in midair, and he kept walking.
The space beneath him shimmered faintly—steps of hardened air forming with each movement, reinforced by focused Resonance control. He moved with precision, as if the air itself bent beneath his will.
And then she felt it. A spike in Resonance Pressure rolled across the rooftop like a thunderclap, hitting her chest like a wave.
Elias's Crown-tier aura unfurled, vast and unrelenting, descending onto the building below like a storm cloud falling from the heavens. The very air seemed to tighten, the Luminis around them pulled inward, drawn toward him like gravity bending space.
Across the street, the factory windows flickered—lights reacting to the pressure. Inside, the Unveiled Choir would know. Elias Vasselheim had arrived.
****
"What are you doing?" Nine asked, his voice carrying that calm, unreadable edge that always seemed to hold more than it revealed.
He stood before the wall of mirror monitors that Archie had linked together—a web of reflective screens showing every corner of the Obsidian District from their hidden vantage point. On one of the larger monitors, Naia Vasselheim sat confined in her cell, head bowed, her crystalline arm faintly glowing in the dim light.
Archie sat at a console to the side, legs crossed, a lollipop resting lazily between her lips as she worked. One hand hovered over Elias's Lumenpad, a tendril of her Luminis energy snaking from her fingertips into the device's input port, connecting her directly to its encrypted data. Her eyes flickered with patterns of light as she sifted through the information.
"Just wondering," Diego said from across the room, his tone light but his posture taut with anticipation. "Tell me something, Nine—have you looked into her future yet? Do I get to fight her?"
Nine's brow twitched. He didn't answer right away, instead watching the faint movements on the screen—the slow rise and fall of Naia's breathing, the way she sat perfectly still despite her captivity. When he finally spoke, his tone was clipped.
"I haven't," he said. "And I don't intend to."
Diego's grin widened. "Why not? Afraid of what you'll see?"
Nine's gaze flicked toward him, impassive. "Something tells me I wouldn't like the answer."
"Oh, come on," Diego pressed, stepping closer. "Just a little peek. What's the harm?"
Nine turned away, jaw tightening. "No."
But Diego, ever the provocateur, reached out, trying to pull Nine's chin toward the monitor. "C'mon, you can't tell me you're not curious—"
"Don't touch me."
"Would you two shut up?" Archie snapped, her tone cutting through the tension like a whip. "Some of us are actually working."
Nine sighed, stepping back while Diego raised both hands in mock surrender.
A new voice entered the room, smooth and commanding. "What's going on here?"
Xerna Solenne strode in, her black attire trailing behind her like a shadow. Beside her walked a tall man whose very presence bent the light around him—Heloth Solenne, her father. His eyes, golden and ancient, swept the room once before settling on the screens.
"Nothing," Nine and Diego said in unison.
Nine straightened. "Elias and your sister are on the move," he said to Xerna. "I can't sense their exact position anymore. It seems that the Resonant creature is helping them track us."
Xerna's expression didn't change, but a small, knowing smile tugged at her lips. "Just as we planned. The preparations are complete?"
"Yes," Nine replied.
"And I've got the data," Archie added, pulling her Luminis tendril from the device. The screen on the Lumenpad went dark. "Everything inside the network is ours now."
"Excellent," Heloth said, his voice carrying quiet authority. He looked to Archie, affection softening his tone. "Then it's time, dear. You know what to do."
Archie hopped down from her chair. "Already on it, sir."
But before anyone could move further, the air shifted.
A crushing wave of Resonance Pressure flooded the room—so sudden, so overwhelming that even Heloth flinched. The lights flickered, alarms blaring as instruments overloaded from the sheer density of Luminis energy pressing against the facility.
The floor vibrated. The walls trembled.
Xerna's lips parted in realization. "He's here."
Heloth's expression hardened as his aura instinctively rose to shield the others. "A direct assault," Xerna continued, almost to herself. "That's just like him."
Nine's gaze sharpened as he recognized the signature cutting through the air like a sword. "Elias Vasselheim," he murmured.
Heloth turned to his daughter. "Archie and I will handle the Starlight Gate preparations. You know your role." He paused, placing a hand briefly on Xerna's shoulder—a rare gesture of paternal warmth—and then pulled Archie into a quick embrace, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Stay focused, my star."
Archie smiled faintly. "Always."
They disappeared through a side corridor, the metal doors sealing behind them.
"Well," Diego said, flexing his armored fists, the hum of his Gem reactor filling the room. "If that's Elias Vasselheim, then I should be the one to greet—"
He didn't finish.
Nine's glare cut across him like a blade. "He's mine."
Without waiting for permission or reply, Nine turned on his heel and strode toward the exit, his coat flaring behind him. The air around him pulsed faintly, like time itself recoiling from his steps.
Xerna watched him go, crimson eyes narrowing slightly. There was something unreadable in her expression—part calculation, part unease.
When he vanished from sight, she turned to Diego. "Keep an eye on her," she said, meaning Naia. "I have to do my part."
Diego grunted, crossing his arms. "Sure, Captain."
Then, quieter, as she left, he smirked to himself. "But when this is over, I'm getting my fight."
****
Elias crashed through the outer barrier of the facility like a meteor, the shockwave rippling through the compound. He landed hard, knees bent, boots skidding across the scorched pavement of what had once been a loading bay.
Rows of abandoned cargo trucks stood in uneven lines around him, their metallic frames groaning under the pressure of his arrival. The acrid scent of burned oil filled the air. Floodlights flickered on, snapping to life one by one, and within seconds the silence broke—armed mercenaries emerged from cover, surrounding him in a tightening circle.
Each soldier carried Gem-powered rifles, their chambers glowing with volatile energy. Dozens of barrels locked onto him.
Elias straightened slowly, brushing the dust from his coat. His eyes—burning with a focused, deadly calm—swept over the men in silence.
"I'm in no forgiving mood tonight," he said, his voice carrying across the bay like a low thunderclap. "I'll give you one chance. Leave now, and I'll spare what's left of your worthless lives. Stand in my way…"
He let the sentence hang, his gaze turning cold and sharp as a blade. The pressure in the air thickened as his killing intent unfurled—dense, suffocating, unmistakable.
No one moved.
Their weapons stayed trained on him, the glow of their Gem cores intensifying as they charged for synchronized fire.
Elias exhaled once through his nose. "Fine," he murmured. "Your choice."
The eight gems embedded within his body pulsed at once, their resonance overlapping in perfect harmony. Streams of energy surged through his lattice network, each Gem responding to his will like the strings of an instrument being plucked in flawless rhythm.
The air behind him shimmered, light bending and coalescing into molten gold.
Resonant Facet—Solid Sun Field: Solar Blade Array.
A circle of plasma-forged blades ignited above him, each weapon hovering in perfect alignment. The molten metal glowed with a heat so intense that the air distorted around it, shimmering like a mirage.
These weren't modern mass-forged weapons—they were ancient, crafted through the Vasselheim House's oldest discipline. Long before they became a corporate dynasty of engineers and gemwrights, the Vasselheims had been Forge-Smiths—masters of binding gemstone energy to metal through resonance flame. The art had survived the centuries, passed through blood and vow.
Now, Elias stood at the center of that legacy.
He didn't reach for the blades. He didn't need to.
With a flick of his hand, the array responded like a living storm. The blades launched outward in blinding arcs, slashing through the mercenaries before they could even pull their triggers. The sound was like thunder shattering steel.
Screams echoed, cut short by the hiss of molten edges slicing through armor. Bodies fell in fragments, their Gem weapons exploding uselessly in their hands.
Those who survived the first strike opened fire, beams of amplified energy converging on him from every direction. But Elias barely blinked.
Resonant Facet—Solid Sun Field: Crucible Bastion.
A radiant barrier of condensed plasma erupted around him, the bullets melting into sparks upon impact. The force rippled outward, scattering debris as he kept walking—slow, deliberate, unstoppable.
Every step he took left glassy footprints in the concrete, the ground melting beneath the heat radiating from his Stellar Forge, a luminous corona that enveloped him in golden flames.
Above, his blades reformed, orbiting him in perfect symmetry. Each swung out again with a whipcrack of light, cutting through the mercenaries like scythes of a burning reaper.
By the time Elias reached the far side of the loading bay, silence had returned—broken only by the hiss of cooling metal and the soft hum of his Resonant field fading.
The ground beneath him was vitrified, glass-like, and glowing faintly from the residual heat. The mercenaries lay scattered in molten ruin. Elias didn't look back. He simply stepped forward through the smoke, his aura flaring again like the heart of a sun ready to consume whatever stood in his path next. Ellira stood behind Elias, her breath caught in her throat as she watched the scene unfold.
What she saw wasn't battle—it was art. Elias moved through the carnage with frightening grace, his strikes clean, deliberate, and utterly precise. Each motion flowed into the next, his body language calm and controlled, as if he were conducting a symphony rather than slaughtering armed men. The molten light of his Solar Blade Array rippled across his armor, illuminating his face in gold and shadow.
She had never thought she'd associate violence with refinement. But Elias fought like a craftsman. Each kill was measured, each strike an act of intent—not rage, not chaos, but perfection.
It unsettled her.
His killing intent was palpable, seeping into the air like heat, pressing against her Luminis core until it trembled. Everybody who fell seemed to loosen something inside him, tension bleeding away as his restraint dissolved in the rhythm of battle. The calm she'd seen in him before was gone; this was Elias stripped bare—efficient, unrelenting, and utterly resolved.
Ellira's fingers twitched at her side, a faint pulse of healing energy forming out of instinct before she forced it down. The pacifist part of her—the one that longed to mend rather than destroy—recoiled at the sight before her.
But then she remembered Naia. The memory of her laughter, the warmth of her empathy, and the way her lilac eyes brightened whenever Ellira smiled. The thought cut through her hesitation like a blade. There was no time to waste.
Ellira closed her eyes briefly, letting her senses spread outward. Her Luminis perception reached through the building, threads of light extending into the corridors like feelers searching through shadow. Each pulse returned fragmented impressions—resonant echoes of power, hostile signatures, movement deeper within. Somewhere beyond this chaos, Naia's faint energy flickered like a candle in a storm.
"She's here," Ellira whispered, her eyes snapping open.
Elias didn't respond. He didn't even glance back. His focus was absolute. Another group of mercenaries flooded into the loading area, this time heavier—Gem-armored soldiers with refractive plating and power-assisted exosuits. Their rifles glowed with charged gemstone cores, and among them marched combat droids, their mechanical limbs bristling with weapon arrays.
The air filled with the whirring of servos and the hum of energy capacitors. Ellira's stomach turned. Machines like these weren't just black ops—they were restricted assets, top-tier equipment sanctioned only under UEF authorization. To see them here, in the hands of Xerna's faction, meant one thing.
"They've been buying through the black market," Ellira muttered, realization sinking in. "Or worse… someone high up is supplying them."
Elias said nothing. The light around him intensified, the Solid Sun Field expanding as his aura rose again. The mercenaries advanced, the droids locking onto him with mechanical precision. And once more, Elias stepped forward—silent, burning, unstoppable. Ellira followed behind, her light weaving through the smoke, torn between the instinct to heal and the need to survive.
Elias's aura flared brighter, the Solid Sun Field condensing around him in a molten halo. Sparks scattered across the ground as new shapes began to form—curved blades, sleek and elegant, glowing like fragments of a newborn star. One by one, they took form in midair, their edges shimmering with plasma heat. Each bore the same design as his personal Saber—the mark of House Vasselheim's craftsmanship, its lineage carved into every molten groove.
He reached out, fingers closing around the hilt of one blade. The weapon pulsed in his hand, alive, resonating with the fury within his chest. Elias's expression hardened. He could feel the surge of hostile intent approaching—a signature sharp and cold as a knife through smoke.
"Go," he said, turning his head just enough for Ellira to hear him. His voice was calm, but the weight of command in it made her heart tighten. "Find Naia."
Ellira hesitated for half a breath, wanting to stay, to help. But the killing intent pressing against her senses told her that staying would only slow him down. She nodded once and moved, her golden aura dissolving into motion.
Elias watched her go—just long enough to make sure she was clear. Then he exhaled, the molten light in his eyes narrowing into focus.
The mercenaries and droids poured in from every direction, the sound of heavy boots and hydraulic limbs filling the chamber. They thought sheer numbers would crush him.
They were wrong. Elias lowered his stance, both hands gripping the glowing Saber. His energy surged, the eight gems in his lattice flaring in synchronized resonance. The air trembled. Then, he moved.
His blade traced a spiraling arc, weaving thrusts and rotations so fluid that they left luminous trails in the air. Each motion harmonized with the next, the rhythm so precise it was almost musical. The blade sang—a deep, radiant hum that grew into a roar as plasma light burst outward from the tip.
Radiant Dragon Hymn.
The technique unfolded like a storm of divine music. The sound hit first—a thunderous vibration that rippled through the air, shattering eardrums and sensors alike. Then came the light.
A chorus of brilliance erupted from Elias, arcs of molten energy weaving through the ranks of soldiers and machines. Blades of light curved through the air like the wings of celestial dragons, each stroke slicing through armor, steel, and flesh in perfect rhythm.
The world became a tapestry of golden carnage—flame and light devouring all that stood before him. By the time the last echo faded, the battlefield was still. The air was heavy with the stench of ozone and molten metal. Around Elias, the ground was glassed smooth, reflecting the glow of his aura like a mirror. He stood at the center of it all, silent, his Saber humming softly in his hand.
"Radiant Dragon Hymn," he murmured again under his breath, the words more like a requiem than a victory cry.
Behind him, Ellira was already gone—her light flickering up the stairwell, chasing the faint, dulled pulse of Naia's Luminis signature.
****
Ellira's footsteps echoed through the narrow corridors as she raced up the staircase, her heart pounding in rhythm with the faint thread of Naia's energy. It was weak—suppressed, muted, like someone had wrapped her resonance in chains. Security dampeners, she realized. They were cutting off Naia's access to her own Luminis flow.
Halfway up the next landing, movement flashed in her peripheral vision—mercenaries rounding the corner.
"Stop right there!" one shouted.
But Ellira was already moving.
Her Gem Staff appeared in her hand in a burst of gold, the crystalline shaft resonating to her pulse. She didn't have time for a full Luminis Weave—too slow, too many steps. Weaving required focus, conditions, and form.
Facet work, on the other hand, had the option to skip conditional activations required for them. Although the Carat within them was less than it would be if one were to use the activation triggers.
She raised the staff, eyes glowing as she drew upon the gem embedded within her, the Aether Gem, rarely used but always potent. The gem flared white-blue, its energy spilling out like lightning across the walls.
Facet Art—Stellar Lattice
A pulse erupted from the tip of her staff. The air warped, space bending inward for an instant. The mercenaries never even screamed—her barrier enveloped them, immobilizing them so they couldn't move. The space around them had frozen from her Base Facet. Ellira stepped past their frozen forms, the light fading from her staff as she pressed forward.
Naia's energy was close now. Dim, but alive. And Ellira swore that no matter what stood between them, she would reach her.