Omega did not argue. He only nodded, calm and almost satisfied, like he had known this answer would come. He raised one long grey finger and pointed into empty air.The space in front of his hand shimmered. Light bent and twisted, then shaped itself into a floating map of stars. It was not flat. It had depth, layers, and motion, like a living thing. One bright golden line burned through the map, starting from Earth and stretching toward the sun. At the end of that line was a small symbol, shaped like a bird made of fire.“These are not normal coordinates,” Omega said quietly. “They are not tied to distance or direction. They are tied to resonance.”Draven frowned. “Meaning?”“You cannot simply fly there,” Omega replied. “The Solar Barge does not exist in normal space. It rests inside a folded layer of reality, anchored to the surface of the sun itself. To reach it, you must use a Solar Conduit.”Draven blinked. “A what?”“A temporary bridge made of focused solar energy,” Omega said.

Heat slammed into Draven. It was not normal heat. It felt like reality itself was trying to erase him. Raw fire from the surface of the sun poured into the broken hall of the barge. His skin, forged to withstand chaos, blistered instantly. His Chaos Body screamed, its integrity percentage dropping in his vision like a sinking stone.91%... 89%...He charged straight for the glowing core sitting in the crater where the throne had been.He hit the floor hard and grabbed the orb. It was as big as a human head, hot and humming with power. The moment his hands touched it, knowledge from the core itself flooded his mind. Maps of the vault. Medical chambers. Authority codes. The Steward Key.He also felt the barge's agony. Omega and the Phoenix King were tearing it apart from the inside, their battle ripping through its dimensional anchors.A psychic roar, filled with both fury and shock, echoed up from below, the Phoenix King sensing his throne's power being seized."THIEF! YOU DARE—"The

Silence filled the chamber after Draven finished speaking. It was not an empty silence. It was heavy. The kind that pressed down on the chest and made every thought feel louder.The medical slabs continued their low steady hum. Blue light pulsed beneath translucent crystal as wounds finished knitting themselves closed. Outside these walls, a sun barge lay broken across the plains and the world was already beginning to react.A hundred years.A gift.A warning.A deadline.Goran was the first to break the silence. He swung his legs off the slab and stood, wobbling slightly before steadying himself. Newly rebuilt muscles protested, but he ignored it.“A hundred years,” he repeated slowly. “To build something strong enough to look a Demi God in the eye and tell him no.”He flexed his hand, listening to the deep crack of bone and tendon settling.“I like it,” he said with a grin. “Clear target. No confusion.”Kaela snorted. “Only you would hear that and get excited.”“Excitement keeps you

The air outside the vault was heavy and bitter. It tasted like burned stone and old fire. The land itself looked wounded. The scar left by the Solar Barge crash cut deep into the earth, glowing faintly as heat slowly bled away. Steam rose from the cracked ground, drifting into the sky like smoke from a battlefield that refused to rest.At the center of the destruction, the wrecked Solar Barge lay half buried. Its once proud golden hull was twisted and broken, still glowing with stubborn heat as if it did not yet accept its own death.Draven stood at the edge of the crater, his cloak fluttering gently in the heated air. Beside him were Goran and Kaela. Shadow Spark paced near Kaela’s feet, his ears flattened and his fur standing on end. Every instinct in the small beast screamed danger.“This place hates being alive,” Goran muttered, staring down into the crater. “You can feel it trying to tear itself apart.”“The heart should still be there,” Goran continued, pointing toward the crush

The sterile white of the medical wing no longer existed.Draven stood at the edge of a vast chamber buried deep inside the vault, a place few systems were even allowed to access. The walls curved upward like the inside of a giant furnace. Ancient symbols were etched into dark stone, glowing faintly as power flowed through them. The air hummed constantly, low and heavy, pressing against the skin like deep water.This place had a name recorded in the vault’s oldest archives.The Legacy Induction Chamber.The Foundry of Will.It was not designed for comfort. It was designed for survival.Aura saturated the chamber so densely that breathing felt different. Every breath carried weight. This energy had been drawn directly from the Solar Barge’s core and refined by machines that had existed before the modern age of cultivation. It was raw, disciplined power, sharpened into something that tested both body and spirit.Four massive pods stood in a wide circle. They were carved from dark stone