The giant white door towered before me. I stood facing it. Beside me, the cloaked Synth remained silent, its gray lens dimmed.I took a deep breath, tightened my jaw, and slowly raised my right hand. The tips of my gloves touched the surface of the door, which radiated a soft, glowing light.Instantly, the wave of Veil within me resonated. Its flow shot through my arm, merging with the material of the white door in perfect harmony. The giant door split itself with an elegance that defied the laws of mechanics, opening a path slowly as if welcoming me.I stepped inside.Beyond it, a vast circular hall greeted me. The entire room was filled with a very soft bluish-white glow reflecting off its walls.The silence in this room didn't feel like a tomb. In the center of the hall, a figure stood with its back to me.My footsteps striking the floor broke the silence of the room, yet the figure didn't flinch. It stood with a posture of absolute calm.Its clothing was very simple, made of woven

The wave of energy that swept over my body slowly subsided. The bluish-white light that had blinded my eyes began to fade, pulling itself back into the core of the Veil Engine.However, for a few seconds that felt long, the engine's pulse stabilized. The vibrations that had been threatening the structure of this moon ceased. I slowly lowered my right hand, which was still shaking slightly. Warmth still lingered on my palm."What did I just do?" I whispered, staring at my gloved palm, engulfed in confusion.The Caretaker walked toward me. He looked at me as if he had been waiting for this moment for thousands of years."The Veil Engine recognizes you," the Caretaker said in a soft voice.I turned quickly toward him, my forehead furrowing sharply into a line of harsh denial. "Impossible," I countered instantly. "I have never met an object like this in my entire life."The Caretaker shook his head slowly. A smile etched onto his face. "Not just you, but also with what you are carrying."

The sound of the shot tore through the air like lightning striking inside a cave. A red plasma bolt streaked past, whistling just centimeters from my temple, singing the ends of my hair before slamming into the pillar behind me.Instantly, the battle erupted inside the Veil Engine chamber."Wipe them all out! Secure the target right now!" roared the Takeover Faction commander, his voice distorted by his combat helmet's vocoder.Hundreds of red and blue laser shots from both factions immediately crisscrossed wildly in the air. I didn't waste a single second. Triggering the Veil in the soles of my feet, I dashed forward, grabbed the Caretaker's arm, and pulled the old man away from the crossfire.We sprinted behind a towering giant support pillar. The cloaked Synth could be seen running toward us from the ruined black door, darting past the hail of plasma fire crisscrossing the air. The Synth caught up to us, then positioned its body as a shield in front of the Caretaker."Protect the G

The rich aroma of Lunacea coffee brewed through my custom-built machine hung heavy in the air, mixing with the scent of synthetic lubricant and burnt ozone. Morning at The Garage brought back the same familiar rhythm, a simple symphony of everyday life.The air conditioner in the corner of the room hummed low, providing a rhythmic background soundtrack to the bluish welding sparks occasionally leaping from the tip of my torch. I was crouched beneath the hood of an old heavy-transport-class hover-skiff, my left hand adjusting the manifold pressure valve while my right hand screwed down its core support."If you keep tightening that filter valve, L, that piece of junk is going to fly right through the roof before the engine even turns over," Grox reprimanded.I pulled myself out from beneath the skiff, slipped off my safety goggles, and found the Brakkar standing casually at the workshop door. His four arms were wrapped around two titanium-plated cargo crates that looked intensely heavy

My voice broke the suffocating silence in The Garage's rest area. My command hung in the air for a single second before Kael responded. The boy slid toward the control panel beside the entrance.A series of metallic thuds instantly echoed, slamming into the floor. Four layers of steel doors descended to cover the workshop's main access, locking us away from the outside world. Behind the walls, the backup generator roared to life, activating a shield that immediately enveloped the entire workshop structure with a low-frequency hum. The air inside the room felt denser, smelling of lubricant and suppressed panic.I looked at them. Grox, Risha, Jax, Cora, and Kael. Their faces looked tense, but there was not a single trace of panic radiating from them."So," Jax broke the silence, exhaling smoke from the synthetic cigarette clamped between his teeth. "That black-armored creature from the emergency broadcast earlier is actually planning to drop by our neighborhood? Should I prepare a welco