"Drink it, or watch your sister bleed."The bandit’s blade pressed against Lira’s throat, drawing a thin crimson line.Japh knelt on the muddy dirt of Kornite village, his fingers digging into the cold earth. Before him lay a glass vial filled with a black, murky liquid—the Vow of Silence. One gulp, and his voice, his freedom, and his ability to speak against the warlord’s syndicate would be burned away forever.Around them, the shattered stone pillars of the ancient ruins loomed like broken teeth. This village sat on the bones of a fallen realm—a place destroyed eons ago by its own corruption. Now, the local warlords ruled the ash."You're running out of time, kid," the bandit sneered, pressing the steel harder. Lira whimpered, her tiny hands clutching at the bandit’s leather sleeves.Japh reached for the vial. His hands shook, not from fear, but from a rage so intense it threatened to split his ribs. He was weak. Just a village boy who spent his days scavenging scrap metal from the

The jagged ruins of the Lost City swallowed Japh whole as he sprinted headlong through the dense, unnatural fog. Behind him, the deafening roar of warship thrusters and the heavy, earth-shaking thud of Iron Syndicate ground scouts rattled the crumbling stone structures.He was entirely unarmed, running on empty, and trapped deep within hostile territory.A sharp screech tore through the fog. Two surviving Null-Beasts, their dark iron armor scraping aggressively against ancient marble, sprang suddenly from a collapsed archway. With blood dripping freely from his scratched arms, Japh didn't charge. He knew he couldn't afford another drawn-out, brute-force clash against their magic-dampening plates.Instead, he dove hard behind a moss-covered pillar, his sharp eyes scanning the decaying ancient architecture for an environmental advantage. High above the lunging beasts hung a massive, cracked stone gargoyle held aloft by a rusted iron winch.Japh pinpointed the winch, channeled the last d

The underground chamber trembled as another heavy shockwave rolled through the stone floor. Dust rained down from the ancient ceiling, coating the commander’s dark iron armor in white powder.Japh stood above him, the white-gold celestial spear resting across his shoulders. The double-headed blade hummed with a quiet, lethal frequency."You think you're a savior, boy?" The commander spat blood onto the cold marble, coughing violently. "You played right into the High Warlord’s hands. Why do you think we raided Kornite village? Why do you think we hunted your bloodline?"Japh’s eyes narrowed. "You were hunting for scrap metal and divine relics.""Scrap metal?" The commander laughed, a rasping, wet sound. "The rubble you scavenged your whole life was the Seal of the First Gate! We needed a Founder’s bloodline to trigger a massive energy surge. The moment you called down that divine lightning to save your sister, you sent a shockwave straight through the Ley-lines. You broke the outer sea

The crimson glare of the four corrupted visors bled through the high mountain fog.The Lead Sentinel, its towering white-gold shield raised, took a heavy step toward Japh. The ground shuddered beneath its weight. "Traitors to the Founder... purge the impostor."Before the giant stone broadsword could complete its descent, Japh activated the Aeon-Strider Plate.Flash.The world instantly ground to a halt. To Japh's heightened senses, the three-ton broadsword hung motionless in mid-air, moving at the speed of a falling leaf. The heavy fog froze into floating droplets of glass. Leaving behind a faint golden-blue after-image of himself standing on the cliff edge, Japh blurred forward.Do not shatter their cores, boy! Zeus’s voice thundered inside his skull. The corruption travels on a broadcast signal. Sever the link, do not destroy the vessel!Japh wove between the frozen strikes of the three elite guards. His eyes scanned the heavy armor plating on the Lead Sentinel’s back until he loca

The silver plating of the Aeon-Strider suit ground against Japh’s skin like crushing teeth.Pinned on one knee, Japh watched the world slow down as a crimson wave of thorny, parasitic tendrils hurtled across the balcony straight toward Lira. His father’s cold, proud laughter echoed off the ancient marble, carried on the violet pulse of Ancestral Override: Sequence Zero.Sequence Zero bound the blood. It bound the Founder lineage. It bound the mortal frame.Foolish child, Zeus’s voice thundered, rattling the deepest chambers of Japh's mind like a divine war hammer. You fight a mortal blood-lock with mortal effort! Your father commands the blood of his ancestors—but you carry the thunder of the heavens! Bypassing the flesh!Japh stopped fighting the suit's mechanical deadlock. He stopped trying to force his muscles to move.Instead, he turned his focus entirely inward, reaching past his Founder bloodline and diving straight into the pulsing, golden core anchored beside his heart. He did