RISE FROM THE VOID

Chapter 8

The bodies weren't fresh.

Xander crouched beside one,an Exile whose face was frozen in terror. Their Remnant bow lay dark and lifeless. 

"How long have they been here?"

"Hard to tell."

 Torrin studied the massive door ahead,thirty feet of metal covered in glowing symbols.

 "This is the oldest access point. Harlan knew the codes, but knowledge isn't enough. The Guardian doesn't care about keys."

Metal scraped against stone. Then whispers,dozens of voices speaking words Xander couldn't understand.

The Guardian emerged.

Twenty-five feet tall, constructed from interlocking metal plates engraved with thousands of names. Its arms were hydraulic pistons ending in almost-human hands. But the head made Xander's blood freeze—a dozen preserved faces arranged in a circle, each frozen in different expressions. From their mouths came whispers of last words.

‘"Please don't..."’

‘"I'm innocent..."’

‘"My children..."’

"The first ones." 

Torrin breathed.

 "Celestara built this from the first hundred people thrown into the Void."

The Guardian's dozen faces turned toward them. Its voice was a chorus: 

‘"No one leaves. No one ascends. The disposed remain disposed."’

It charged.

Torrin's whip wrapped around its wrist but found no purchase. The Guardian swatted them into the wall. Xander's wire shot forward, seeking joints, but the armor was seamless.

The Guardian's hand closed around Xander. Pressure crushed his ribs. The faces loomed close, whispering horrors. His bracers blazed, forcing the fingers apart. He dropped, gasping.

"Match its power!" 

Torrin shouted. 

"Stop fighting like it's a wraith!"

Xander understood. This was a monument to Celestara's guilt, powered by grief and despair made solid.

His bracers shifted,not forming weapons, but tools. Wire probed the Guardian's structure, seeking connections. How was it built? His fingers traced engravings, found seams. There,a central support column. There,power conduits feeding from the core.

"I'm not trying to destroy it."

 Xander said.

 "I'm trying to set it free."

He ran along the Guardian's arm, dodging its attempts to grab him. The faces screamed in anguish. Xander reached its chest, and his wire extended,hair-thin strands worming through microscopic gaps.

Inside, he found the core. A sphere of compressed grief, powered by a hundred souls' final emotions. The design flaw was obvious,grief wasn't meant to be contained.

Xander's bracers interfaced with the core. Wire conducted emotion, and he felt everything: betrayal, fear, desperate hope to be remembered.

‘I remember you.’

He thought. 

‘All of you.’

The core's energy shifted. Instead of fighting, Xander redirected it, channeling the souls' rage inward. The Guardian's movements slowed.

"What are you doing?" 

One face asked, voice clear.

"Giving you a choice. Help me expose Celestara, or stay their weapon."

Silence. Then: 

‘"We choose freedom."’

The Guardian collapsed, reforming into a hundred human-sized figures. They stood calm, serene.

"We remember now." 

They said. 

"And we'll help you make them remember too."

The lead figure stepped forward,brass plates engraved 

"Marcus Vex."

"You knew Harlan." 

Xander breathed.

"Brother. Thrown here thirty years before him." 

Marcus's mechanical voice was warm. 

"He never knew I survived. But you carry his Remnant. He chose well."

"He was murdered. I'm going to prove it."

Marcus approached the door. The hundred souls placed their hands against it. Symbols blazed. Ancient mechanisms ground to life.

The door opened, revealing a shaft rising into darkness.

"The path is yours." 

Marcus said.

 "But Celestara will know the moment you enter the under-rings."

"Let them try to stop me."

They ascended for hours. The toxic air cleared, replaced by the under-rings' pollution. At the first checkpoint, Torrin hacked security while the freed souls waited.

"Done. But alarms are active. Five minutes before they converge."

They ran through maintenance corridors. Automated turrets emerged. Torrin's whip destroyed one. Xander's wire shorted the others. The freed souls absorbed bullets.

Marcus led them through forgotten spaces until they reached a ventilation grate.

 "Through here. We can't follow,too visible. But we'll create distractions."

Xander gripped Marcus's hand. 

"Thank you."

"Honor him by succeeding. When you're ready to strike, call for us."

They vanished.

Xander and Torrin dropped through the grate into the under-rings. Familiar catwalks, familiar chaos. 

"East."

 Xander said. 

"Ten minutes."

They ran through the market, past the Guard Station, until Harlan's workshop appeared ahead.

Light flickered inside. Movement behind windows.

"Someone's here."

 Torrin warned.

Xander's bracers formed blades. 

"Either way, I'm going in."

He kicked the door open. The bloodstain was still visible. And standing in the center, a figure in a white porcelain mask.

The killer.

"Hello, Xander. I wondered if you'd survive." 

The voice was familiar. They removed the mask.

Kessa. The guard captain.

"Surprised?" 

She smiled coldly. 

"I've been Celestara's agent for fifteen years. Harlan became a problem. You became a loose end."

She drew a Null-blade,designed to sever Remnant bonds.

 "I'm going to kill you and destroy whatever evidence Harlan hid."

Xander's mind raced.

 "Follow the current home." There,a copper conduit behind the workbench.

"Why serve them?" 

Xander stalled, his wire moving toward the conduit invisibly.

"They hold my daughter. If I fail, she dies."

"Then you understand what it's like to lose someone."

His wire reached the conduit, connected. Suddenly he saw through copper,every electrical trace Harlan had left. A location. An access code. Everything.

Kessa lunged. Her blade met Xander's bracers, the Null-edge trying to sever his connection. He felt Harlan's presence fading.

Torrin's whip wrapped around Kessa's neck, yanking her back. 

"Go! Get the evidence!"

Xander ran to the conduit, plunged his wire into it. Data flooded through,documents, photographs, recordings. Everything Harlan had discovered.

And a final video. Harlan's face filled his mind. 

"Boy, the evidence is in your Remnant now. Climb to the highest transmission tower. Connect to the main power conduit. Your wire will broadcast everything to Celestara itself."

Behind him, Kessa screamed. 

"Stop him!"

Too late. Xander crashed through the window. "The transmission tower!"

They ran. Kessa and guards pursued. People scattered as the chase tore through the under-rings.

Xander reached the tower's base, cut through defenses, and started climbing. Torrin fought below, buying time.

Five hundred feet. A thousand. Fifteen hundred.

The top platform appeared,power conduits, transmission equipment. Xander grabbed the main conduit, his bracers merging with it. He felt the entire power grid.

He began the upload.

Below, Torrin fell. Kessa started climbing.

Thirty percent. Forty percent.

Kessa reached the platform, blade ready. 

"Even if you broadcast everything, you'll die here."

Sixty percent. Seventy.

"Harlan thought it was worth it." 

Xander said.

Ninety percent.

Kessa lunged.

Marcus and the Guardian-souls emerged, grabbing her.

 "When you needed us, we'd answer."

One hundred percent.

The upload completed. Harlan's evidence exploded across every screen in Celestara. Documents, recordings, footage of people thrown into the Void for being inconvenient.

The truth, laid bare.

Xander disconnected, bracers smoking. 

"Everyone knows now."

Kessa's expression crumbled.

 "They'll kill my daughter."

"Then stop serving them. Fight back."

The platform shuddered. Something descended from Celestara,massive machines, military hardware.

"They're coming." 

Marcus said. 

"They'll destroy the under-rings before they let this stand."

Xander looked at the descending machines, at the freed souls, at Kessa trembling.

He thought of Harlan's final words: 

‘"You're a survivor. You'll find a way."’

The machines descended, weapons charging. Xander's bracers pulsed with power he didn't know he possessed.

This wasn't the end.

This was war.