Chapter 10 — The Shattered Spire

The storm was alive.
Kael could feel it—an oppressive pressure pushing against the skimmer as it carved through the dense clouds. Thunder growled like a caged beast. Jagged bolts of lightning illuminated their path, revealing glimpses of the Shattered Spire—an ancient, skyborne ruin torn apart by centuries of gravitational rifts.
“There it is,” Kuro shouted over the roaring winds, pointing ahead.
The Spire resembled a colossal spear of obsidian, fractured into floating segments. Broken platforms drifted lazily around its core, tethered by streams of unstable energy. It was once a Key Forge, a place where the original Inversion Keys were crafted.
Now, it was a graveyard.
“Landing won’t be an option,” Selene said, piloting with iron precision. “We’ll have to drop in.”
Kael secured his Relic Gauntlet, his eyes locked on the Spire’s central breach. The fragment they had found was guiding them here, its pulse accelerating as they neared.
“Elira, stay close to me,” Kael said, his voice softer but firm. She nodded, tightening her grip on her own sidearm.
As the skimmer reached the drop point, Kuro leapt first, flipping gracefully through the air before landing on a floating platform. Kael followed, the gravity shifting unnaturally as his boots hit the surface.
The Spire groaned beneath them, as if resenting their presence.



The interior was a labyrinth of inverted chambers—rooms that looped in impossible angles, staircases spiraling into voids, pillars that defied gravity. The architecture was disorienting, designed not to be navigated, but endured.
“Keep your focus on the fragment’s signal,” Selene reminded. “This place will try to disorient you.”
Kael could feel the pull, a subtle tug deep within his chest, guiding them through collapsing corridors and across thin, unstable bridges of light.
But they weren’t alone.
Mechanical clicks echoed in the distance.
“Scouts,” Kuro hissed. “Eaters’ recon units. They beat us here.”
The group pressed on, moving through a shattered hall where glyphs glowed faintly on the cracked walls. Suddenly, a drone swarm emerged from a rift, their sleek frames spinning with razor-like limbs.
Kael reacted instinctively, raising his gauntlet as a pulse of compressed air burst outward, scattering the drones. Kuro followed, slicing through them in fluid arcs, his Relic Blade humming with deadly precision.
“Elira, cover Selene!” Kael shouted as more drones poured in.
Elira’s shots were precise, picking off drones that flanked their position. Selene, meanwhile, interfaced with a fractured control node embedded in a pillar, her fingers moving rapidly across the ancient glyphs.
“I’m overriding their control grid—hold them off!” Selene barked.
Kael’s heart pounded as he pushed forward, the fragment's resonance reaching a fever pitch. The Spire itself was responding to his presence, its fractured architecture shifting, opening a narrow passage beyond the collapsing walls.
“This way!” Kael called.
As the group surged through the opening, the drone swarm halted, their connection severed by Selene’s override. The chamber ahead was vast, a hollowed core of the Spire where a single Relic Core Fragment hovered, its light fractured yet defiant.
But standing between them and the Core was an Eater Operative—clad in a sleek exo-suit, his right arm fused with a Relic weapon, eyes glowing unnaturally.
“I was hoping you’d come, Kael,” the operative sneered. “Orders are clear. You die here.”
Kael stepped forward, gauntlet gleaming. “You’ll need more than orders to stop me.”
The operative lunged, his Relic-arm extending into a serrated blade. Kael met his charge, their clash sending shockwaves through the unstable chamber. Every strike resonated through Kael’s bones, but he adapted, using the Spire’s shifting gravity to his advantage.
“Elira, Kuro, protect Selene!” Kael commanded between parries.
Kuro was already moving, engaging another wave of drones while Elira provided covering fire. Selene, in turn, was deciphering the Relic Core’s containment glyphs, racing against the Spire’s imminent collapse.
Kael’s opponent was skilled, but overconfident. In a sudden shift of footing, Kael used a gravity flux to propel himself upward, slamming a resonance-charged strike into the operative’s chest. The impact shattered the exo-suit, sending the man sprawling across the debris-strewn floor.
Breathing heavily, Kael turned to Selene. “How long?”
“Now!” she declared as the containment field collapsed.
The Core Fragment surged forward, its energy intertwining with the fragment Kael had brought. A wave of harmonic resonance filled the Spire, stabilizing the surrounding space temporarily.
But the structure wouldn’t hold for long.
“Time to go!” Kuro shouted as cracks spiderwebbed across the chamber.
They sprinted, the Spire collapsing around them, leaping onto an extraction glider that swooped in with perfect timing. As they soared away, the Shattered Spire crumbled into the storm, swallowed by the void it had tried to contain.
Kael held the newly-attuned Fragment, feeling its weight—not in mass, but in responsibility.
“That’s two,” Kuro said, leaning back. “But the next ones won’t come this easy.”
Kael smiled grimly. “I’m counting on it.”