The docking bay hissed as the battered skiff clamped into place.
Kael stumbled out, every muscle aching, his mind fraying at the edges from the encounter with the Maw. Lira caught him before he fell, her eyes wide with fear, with something deeper.
"You're insane," she whispered, voice trembling.
Kael managed a tired smile. "But alive."
Rax crossed his arms, looming like a steel wall.
"You bought us time. Not safety. Whatever that thing was… it won't be the last."
Kael nodded grimly.
He knew it too.
The Silence wasn't just a force. It was a plague—a hunger that would keep coming, again and again, until either he fell... or it did.
Vakya's voice chimed in his mind:
> New Shard signature detected.
Coordinates uploaded.
Classification: Forbidden Vault.
Kael's breath caught.
A Forbidden Vault?
Lira leaned closer. "What's wrong?"
He showed her the data flickering across his wrist console.
The location hovered in holo-light: Sector XH-9, deep inside the Exiled Belt—a lawless region of shattered worlds, abandoned technologies, and things too dangerous to destroy.
Rax whistled low. "The Belt? That's suicide."
Kael's hands clenched.
If Vakya was leading them there... it meant something critical was hidden.
Maybe a weapon. Maybe answers.
Maybe even a way to fight the Silence properly.
He turned to the crew.
"We're going."
The Echohound cut through the darkness like a blade.
Hours turned into endless stretches of black, punctuated only by drifting debris and the occasional flash of ancient battle wreckage.
The Exiled Belt was a graveyard.
Kael watched the viewscreen in silence as they approached the coordinates.
Twisted hunks of metal floated past—hulks from empires that had risen and fallen before humanity even learned to crawl.
In the distance, flashes of violet lightning arced between broken moons, evidence of unstable reality fields. The Belt wasn't just dangerous—it was cursed.
Vakya's voice interrupted the grim thoughts:
> Proximity alert: Forbidden Vault shield detected.
Entry requires authentication code or system override.
Kael frowned. "Override it."
> Warning: Forced entry may trigger defensive countermeasures.
He smiled tightly.
"Wouldn't be the first time."
The Vault floated in the void like a rusted monolith.
It was massive—easily the size of a small city. Hexagonal in shape, its outer hull was covered in deep scars and shifting glyphs that hurt to look at directly.
Kael felt a pressure in his skull the closer they got.
Lira winced beside him.
"It's alive," she murmured.
Kael nodded.
Whatever technology had built this... it was beyond human comprehension. Riftborn? Older? He didn't know.
He keyed the command.
"Vakya. Breach it."
There was a long, tense moment.
Then Vakya responded:
> Override initiated.
Structural integrity destabilizing.
The Vault shuddered, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface.
With a deep groan, a segment peeled open like a gaping wound, revealing a docking bay lit by faint, sickly blue light.
Rax cursed under his breath.
"This feels wrong."
Kael checked his weapons.
"Probably because it is."
He looked at them both.
"Stay sharp. Move fast."
They entered.
The air inside the Vault was heavy—stale with the scent of old electricity and something deeper, like forgotten memories rotting in the dark.
The walls pulsed faintly as they moved, as if the structure itself was breathing.
Kael kept his pistol raised, eyes sweeping the shadows.
Vakya guided him:
> Shard resonance increasing.
Target located: Central Core.
They passed empty corridors lined with strange statues—figures wearing armor unlike anything Kael had ever seen. Each statue held a broken spear, their faces hidden behind cracked masks.
One statue was different.
Its mask was intact—and it watched them as they passed.
Kael's hand tightened on his weapon.
Something was here with them.
Not the Maw.
Something... worse.
They reached the Central Core.
A massive chamber opened before them, dominated by a floating sphere of fractured crystal. The Shard.
It pulsed weakly, sending ripples through the Vault.
Kael stepped forward.
The Shard was different from the others he'd found.
It wasn't passive.
It was calling.
Suddenly, Vakya screamed in his mind:
> WARNING: Entity awakening.
The statues outside began to move.
Kael spun, cursing.
"Defensive positions!"
The first statue lunged through the doorway, moving with unnatural speed. Its broken spear lashed out, almost impaling Kael before Rax blasted it backward with a kinetic round.
Lira ducked, firing at another, shattering its head.
But for every statue they destroyed, two more moved.
Kael knew they couldn't hold them all off.
They had to finish this—now.
He sprinted to the Shard.
As he touched it, the world exploded in light.
Visions assaulted him—flashes of battles fought beyond time, wars where reality itself had bent and broken.
He saw the Vault's creators—tall, shimmering beings who had tried to imprison the Silence by weaving pieces of the universal Song into crystal prisons.
He saw them fail.
And he saw a single truth etched into the Shard's memory:
"The Silence cannot be destroyed. It can only be rewritten."
Kael staggered back into his body.
The Shard had fused into his chest, burning like a second heart.
Vakya's voice was stronger now:
> New function acquired: Narrative Override.
Limited ability to rewrite local reality parameters.
Cooldown: 48 hours.
Kael didn't hesitate.
He reached inside himself—and rewrote.
The Vault shuddered.
The statues froze mid-attack, their bodies crumbling into dust.
The chamber dimmed.
Silence fell.
Real, blessed silence.
Kael dropped to one knee, gasping.
Rax pulled him upright.
"What the hell did you just do?"
Kael wiped blood from his mouth and smiled grimly.
"Changed the story."
They returned to the Echohound in silence.
The Shard had given them power.
A way to fight.
But also a terrible warning.
The Silence was not a mistake or an accident.
It was a design.
And someone—something—was orchestrating it all from behind the shattered veil of reality.
Kael looked out at the stars as the Echohound accelerated away from the dying Vault.
He had gained a new weapon.
A new chance.
But the cost was rising.
And he knew... they hadn't seen the worst yet.
Not even close.