The Ruin That Called Him
It began with a tremor—a rupture in one of the outer fringe domains Darius had long forgotten. A minor territory swallowed by the war against the Prime Coder, a wasteland of fragmented code and fractured memories. And yet… something pulsed within it now. Something alive.
Darius stood at the edge of a broken sky, staring down at the glitched rift that leaked cries—not of battle, not of horror, but of a child's weeping.
He said nothing. But the silence ached.
Behind him, Celestia touched his arm, mute still, yet her eyes asked the question: Will you answer it?
Nyx hissed behind them. "It's bait. Origin wants you off balance. Weak. Human."
"Then I'll indulge them," Darius said quietly. "Because even gods need to know what they've forgotten."
Within the Collapsing Domain
