The dawn after the Dominion cube's awakening cast a golden hue across the Kael estate. It should have been peaceful, but peace was a luxury Alex could no longer afford.
The visions had unearthed something within him—memories not just of battles and bloodlines but of an entire civilization lost to time. The Dominion wasn't merely a legend—it had been real, vast, and powerful, and its remnants whispered to him now through the cube's lingering link.
And more than whispers, there were tasks—a legacy not yet fulfilled.
---
[New System Directive Initiated: Legacy Trial - Phase One]
Objective: Establish a hidden sanctuary capable of supporting Dominion-tier technology and arcane structures.
Requirements:
Recruit 5 Core Members with system affinity.
Construct initial Arcane Foundation (Tier 0).
Unlock and stabilize a Dominion Ley Node.
Reward: Unlock Legacy Skill Tree (Locked since Reincarnation)
Penalty: Rejection from Dominion Subnet and Memory Decay
---
Alex gathered his inner circle. Lira, Reed, Naomi (his childhood friend turned tactical analyst), and two new recruits.
One was Goro Tanaka, a rogue kineticist from the Eastern Hubs, known for shattering a mag-lev train with a palm strike. The other, Iris Dane, a system hacker who had rewritten her own classification to become a partial System Entity—a living interface.
"Why did you call us here?" Goro asked bluntly.
Alex activated the cube. The hologram of the Dominion's central archive—an entire city of crystal and data—surged around them.
"We're building this," Alex said. "From scratch."
Naomi paled. "You want to recreate the Dominion?"
"No," Alex said, eyes gleaming. "I want to replace it."
---
Their first challenge was location. Dominion ley nodes were invisible to all but those with Dominion access. Fortunately, the cube granted Alex a kind of "true sight."
He found the node beneath the ruins of an old cathedral in the city's Outlands. Getting there required them to cross two restricted districts, pass a surveillance wall, and avoid three corporate-controlled patrol zones.
Reed handled the logistics. "We go quiet. I've laid out the path. 40 minutes, no contact. Any longer and the CorpSec drones will pick up our trace."
Lira had another concern. "The ley node will be unstable. Once activated, it'll attract energy signatures from a five-kilometer radius."
"We'll build fast," Alex said.
---
The team moved. Silent and precise.
Alex wore a custom prototype suit—KaelTech Mk-I Sovereign Frame. It was only partially powered, its modules incomplete, but its defensive shielding was superior to anything else in his arsenal.
They reached the cathedral just before dawn. Inside, Alex found the node—a ring of charred earth and fractured stone that hummed with unseen energy.
The moment he touched it, the System responded.
[Ley Node Detected — Status: Dormant]
[Permission Override: Kael Signature Verified — Access Granted]
[Do you wish to begin stabilization? Y/N]
He chose Y.
The air cracked. The floor splintered.
Arcane lines erupted from the node, forming the base of a structure that hadn't stood in a thousand years.
[Arcane Foundation (Tier 0) Constructed]
[Dominion Node: Online]
[Core Sanctuary Created]
But the process also awakened something else.
Guardians.
Old defense constructs, long dormant, began to activate beneath the cathedral. Golems wrought from obsidian and silver, with glowing Dominion runes for eyes.
The team barely had time to react.
"Defense Protocol Engaged," the System warned.
Goro stepped forward, aura igniting. "Let me."
He struck first—his kinetic blast shattering the first golem's arm. Lira summoned her glyphs, freezing the second in mid-step. Iris hijacked the third's subroutines with a direct neural link.
Alex faced the fourth head-on. His Flame Arc ignited mid-strike, carving a clean line through the golem's chestplate. It fell, crumbling into shards.
[Sanctuary Defense Test Complete]
[Team Proficiency: Pass — Core Members Registered]
[Legacy Skill Tree Unlocked]
A new window appeared before Alex.
[Legacy Skill Tree: Kael Variant - Path of Sovereignty]
Flame Arc (Evolved) → Dominion Brand
Arcane Engineering → Dominion Constructor
Sovereign Command (Locked)
He chose Dominion Brand, unlocking enhanced flame manipulation, memory-linked sigils, and elemental resistance.
---
Later, back at the estate, Iris decrypted more from the cube.
"There's a deeper layer," she said. "But it's encrypted biologically. You need another Kael."
Alex was stunned. "My family... they all died."
Lira hesitated. "Maybe not all."
She pulled out a sealed file—a DNA sample from a child taken in by one of Kael's old allies in a hidden enclave.
A sister.
Alex stared at the file, emotions he'd long buried stirring.
Family.
Legacy.
Responsibility.
"We find her," he said.
"But what if she doesn't remember?" Naomi asked.
"She will," Alex replied. "The Dominion echoes in our blood."
---
That night, the cube pulsed again, and Alex dreamed of fire, steel, and a tower rising into the stars.
He saw a throne not made of gold, but of code, memory, and flame.
And he saw himself upon it.
Not as king.
But as architect of the new world.