The peace was a fragile, fleeting thing. For the first time in years, sleep had come easily, a dreamless black void earned through the creation of a power that could answer my rage. Kaelus was a warm, living weight on my chest, his slow, rhythmic breathing a counterpoint to the steady hum of the mountain’s core. For a moment, there was no past, no future. Only the quiet, secure dark.

  And then, the sound. A clean, sterile, electronic chime that bypassed my ears and resonated directly in my soul. A sound I hadn't heard since my own birth into this world.

  Ping.

  My eyes snapped open. Kaelus stirred, his head lifting as he sensed the alien intrusion into our shared consciousness. I sat bolt upright, every nerve on high alert. Before Tes could even process my query, the World System replied for her, its voice a melodious, digital coldness I remembered from the nexus space, a direct stream of pure information.

  [Greetings, Moderator. A priority task has been issued.]

  My blood ran cold. The title I had accepted as a meaningless condition of my rebirth, a cosmic HR policy I never expected to be enforced.

  Ping. [A systemic threat has emerged. Entity designated Maghri Vex. He has located and activated a dormant Origin Core.]

  Origin Core? The term itself was a threat, a name that implied a power far beyond that of a standard dungeon. It was not a battery; it was a source.

  As if sensing my unspoken query, the System elaborated.

  [An Origin Core is a root-level access point to this planet's core programming. It is a reality-warping engine. In the hands of a corrupted entity, it is a tool of planetary unmaking.]

  Ping. [If Vex is left unchecked, there is a 97.4% probability he will initiate a world-extinction event within the next decade.]

  The data stream ceased for a moment, letting the weight of that finality settle. My meticulous, five-year plan for vengeance was now a child’s game, an irrelevant squabble in the shadow of true apocalypse.

  The System laid out the mission with chilling clarity.

  [Your primary objective is the physical elimination of the host, Maghri Vex. Your forces are sufficient for this task.]

  [Your secondary, and equally critical, objective is to create an opportunity for your Moderator AI, 'Tes', to execute Protocol: Origin Severance.]

  Severance?

  [The bond between Vex and the Core is a data-level link, a fusion of soul and system that cannot be broken by physical force alone. Your designated AI, 'Tes', possesses the administrative authority to perform a root-level severance without causing a catastrophic system cascade. She will require a temporary physical chassis to act as a conduit for the protocol. One execution protocol is given, to be used at the opportune moment.]

  So that was it. My army was the hammer to shatter the vessel. Tes was the scalpel—a single-use, divinely sanctioned scalpel—to cut the thread. A two-part execution.

  Ping. [The price of failure is planetary extinction. The reward for success is the fulfillment of a single, paramount request from this world itself.]

  The data stream ceased, leaving me in the silence with the weight of its command settling on my shoulders. I rose. The command center beckoned.

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  The heart of the Obsidian Fang was a cavern of cold light and humming data. I stood before the main holo-table, the bruised purple landscape of the Dominion rendered in three-dimensional, shimmering light. Kaelus landed silently on the console beside me, a coiled predator of cosmic energy.

  “Tes, deploy the X-9 Specter,” I commanded, my voice cold. “High altitude, full stealth, passive sensors only. I want eyes on the Grieving Plains. Let’s confirm the System’s intel.”

  From a hidden silo carved into the mountain's peak, a new shape ascended into the night. The Specter was a ghost of a forgotten future, a blade of pure geometry and bleeding-edge materials. It climbed silently toward the edge of the stratosphere, aiming its advanced optical suites at the heart of the ashen wasteland.

  The image that filtered back was chilling. In the center of the plains, where nothing had stood before, was a fortress. It was a single, twisted spire that seemed to have been grown rather than built, its structure a lattice of blackened, fused bone. A miasma of black and red energy swirled around its peak. And at its base, an army of thousands drilled in silent, terrifying formations.

  “Who commands this?” I murmured.

  As if in answer, a figure emerged onto a balcony high on the Ashen Spire. He was tall and gaunt, clad in robes woven from shadow and soulfire.

  “Zoom in,” I ordered. “Cross-reference his energy signature.”

  The Specter’s camera focused. [Analyzing…] Tes’s voice was a stream of data in my mind. [No match found in Aethelgardian database. Energy signature is… anomalous. A high-tier necromancer.]

  This necromancer raised a hand, and something flowed up his arm, coalescing from the shadows. It was not a spell. It was a weapon. A whip-like tendril of flowing, liquid red metal, like molten blood given a malevolent intelligence, that writhed and coiled with a life of its own.

  As we watched, he flicked his wrist. The crimson tendril lashed out, extending with impossible, unnatural speed. It wasn't aimed at his army. It shot straight up, a scarlet spear aimed at the empty sky, directly towards the invisible X-9 Specter hovering fifty thousand feet above.

  “Evasive maneuvers!” I snapped.

  It was useless. The crimson whip covered the ten-mile distance in an instant. It did not strike the drone; it wrapped around it, a constrictor of impossible physics. The drone’s final transmission was a chaotic, terrifying burst of data. The primary camera feed showed the liquid metal crawling over its own lens, its surface shifting with hungry, pulsing runes. Then came a sickening sound of grinding, dissolving metal, and the feed went to static. A final, corrupted image packet from a wide-angle sensor, captured a nanosecond before total system failure, showed the whip retracting, pulling the crushed, half-devoured wreckage of the Specter back toward the spire.

  [Warning! Material composition unidentifiable!] Tes’s voice was sharp, laced with an electronic urgency I had never heard before. [No match in Earth-based or Aethelgardian databases. Extraterrestrial origin probable. Metallurgical properties are… impossible. Exhibits properties of both a solid and a liquid. Self-repairing, energy-absorbent, and capable of instantaneous phase transition. It is a new, unknown variable.]

  I stared at the static-filled screen. The rules of my conquest had just been rewritten.

  A grim, humorless smile touched my lips. They called me a golemancer. A bug playing with toys in a sandbox. They thought I was unworthy of their attention.

  With a single, mental command, I awoke the mountain.

  A deep, resonant alarm klaxon, a sound never before heard, echoed through the vast chambers of the Obsidian Fang. This was not the chime of production, but a full mobilization alert. The gentle hum of the core deepened into a powerful, ground-shaking thrum that resonated with my own cold fury.

  The twenty-meter-high blast doors groaned, parting once more. This time, they opened for a true war.

  The sound came first. A synchronized, rhythmic stomping that was at once perfect and utterly unnatural. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

  A river of black steel flowed from the mountain's heart. My entire legion. Five hundred Mark IV Infantry Automata. One hundred Mark III-B Engineers. They had tasted battle against brutish demons, but now they marched to face a king. They poured out into the night, forming perfect, silent ranks on the plains below, their single blue optical sensors a sea of cold, analytical light.

  "Tes," I commanded, my voice echoing in the now-empty command center. "Set a course for the Ashen Spire. All units, full combat alert. Advance."

  The legion began its march. A silent, unstoppable glacier of steel and plasma, flowing across the dark landscape.

  Well, everyone, the sibling rivalry has reached a whole new level! Thanks to all of you, I can officially announce that Arcane Steel has now joined System Girl in the Top 10 on Rising Stars! Having one story there was a dream, but having both is just... I'm speechless. I am so incredibly grateful for your amazing support on this journey.

  Now, for some exciting Arcane Steel news! The end of our current volume, "An Ember in the Ash," is almost here! We are rapidly approaching the finale, and the final chapter of the volume, Chapter 60, should be up on Patreon very soon for all my supporters there.

  And once again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping me reach the Top 10. It's been an incredible ride, and we're just getting started. (?′ヮ)?*:???