The Galaxy Burns — Civil War: Apex Stage
It was no longer a war for the throne.
It had become a war of annihilation.
Across the sectors, the four heirs—Arton, Neix, Zion, and Niro—began consuming systems not just for control, but for proof. Proof that they were the last god-worth successor.
The Archive's systems, now partially active, sent judgment pulses to any heir that seized territory.
Some pulses whispered approval. Others? Instant obliteration.
Zion's Revelation – The Lightwall Break
Zion's Data-Crusade launched the Lightwall Protocol, converting half a star into a logic engine designed to calculate the outcome of every possible confrontation with Kiro.
The result came back in 1.6 seconds:
Kiro wins. Every time. Unless… the Light dies first.
Zion ordered the wall detonated.
A star died screaming.
Neix's Gambit – The Mirrorfall Enigma
Neix unleashed the Mirrorfall Offensive, projecting psionic illusions of Kiro's voice across entire fleets.
Her enemies fired on their own.
But she saw something in the chaos—Kiro's presence not as data, but myth. Her agents began defecting to temples, praying not to gods, but to him.
And she knew—
She was no longer fighting a man.
She was fighting a belief.
Arton's Fury – Voidforged Moonstrike
Arton did not play tricks.
He simply fused an entire moon with a void-reactor and hurled it at a rebel bastion world.
It shattered the crust. Screams were recorded, and reused in artillery frequency arrays.
And yet…
No matter how far his war spread—
The Archive did not speak his name.
Not once.
UMBRA SYSTEM — PRAXIS DROP-POINT 09 — THREE DAYS LATER
The planet Umbra Prime hung above like a dim violet god, its rings bleeding rust. Storms howled across the surface in colors no spectrum could name.
Pablo El'Vertigo's Kruger command drop-ship cut through the toxic atmosphere and landed with a shriek of ancient engines.
The war was calling him again.
His battalion rearmed. His officers awaited orders.
But Kiro stood in the clearing alone, a silver pod behind him hissing with dreamfluid.
"Why here?" Pablo asked, jaw tense. "You pulled me out of a sector ready to collapse."
Kiro didn't turn.
"Because if I go into this," he said softly, "I need someone alive on the outside who isn't trying to carve the stars in half."
Pablo stepped forward. "We need you on the front. Zion just erased a sun."
"I know," Kiro said. "And I will stop him. But not yet."
Pablo's fists clenched. "Why now?"
Kiro finally turned—his skin glowing like a star half-buried in flesh, eyes ringed with glyphs.
"Because they think I'm the strongest thing left."
He placed his hand on the dream-pod's panel. It opened with a reverent hiss.
"And I'm not. Not yet."
DREAMWORLD – DEEP DIVE INITIATED
[Blood System: Dreamworld Anchor Engaged][Override: Ascension Protocol – Voluntary Combat Zone Active][Search Parameters: ENEMIES STRONGER THAN HOST][Danger Level: UNBOUNDED][Sanity Warnings: Ignored][Deploying...]
Kiro awoke in a void flooded with fire.
Floating before him was a colossus stitched from time and bone, its shadow composed of entire ruined pantheons.
Beyond it, another figure: a blind swordswoman who wielded a blade composed of her own unspoken grief. Her heartbeat shook the plane.
Behind them, a throne made of corpses — and atop it, something with his face… but no soul.
A voice split the dream.
"You seek to grow."
"Then bleed."
The first enemy raised its hand — and reality collapsed.
UMBRA PRIME — SURFACE — HOURS LATER
Pablo stood silently.
The pod was sealed.
Inside, Kiro's vitals spiked. His blood crystallized, reformed. His soul burned.
He was not asleep.
He was ascending through war.
And this time—
There were no limits.