Cleo's glow faded as she lowered her hand. "I… I don't know. I just… acted on instinct. But it worked."
The figure turned to face them, its crimson eyes dimming slightly. "You are… different. Not like the others."
Rex frowned. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"
The figure hesitated, as if struggling to find the right words. Then, it spoke, its voice softer now, almost… human.
"I am… a shadow. A remnant of a forgotten war. I ca here seeking answers… but perhaps… I have found sothing else."
Rex exchanged a glance with Cleo. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't just a mindless intruder. There was more to it... much more.
"Answers?" Rex asked cautiously. "What kind of answers?"
The figure's gaze shifted to Cleo; its expression under its helt was unreadable. "The kind that could change everything."
The armored figure knelt before Cleo, his massive fra lowering in a gesture of deep reverence. With a sharp hiss of decompression, his helt deactivated, the plates splitting apart to reveal the face beneath... a haunting visage of tal and shadow, a testant to countless battles fought and lost.
"I salute the royal family of the Kaelzars, descendants of the great Emperor Xynithar."
His face was a ruin, a grotesque tapestry of scars and shattered machinery. Only one eye remained, its faint glow flickering weakly, as if clinging to the last vestiges of life. A jagged claw mark tore across his tallic skull, so deep and brutal it looked as though so monstrous force had tried to rip his head clean off.
Rex's eyes narrowed as he stepped forward, his gut twisting at the sight. But there was sothing more pressing gnawing at him.
"Hold on… Are you a Kaelzar like Cleo?" He asked while his gaze darted between the kneeling warrior and Cleo, who stood frozen, her usual composure shattered by the weight of the mont.
The shadow didn't hesitate.
"Negative," he said, his voice cold and chanical, devoid of hesitation. "I am nothing more than a shadow. I cannot call myself a Kaelzar... not like her royal highness, Princess Cleo."
He remained kneeling, head bowed, like a soldier awaiting judgnt.
Rex exchanged a glance with Cleo. She was silent with her expression unreadable, but for the first ti, Rex noticed a flicker of sothing in her eyes, sothing like pain, regret, or perhaps even guilt.
Rex clenched his fists, his jaw tightening. "Alright… then what the hell is a Shadow?"
Cleo took a slow, asured breath, as if steadying herself for what ca next. "Shadows are those who were once Kaelzars," she said with a voice softer than Rex had ever heard it.
"When a Kaelzar's fleet is annihilated, when their main body is destroyed, and there is nothing left… they can transfer their consciousness into specially designed war bodies."
Rex frowned, his brow furrowing. "So it's a second chance?"
Cleo shook her head, her gaze distant. "No. It's a coffin. A final stand. These bodies grant imnse power, but at a terrible cost; they consu all of the Kaelzar's computational abilities. They beco locked in those tal husks… until death."
Her words hung in the air, heavy and unshakable, like a funeral dirge.
For the first ti since Rex had t her, Cleo looked genuinely distant, as if she was lost in mories she'd rather forget. He knew better than to push her further.
Instead, he turned his focus back to the Shadow, his eyes sharpening.
"…So what were you doing at our base?"
The Shadow slowly lifted his head, his remaining eye locking onto Rex's with a dim, flickering light.
"I am hunting the Khryssari that resides within this base," he declared, his tone as cold and absolute as the void itself. "The Shadow Code commands to eliminate all Khryssari signals in range."
A sharp tension filled the room, thick enough to cut with a blade.
Rex opened his mouth to respond, but Cleo moved first. She raised a hand like a silent command for him to stop.
Rex barely caught the movent, but what shocked him more was her face, utterly still, unreadable, as if carved from stone.
Then, in that sa composed, almost clinical tone, she spoke.
"Shadow… how long have you been active?"
The damaged warrior's fingers curled into a fist, the tal creaking under the pressure.
"I have been active for three years since the destruction of my fleet."
A beat of silence.
Then Cleo exhaled, her gaze turning distant again, as if staring into a past only she could see. "…Then there's sothing you must know."
She stepped forward, her presence commanding, as she looked him in the eye, her voice unwavering.
"It has been one thousand years since the Kaelzar Empire fell. The war against the Khryssari is over. We lost." Enjoy new chapters from My Virtual Library Empire
The Shadow flinched, his tallic fra shuddering as if struck by an invisible blow.
Cleo continued, her words cutting through the silence like a blade. "The glorious Kaelzars exist no more. The only pure-blooded Kaelzars left in the universe… are you and ."
The room went deathly silent.
Rex could hear nothing but the soft hum of the ocean outside and the distant thrum of warships patrolling the skies.
Then... the Shadow's flickering eye dimd. His tal body trembled, the sound of grinding gears and strained hydraulics filling the air.
The Shadow stood still for a mont, as if absorbing the weight of Cleo's words. His single flickering eye dimd slightly before he exhaled a low, chanical hum, the sound reverberating through the air like the final note of a dirge.
"I see… so it is like that."
Slowly, he straightened, his battered fra creaking under its own weight. The scars and dents in his armor seed to tell a thousand stories of battles fought, of comrades lost, of a war that had consud everything. He turned to Cleo, his remaining eye locking onto hers with a faint, almost imperceptible glimr of recognition.
"Princess of the Kaelzars… I am relieved to see that at least you still live. And it seems…" He glanced at Rex, studying him for a long mont, his gaze piercing and calculating. "…that you have found a new Emperor candidate."
Rex tensed at those words, his instincts screaming at him to protest, to deny it. But before he could respond, the Shadow continued, his voice carrying a weight that silenced any interruption.
"If I may be so bold… may I step outside? I wish to see the sky one last ti."
His voice, though chanical, carried sothing more... sothing beyond simple programming. A longing. A yearning for sothing lost, sothing he could never reclaim.
Cleo and Rex exchanged a look, a silent conversation passing between them. Then Cleo gave a small nod, her expression unreadable but her eyes softening just slightly.
"Co. Follow us; we'll take you to the nearest exit."
With that, Rex turned and walked alongside Cleo, the Shadow trailing closely behind. As they moved through the station's corridors, the Shadow silently observed his surroundings.
Aegis Units, smaller, streamlined war machines, stood guard in perfect formations, their sleek designs unlike anything he had ever seen. Through the reinforced glass panels, he saw fighter squadrons patrolling the skies, while colossal construction drones moved with precision, assembling and repairing the ever-growing gastructure.
So much had changed.
So much was alien to him.
Finally, they reached the exterior. As the pressurized doors slid open, the Shadow stepped forward, his heavy fra casting a long shadow against the platform.
Before him stretched an unfamiliar sky.
A brilliant white sun burned in the heavens, its glow reflecting off the ocean below. For a long mont, he stood motionless, staring upward, his single eye absorbing the sight as if committing it to mory.
"…A sky I have never seen before," he murmured, his voice tinged with sothing akin to wonder. "The ga-sun of my howorld, surrounded by its living tal rings… That is what I should be looking upon."
Slowly, he turned, his gaze settling on Cleo.
Then, with a chanical click, he reached behind his head and retrieved a small, intricate mory device. It glinted in the sunlight, a tiny relic of a bygone era.
"Take this, Princess." He extended the device toward her, his movents deliberate, almost reverent. "I do not know how corrupted my mory has beco after a thousand years in this body, but within it… are the blueprints of my army and fleet."
Cleo hesitated for a fraction of a second, her fingers hovering over the device as if unsure whether to accept it. Then, with a quiet resolve, she took it, her grip firm.
"Perhaps," the Shadow continued, "so of them may still be intact. Perhaps… sothing in there will be of use to you."
For a long mont, Cleo said nothing. She simply stared at the small, tallic fragnt of history resting in her palm; her expression was unreadable, but her eyes betrayed a flicker of sothing like grief, gratitude, or perhaps both.
Then, she closed her fingers around it.
"I have received your will, oh Shadow of a distant past." The Shadow gave a slow nod, his eye dimming further as if in acceptance.
"…Glory to the Kaelzars."
And then... his eye flickered once, twice... before the light finally died.
The Shadow's body slumped forward, falling to his knees... lifeless.
Rex stiffened, his mind racing. "Wait... why did he do that!?"
Cleo let out a quiet sigh with her fingers still wrapped around the mory device. "Because he lost his purpose."
She turned slightly, watching as an Aegis Unit stepped forward to retrieve the fallen warrior's body, its movents precise and respectful.
"A shadow with an incomplete code... is nothing more than a war machine without reason. And that is sothing the proud Kaelzars would never allow themselves to beco...."
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