Kael returned to the Sentinel in a blink, the hovering vessel still cloaked in its stealth enchantnts. His teleportation ability allowed him to instantly traverse to any location within range, provided he had a clear visual of the destination.
Lucien and Isolde, waiting inside, nearly jumped at his sudden arrival.
"My Lord, please! My heart can only take so much," Lucien exclaid, placing a hand over his chest in mock indignation.
Kael chuckled at his reaction. "We need to land the Sentinel. I want you to et soone."
Lucien and Isolde exchanged wary glances. "What about the golem that attacked us?" Isolde asked.
"That’s precisely who I want you to et," Kael replied with a smirk.
With a swift command, Kael guided the Skyward Sentinel to a clearing below. Unlike the winged aircraft of Earth, the Sentinel had no traditional aerodynamics. Its design was sleek, its form accentuated by flowing arcs of Mythril and mana-infused circuitry, built for speed and precision rather than lift and drag.
As it descended, the Sentinel’s levitation runes pulsed in synchronized sequences, stabilizing its descent with an elegant grace. The landing was seamless, the vessel touching down as though weightless.
Astra, standing behind Alice, watched the landing with a calculating gaze. His internal processors analyzed the ship’s structure, searching his databanks for any record of similar technology from five millennia ago. After an exhaustive scan, he found none.
Kael stepped out first, followed closely by Lucien and Isolde. Once clear, he stored the Sentinel back into his infinite storage with a simple motion. The transition was instantaneous, the massive vessel vanishing without a trace.
Lucien and Isolde, still acclimating to Astra’s presence, hesitated. Despite his humanoid shape, the poweful golem exuded an overwhelming sense of artificiality—his every motion calculated, his luminous gaze unwavering.
Astra turned to Kael, speaking in the ancient tongue. "Inheritor, who built that flying construct?"
Kael t Astra’s gaze, responding in kind. "You an the Sentinel? I built it."
Astra’s chanical irises adjusted, his core resonating in deep thought.
"How does it fly?"
Kael smirked, recognizing Astra’s inquisitive nature. The construct was remarkably similar to Alice, both possessing an advanced capacity for self-learning. If Astra was truly a remnant of the ancient world, then his matrix would be invaluable for comparison.
"Gravity magic," Kael answered in the modern tongue, lacking an exact term in the ancient language.
Lucien and Isolde, previously silent, perked up at the unfamiliar term. "Gravity Magic?" Isolde repeated, her scholarly curiosity imdiately piqued. "I’ve studied magic for decades, and I’ve never encountered such a discipline."
"When you were constructing the Sentinel, my Lord, we observed you etching intricate rune sequences into its core," Lucien said with asured respect. "Yet you never explained how the enchantnt functioned."
Astra, too, appeared to be processing the term. His internal databanks yielded no results.
Kael glanced around, searching for an object to demonstrate. Spotting a small rock, he picked it up and held it before them. "Alright, let show you."
He raised the rock and, with a minor exertion of mana, negated its weight. The stone hovered in his palm, suspended in midair. Then, with a flick of his fingers, he manipulated its gravitational pull, making it oscillate between rising and falling.
"Gravity is the force that keeps everything anchored to the ground," Kael explained. "All objects exert an invisible pull on one another, and that pull is proportional to their mass. Here, I’m overriding that force, either enhancing or negating it."
Lucien narrowed his eyes, clearly fascinated. "So you are altering the fundantal laws of nature itself?"
Kael nodded. "Precisely. The runes you saw carving into the Sentinel’s core weren’t rely for flight—they were designed to manipulate its gravitational field, allowing it to hover, maneuver, and accelerate in ways impossible for conventional magical constructs."
Astra watched Kael intently, his luminous gaze locked onto the demonstration. While the words spoken were incomprehensible to him, he focused instead on Kael’s actions, analyzing the flow of mana and the shifts in energy as Kael manipulated the stone. His internal systems cataloged every movent, every fluctuation in the spell’s output.
He observed the rock’s unnatural suspension, the way Kael adjusted its motion with re gestures. Though Astra lacked an understanding of the spoken explanation, the application was undeniable—this was a force beyond the known magical disciplines stored within his databanks.
"No records of such magic exist within my databanks," Astra stated, his core humming as he processed the phenonon. "The principles demonstrated are unknown to this world."
Kael grinned. "Then consider it a lost art rediscovered."
Isolde exhaled slowly, her mind racing. "If such a magic truly exists... then it rewrites everything we know about the arcane."
Lucien ran a hand through his silver hair. "My Lord, you are full of surprises."
Kael chuckled. "Get used to it. We still have much to uncover."
Astra’s gaze lingered on Kael, his core vibrating with newfound curiosity. He had stood watch over forgotten knowledge for five millennia, guarding relics of an age long past.
Yet, in all that ti, no one had ever claid to be its inheritor.
Until now.
---
Kael studied Astra’s glowing gaze, sensing the weight of history behind those eyes. Alice, standing beside him, regarded Astra with a mix of curiosity and caution, her own spirit crystal resonating faintly in response to the ancient guardian’s presence.
Astra, with his silver-gray hair and handso, human-like appearance, stood stoically. His deanor was emotionless and logical, every action calculated and efficient.
Kael turned slightly, gesturing toward Lucien and Isolde. "Astra, these are my companions—Lucien and Isolde. They were not present earlier, so for their understanding, I ask again: What exactly were you ant to protect?"
Astra’s face remained impassive as he responded in the ancient tongue, his voice devoid of any emotional inflection.
Kael imdiately stepped in, translating for Lucien and Isolde. "He says... ’The Legacy of the Ancients.’"
Isolde’s breath hitched. "The Ancients? You an the civilization lost to ti?"
Astra’s Spirit Crystal, embedded in his chest, glowed faintly as he spoke again in his native language. Kael listened carefully before relaying his response. "He confirms it. The Ancients wielded knowledge far beyond the current era."
Kael frowned. "Then what happened to them?"
Astra’s eyes dimd montarily as he answered in the ancient tongue. Kael translated, his voice growing solemn. "They vanished. Their cities fell silent, their strongholds buried beneath the sands of ti. Only remnants like Astra remain, bound by duty to ensure their legacy does not fade into oblivion."
Alice stepped forward, her own core humming. "And now, you see my Master as the inheritor of that knowledge?"
Astra’s gaze locked onto Kael, his words carrying the weight of conviction. Kael took a breath before translating for the others.
"Yes. He says I wield magic lost to ti, construct machines beyond this era’s comprehension, and command power once thought extinct. By every tric of the Ancients’ designations... I am what he called the inheritor, though I am not sure how it ca to that."
Kael crossed his arms. "Then tell , Astra—what does the inheritor do?"
Astra’s Spirit Crystal and Aether Core ignited in a cascade of energy. Kael watched closely before relaying his words.
"He says... ’The inheritor reclaims what was lost. He walks the path of the forgotten. And he protects the world...from the rifts.’"
The weight of the revelation bore heavily on Kael’s mind. He had revived Project Golem not out of so grand ambition to protect the world but simply to guard what he valued in this second life. Part of it was also his lifelong passion—creating a fully autonomous artificial intelligence had been his dream as a robotics engineer. But now, faced with the expectation of safeguarding an entire world, he questioned his ability to shoulder such a responsibility.
"Protect the world..." Kael murmured, exhaling slowly to steady himself. "How am I supposed to do that alone?"
He clenched his fists, then loosened them. No, he wasn’t alone. He had Alice, Victor, Lucien, Isolde, and now Astra—a being from a lost age who seed to recognize his potential. If knowledge of the Ancients still lingered in the ruins, then perhaps he could uncover the truth behind this mysterious inheritance.
Kael turned toward Astra. "Guide us to the ruins."
Astra’s glowing gaze t his. "Understood, Inheritor."
The ancient golem pivoted, his movents precise and calculated, leading them through dense, overgrown terrain. The journey was silent save for the rustling of leaves and the occasional chirp of unseen creatures.
After nearly an hour, Astra stopped before a seemingly ordinary rock face. At first glance, there was no visible entrance, but Kael sensed the subtle presence of an enchantnt woven into the stone. Astra stepped forward, placing his hand against the rock. A pulse of blue energy surged from his fingertips, and the air itself shimred as a hidden scanner activated.
A complex array of golden light spread across the surface, forming intricate geotric patterns. A deep, chanical hum resonated through the air as the scanner processed Astra’s presence. Then, with a slow, grinding motion, the rock split apart, revealing a massive tallic gateway embedded into the mountainside.
Lucien and Isolde stared in awe.
"This... This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen," Lucien breathed, his eyes tracing the sleek, seamless surface of the gate.
Isolde ran her fingers along the edge of the entrance, noting the complete lack of traditional magic inscriptions. "This isn’t just ancient—it’s beyond anything our era could replicate. No runes, no sigils, just pure engineering and arcane synthesis."
As Astra stepped forward, the doors slid open with a whispering hiss, revealing the interior of the ruin.
The mont they crossed the threshold, a soft blue glow illuminated the chamber within.
The ruin was nothing like the crumbling relics of ancient castles or temples the two scholars had explored before. This was a facility—an underground complex constructed from a fusion of gleaming silver tal and dark obsidian-like stone. The walls were lined with intricate conduits of glowing mana, pulsing in synchronized intervals. Strange floating constructs hovered above, their crystalline cores humming as they scanned their surroundings.
The room itself was vast, a grand hall that stretched into the distance with arched ceilings lined with luminous glyphs that shifted and pulsed in response to their presence. Along the walls, tall pillars embedded with unknown devices emitted a constant hum of energy.
Suspended in the center of the hall was an enormous, circular platform, its surface covered in a vast network of golden circuits that pulsed with a steady rhythm. It was a terminal—an interface to sothing far greater.
Lucien stepped forward, his breath hitching slightly. "This place... it feels like it’s alive."
Kael approached the central platform, scanning its surface. "This is more than just a ruin... it’s a functional system. Whatever the Ancients left behind, it’s still active."
Astra stepped forward, raising his hand. His spirit crystal emitted a focused beam of light, interfacing with the terminal.
A deep voice echoed through the chamber, ancient yet unmistakably artificial.
"Accessing Core Archives... Welco, Inheritor."
Kael’s eyes widened as the entire hall ca to life. Holographic projections of star charts, intricate blueprints, and swirling equations materialized in the air. Data flowed like a river of light, forming vast networks of information that had been preserved for thousands of years.
Isolde’s breath hitched. "Holy...This knowledge... It surpasses anything recorded in our history."
Lucien stared, srized. "If we can understand even a fraction of this, it could revolutionize magic as we know it."
Kael, however, remained focused. He knew this was only the beginning. Whatever the Ancients had left behind, it held the key not just to his past—but to his future.
He turned to Astra. "Tell , what exactly were the Ancients been working here? What are they researching?"
Astra’s core pulsed as he responded. "Project golem... and the truth behind the Rifts."
Kael’s expression hardened. "Then it’s ti we uncover it."
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