The Forgotten Titan's breath filled the Iron Heart with a sound like old worlds collapsing.
Gears churned deep beneath its rusted armor, ancient pistons coughing steam as it pulled itself higher from the abyss. Each movement sent vibrations through the Garden's very bones.
The Wardens, for all their elite training, froze.
"Hold!" their commander barked, sword raised. "Do not fire! That… that isn't in the archives…"
Of course it wasn't.
No one remembered what was buried here anymore. No one, except the Architect. And now, Ren.
The Titan's face was a grotesque blend of broken clockwork and bone, half of its lower jaw missing, revealing pistons moving like muscle. Twin furnace-eyes locked on the assembled soldiers.
And it smiled.
---
Mira stumbled back, coughing on the ash in the air. "Ren, we have to go. This… this isn't war. This is suicide."
Ren's fists trembled—not with fear, but with excitement he was ashamed to admit.
Ashir's voice curled like smoke through his mind. "They called me a parasite. A curse. A blight upon Caelum. They sealed me away because they feared what I would become. And now? Now you have given me teeth."
"Shut up," Ren growled.
"You don't want me silent. You want me LOUD. And I can be, if you'll let me."
The Forgotten Titan shifted again, chains snapping around its broken shoulders as it stood to its full, horrific height. It wasn't complete—half machine, half decayed metal—but it radiated power.
Ren could feel it: the Core in his chest responding to it.
Linked.
Bound.
---
One of the younger Wardens panicked and opened fire.
Blue plasma rounds hammered into the Titan's chest, tearing metal away in sparks. But it didn't slow. It barely noticed.
And then it moved.
Faster than something that size should move. It lunged, one massive arm of jagged iron sweeping across the walkway.
The soldiers disappeared in a shower of shattered bodies and torn machinery.
Mira screamed, grabbing Ren's arm. "You brought a GOD to the surface, Ren!"
Ren couldn't answer. His veins were burning. Not with heat—but with commands. Signals, data streams, memories not his own flowing through his blood like molten wires.
The Titan wasn't just alive—it was a machine looking for a pilot.
Ashir whispered, "Ride the storm, little king."
Ren's vision blurred.
In that instant, he understood.
The Titan wasn't fully awake yet. It was running on instinct. Chaos. Hate.
But with the Core's full power, with Ren's control… it could be so much more.
He could make it into a god of vengeance.
---
"REN!"
Mira's voice broke through the madness for a moment.
Ren blinked, staring at her—dirt and oil smeared across her face, fury burning in her eyes.
"You don't have to do this," she said, voice trembling. "You don't have to become them."
Them.
The Lords. The monsters.
The tyrants who turned the Gardens into slaughterhouses.
"I don't want to become them," Ren whispered. "I want to end them."
Mira's hand trembled at her side, torn between helping him… or drawing her gun on him.
And that's when the Warden Commander finally gave the order.
"All units. Kill the pilot."
---
The first shot hit Ren in the shoulder, spinning him around.
Pain flashed hot and electric, but not fatal.
The second was aimed for his head—but Mira moved, throwing herself into the path of the bullet. It tore across her side, but not deep enough to stop her.
"Idiot!" she shouted at him. "MOVE!"
Ren snapped out of the trance. His rage, his need to take control of the Titan, could wait one more second.
Right now, they needed to survive.
---
They ran.
Through broken catwalks. Through rising clouds of ash and molten metal. The Forgotten Titan behind them began tearing into the Wardens like a god shredding insects, its laughter echoing through the old engine halls.
And all the while, that hum—that breath—deep below was getting stronger.
More was waking.
Not just this Titan.
More.
---
As they dove through a shattered maintenance tunnel, Mira finally collapsed, holding her bleeding side.
Ren dropped beside her, tearing cloth from his sleeve to press against the wound. "Stay with me."
Mira looked at him, eyes full of both fury and sorrow. "What the hell are you becoming?"
Ren didn't have an answer yet.
But far away, in the highest towers of Caelum, the Lords were watching.
And one of them, the eldest, smiled.
"Finally," he whispered, sipping his golden wine. "The engine turns again."
---
[TO BE CONTINUED…]
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