The air in the Heartforge was not air at allit was the breath of dying gods. Eldrin staggered forward, his left arm encased in jagged**Origin Circuitry**, the blue veins of the **grain** now clawing up his neck like frost on a corpse. The **seventh shard** pulsed in his chest, its molten light laced with threads of Ophira's corruption. It whispered to him in a voice both familiar and alien:
*"You were never meant to kneel."*
Before him, the Crucible loomedafloating monolith of obsidian and gold, its surface etched with runes that bled light. At its heart, suspended in a cage of liquid fire, hovered the **eighth shard**a perfect sphere of blackened crystal, its core throbbing like a second heartbeat.
Liora's grip on his wrist was iron.
"The Titans didnt just shatter the core," she hissed, her emerald cloak singed at the edges. "They split *souls*. Ophira is the half that craves dominion. You"-Her voice cracked. "*You* are the half that burns."
A tremor shook the forge. The ground split, vomiting tendrils of shadow that coiled around Eldrin's ankles.
From the abyss rose Ophirano longer a woman, but a *specter* of fused shards and hunger.
The **sixth shard** gleamed in her palm, its light warped by veins of black ichor,
"Little brother," she crooned, her voice a chorus of whispers. "You kept me waiting."
---
Eldrin's **grain** *screamed*. Fire erupted from his palmsnot the familiar chaos-flames, but a cobalt inferno laced with stolen shard-energy. Ophira laughed, and the forge *answered*.
Molten metal surged, forming a tidal wave of razored light. Eldrin barely dodged, the heat searing his cloak to ash. Behind him, Nim's spider-mech screeched as it intercepted a second wave, its plasma cutters shattering on impact.
"The forge *obeys* her!" Liora snarled, her crystalline dagger deflecting a spray of slag. "We need to"-
"*Distract her.*" Jace's voice was a blade. His throwing knives found the throats of two**shadow-eaters**lunging from the mist. "Eldrin*the Crucible*! Now!"
Eldrin lunged.
---
The Crucible's interior was a hall of mirrorseach surface reflecting not his face, but *fragments* of himself:
- A child, trembling in a Titan laboratory, a shard hovering above his chest. - A weapon, drenched in the blood of villages hed razed.
- A king, seated on a throne of fused shards, Ophira's shadow kneeling at his feet.
At its heart floated the **eighth shard**, its blackened surface pulsing.
*"Take it,"* Ophira's voice slithered through his skull. *"Become what you were meant to be."*
Eldrin reached out-and the vision *shifted*.
The laboratory. The split shard. But this time, *he* was the one kneeling. Ophira's hand wasnt pushing Liora into the abyssit was reaching *for him*.
*"Join me,"* she whispered, her eyes alight with something almost like*grief*. *"We were never meant to be alone."*
The **grain** flared, ice and fire warring in his veins. *Weapon or man?*
A scream shattered the illusion.
*Tira.*
Her body convulsed outside the Crucible, the **third shard** in her chest*rupturing* as Ophira's shadow poured into her. Her human eye locked onto Eldrin, pleading-
before the feral voice snarled: *"Kill her!"*
Ophira's laughter was a noose. *"Choose, brother. The shard... or her?"*
Eldrin's fingers brushed the **eighth shard**.
The world *exploded*.
--.
Gold and shadow fused, etching new **circuitry** across Eldrin's skin. The Crucible's voice boomed:
**"WHO ARE YOU?"**
Beyond its walls, Tira's screams turned to laughterOphira's laughter.
And the forge *waited*.
---