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  Chapter One: The Ashes of Vaylon Prime

  The planet Vaylon Prime was once a thriving world—a place of towering crystalline cities, endless violet fields, and skybound rivers that shimmered under the glow of twin suns. But beneath the surface, it was a world poisoned by division. The Vaylonians, a race of advanced beings attuned to both science and the arcane, had splintered into two factions: the Dominion and the Exiled. The Dominion ruled with an iron fist, seeking perfection through genetic augmentation, while the Exiled—those deemed "flawed" or "undesirable"—were cast out into the wastelands to fend for themselves.

  Elias Vance was born into privilege, the son of a high-ranking Dominion officer. But he was never meant to be part of their future. A routine genetic scan at birth marked him as an anomaly, an imperfection in their pursuit of engineered superiority. His father, a loyalist to the Dominion’s cause, saw him as nothing more than a stain on his legacy. His mother, however, could not bear to let him be taken. She faked his death, smuggled him out of the grand city of Zareth, and left him with the very people the Dominion despised—the Exiled.

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  For years, Elias lived among the outcasts, growing up in the ruins of a forgotten civilization. He learned how to fight, how to survive, how to channel the latent cosmic energy that ran through his bloodline. But no matter how strong he became, he was always an outsider, never fully accepted by those around him.

  Then, the Dominion came for them.

  On the eve of his sixteenth year, Vaylon Prime was torn apart in a brutal purge. The Dominion had deemed the Exiled a failed experiment, and their solution was absolute annihilation. They descended from the skies in fire and fury, reducing the wastelands to glass. Elias watched as the people who had raised him—those who had called him brother, son, friend—were wiped from existence. His mother, who had secretly watched over him from the shadows, was executed before his eyes.

  But the worst betrayal came from his own father.

  Leading the assault, adorned in his gleaming battle armor, was General Kael Vance—the man who had cast him aside, the man who now sought to erase him completely. "You were never meant to be," were the last words Elias heard from him before the bombardment swallowed everything.

  But Elias refused to die.

  In the chaos, he stole a Dominion warship, barely escaping Vaylon Prime’s destruction. As he drifted through the cold void of space, watching the only home he had ever known burn to nothingness, he made himself a promise.

  He would never serve tyrants.

  He would never allow another world to suffer as his had.

  And one day, he would return.

  That day would come soon.

  End of Chapter One.

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