Chapter 10
The void between stars was not empty.
It listened.
And somewhere in the black stillness between systems, aboard a cathedral-ship of bone and iron, the Hound of Ashur Varn stirred from his cryo-chamber.
He emerged not with a gasp, but with a low, static-coated growl. His breath smoked in the freezing air. His skin was laced with silver threads and Viora-script, each marking a binding—a punishment, a blessing, a weapon.
The Binders called him Executor Rhel Varas.
But among the Kruger command elite, he was whispered as the Graveblade—the Empire's hound for hunting failed gods and wayward anomalies.
And something on Gaeth-9 had just screamed loud enough to wake the dead.
"Core signature decrypted," the Binders reported from their alcoves, suspended in meditation. "Confirmed: shard activity. Blood-aligned. Sync rate: accelerating. Core structure—unstable, but reforming."
"Divine resonance?" Rhel's voice sounded like grinding iron and wet stone.
"Residual only. Like... echoes. But it's not just the Blood God's memory. Something else is moving beneath it."
Rhel stood at the viewing platform, his arms folded behind him. The stars reflected in his pale eyes, but his gaze was fixed inward—on instinct, on scent, on the feel of the Hunt.