A rail gunner finally whispered, “Holy Hell,” like he couldn’t help it.

  Kesi sank to one knee, yellow Will flickering around him, arm dropping limp when he stopped feeding it.

  Dorian staggered once and caught himself. Blue light crawled under his skin too brightly, too alive.

  He looked at Kesi.

  Kesi looked back.

  They both understood the same thing.

  That was the first Kindled Starspawn anyone in this camp had ever seen.

  And it wouldn’t be the last.

  The Starspawn were changing.

  And if they didn’t stay ahead of it, the camp would become just another ash stain on the map.

  The ash still hung in the air when the three Kindled Remnants finished cooling.

  They were larger than the others. Not just brighter, but denser, their orange cores threaded with thin veins of white that pulsed faintly like something still alive inside them. The air around them felt heavier, like standing too close to a running engine.

  Dorian felt it before he consciously looked.

  He stepped toward the nearest one.

  Kesi moved immediately. “No.”

  Dorian didn’t stop walking.

  “We just burned through over half of our reserves, or at least I did.” He said, voice steady but thin at the edges. “You felt that. My shoulder’s still shaking. You can barely keep that arm locked into place.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  “It is exactly the point.”

  Kesi stepped in front of him. ‘Keller said no more absorption. Not after what happened.”

  Dorian’s jaw flexed. He was pale under the ash.

  “That man grabbed a Fiend Remnant raw. No guidance. No control. We’re not him.”

  “He still turned.”

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  “He didn’t know what he was doing.”

  Kesi held his stare. “Do you?”

  Silence lingered for a bit.

  Dorian glanced down at his own hands. They were trembling. He’s never exerted himself so much so quickly. He’s depleted. Every Implosion had taken something out of him that Remnants usually refilled.

  “That fight almost killed us,” he said more quietly now. “You know it did. If something else lands in the next hour, we’re done. Not just us. The whole line. Remnants heal. They always have.”

  That was true.

  Every absorption stitched muscle, sealed fractures, restored blood loss, rebuilt tissue. It was a full restoration.

  Kesi’s eyes flicked to the perimeter. Medics were still moving. Soldiers were still shaking out their arms.

  They were alive.

  But barely.

  Dorian crouched near the nearest Kindled Remnant. “I can feel it,” he murmured. “Its stronger. Cleaner.”

  “Or worse.”

  “Or better.”

  Kesi exhaled through his nose, its like dealing with a child.

  “If this goes wrong-“

  “It won’t.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  Dorian looked up at him, and there was something stubborn in it.

  “Yes.”

  Just that…

  “Yes?”

  The tone was defiant. It carried the quiet weight of someone saying, I’ve decided.

  Kesi hated that tone.

  But he stepped aside.

  Dorian placed his hand on the crystal.

  The flare wasn’t violent, it was a single Remnant from a Starspawn rank after all. It sank inward, like light being swallowed by depth. White veins surged up his arm and disappeared beneath his skin. His back arched as the healing hit first.

  Bruised muscle tightened and reset. Micro-tears sealed. His shoulder stabilized with a sharp internal pop. The shaking in his hands stopped almost entirely.

  He inhaled.

  Then the second wave came.

  His Will expanded.

  Outward.

  The air around him warped faintly, like heat distortion, but heavier. He could feel space itself. Not metaphorically. Physically. A radius around him, thin but real, like a second skin extending beyond his body.

  Kesi felt it too.

  The pressure shifted.

  Dorian opened his eyes slowly.

  “It’s not just a Remnant,” he said with a smile.

  “What is it?”

  Dorian was silent for a while trying to think of what it could be called. “…territory.”

  He stood, flexed his fingers. Inside that radius, his Will felt thicker, more obedient. If something entered that space, he would feel it instantly. Resistance would meet dominance.

  “My constructs feel…stronger in here,” he said. “Like this space belongs to me.” He demonstrated by having a tiny Implosion float around at rapid speed around the radius before he caught it between his index finger and his thumb and reabsorbed it.

  Kesi stared at another Kindled Remnant.

  “and of course, it healed you?”

  Dorian rolled his shoulder once. No pain. “Fully.”

  That was the argument, in the end.

  Kesi walked to another crystal and picked it up before he could overthink it.

  “Damn it.”

  He absorbed it.

  Yellow flared sharply, then compressed inward. The healing struck first. Small cuts around his neck sealed, deep bruise in his ribs dissolved into warmth, his shoulder joint was fully aligned without needing Will to keep it together.

  He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

  Then his perception shifted.

  His Will didn’t press outward the way Dorian’s had. It layered. Space within a few feet of him sharpened into clean vectors, angles and paths mapping themselves without effort.

  He could see the best line of motion inside that domain before it happened.

  He swung his axe slowly. The air resisted differently. More predictably.

  “Okay,” he muttered. “That’s new.”

  Dorian watched him. “What changed?”

  “Inside maybe three feet,” Kesi said, eyes faintly yellow, “I get to go first.”

  Dominance inside his radius.

  They both understood the implication.

  The Kindled Class Remnants expanded Will’s Domain.