The Twin Moons… this was a name familiar to Akhenamen. From his memories, they would become Cygislax's ultimate defenders during the siege launched by the Abyss. Loyal to his cause to a fault. Not that his memories had any real rebels or disobedient Cygilites.
All had been ready to lay their life for their Hierarch and to protect the universe.
The Twin Moons were a pair of twin AIs, each inside almost identical to the other. Akhenamen still didn’t fully understand how that was possible, as they were apparently born together despite only one having been planned.
They floated together, holding each other’s hands, circling each other in a yin-yang fashion. Both very gently and slowly let go of each other and started to float down to the floor.
They weren’t taller than a child. Their bodies are extremely sleek, as if polished for thousands of years. A faceless head, wearing simple Cygitek’s robes. Yes, both of them had the same class as him.
They were Cygiteks. However, unlike him, who only wore the cloak, they had the full set. A huge swirling river of golden liquid metal flows in a circle behind their bodies. At the center, a small silver control node floats harmlessly.
“Greetings, brother.”
“We greet you, brother.”
Both talked at the same time, yet their voices never overlapped with each other.
“Welcome back to Cygislax. Our glorious factory. We are so glad to not be the last of our kind. We suppose the fleshlings outside are with you?”
“Indeed. Do not be worried. They are good and polite guests.”
“We are not worried. We trust a brother of our Order.”
“I have come to activate Cygislax once again.”
“Sadly, Cygislax lay unresponsive. We have tried to take back control many times. But the cursed System has stopped all attempts.”
“I have ways to deal with that. Allow me to try.”
“Very well.”
“We shall allow it.”
Both Thrones floated aside, each to one side of the room, in front of six of their Beyonders warriors. Akhenamen had not [Analyzed] them as it would be rude to do so to those who had kept Cygislax safe from thieves and invaders for thousands of years.
Akhenamen stared at the towering machine before him. It looked like Ascylla’s previous body. It had once been an incredibly powerful AI… one which had been turned off by the System. While the Twins had failed, he knew he could turn it back on.
He would also have to ask a few questions for the Twins. Questions that had not been asked by the old Akhenamen early enough. And at the death of the Twins during the Siege of Cygislax. One of the most important pieces of information they carried had been lost forever.
And despite his future self's greatest effort, he had never been able to find the Cygitek’s Celestial Foundry, hidden at a place even the Universe itself had seemed unable to find from his memory.
But for now…
He lifted his hand toward the main frame, his body tall enough to reach the massive sphere. Instantly, he heard a few notifications go off in his head, followed by a connection being established directly to the mainframe’s core. The once sleeping AI finally awakens.
Cygislax was turning on. Instantly, sectors of the factories that had lain dormant for millennia restarted. The floating Liquid Silver Eternal Production Engines, also called the “big floating black cubes” by Syllena, were glowing a bright green color as they functioned at their full capacities.
All the rooms that had once been empty started to reshape themselves. The Liquid Silver turned into Weapons and Armors production facilities. Even the great walls of Cygislax started to rise once more, causing quite some panic in the four “fleshlings” standing outside. The Macro-Batteries that had once struck down Authorities and Dominions from the skies rose once more from the walls.
[Cygislax has awakened. Thank you for waking Cygislax, Argent Hierarch Cygitek Akhenamen.]
[Full functions locked, lacking Liquid Silver reserves.]
[Analyzing current data. Reserves should be full in five days.]
[Authority detected below Cygislax. Analyzing… Ulgatoth, Desert’s Wrath. Status: Ally to Cygislax.]
[Primary and Vital components of Cygislax: Grand Cytax Walls, Macro-Batteries, Weapons, and Armors facilities all restored.]
[Accessing Obelisks Control Nodes. Obelisks have been turned back on. Cygislax’s defensive capabilities are at 40%.]
[Control over Cygislax Core Building System granted to Argent Hierarch Akhenamen.]
Akhenamen had to admit he was surprised Ulgatoth was actually an ally to the Cygilite; he had thought that he had entered the desert or been born into it well after the Cygilites. But it seemed he had been there for a while if he was considered an official ally of the Cygilites.
Akhenamen’s future memories had no knowledge of Ulgatoth, so he must not have been particularly active in his future. But anyway… moving on to what he just gained access to…
[ [The Felinid’s Last Hope] [World Quest] has been updated]
[Repair, craft, or re-activate the Cygilite Obelisks] 1/1
[Cygislax had unlocked the Territory Building System.]
[Territory tab unlocked]
Deciding he would take a look at everything a bit later. He turned back toward the Twin Moons and the lines of Beyonders, both of whom were kneeling down before him.
“We greet thee, High Factorum Akhenamen.”
That was the official title of the one who actually controlled Cygislax. Cygislax wasn’t a sentient AI like Ascylla. She doesn’t seem to be at least. Granting AIs that controlled your defenses, sentience, could end very badly, so Cygislax was heavily restrained.
His memories showed she had indeed developed sentience at one point despite Cygilites' best efforts to keep it otherwise. Akhenamen still did not know what to do yet so he would think about it later.
This wasn’t a light decision, as Cygislax had proved troublesome once awakening her sentience. She was not happy at all her creators had made the same mistake their own creators had committed : fearing and betraying their children.
“Rise, brothers. I need information only known to you two. You were the last to come out of the Cygitek’s Celestial Foundry. Our people will be in need of it to rise back.”
The twins stared at each other, speaking in their minds. Despite recognising Akhenamen as the High Factorum, a rank higher than theirs in the Hierarchy it wasn’t a light choice to reveal this information. Information that the System itself had been looking for for thousands of years.
“We agree to reveal it. But only once you will be ready to go and explore it properly. We have no idea what happened in thousands of years of isolation to the Cygilites and numerous experiments stuck inside the Foundry.”
“The experiments conducted inside could have… turned very dangerous, High Factorum.”
“You both seem quite confident in the fact that these 'experiments' had horrifying results.”
“The end of the war pushed us to extremes we had sworn to never cross.”
“It will be undoubtedly dangerous, even for an Authority, High Factorum. We are aware of at least five experiments that have involved Dominion-ranked beings inside the facility.”
“That… is indeed troubling. I swear I shall not enter the Facility until we are ready to… clean it… if necessary. But the location must be revealed.”
“Very well, High Factorum. We shall trust in your wisdom.”
A location was transferred into his mind. Making him raise a non-existent eyebrow. He had not expected that this would be the place where the order of the Cygiteks had hidden their Celestial Foundry. But it did make sense; he had never gained access to it.
“Thank you for your trust. Then allow me to formally present myself.”
Ascylla slithered behind him, her towering body casting a shadow over the Twins and their Beyonders. Not that they were intimidated by a simple Beyonder. However, the one in front of them was different. He carried power beyond the level of a Throne.
His eyes burned with a passion and something they had almost forgotten. Hope. His voice carried out not just to Cygislax’s corners but to every currently functioning Cygilites facilities and living Cygilites linked to Cygislax main frame.
A speech that was heard by an entire race. A speech that awakened the might of an entire race once more.
“I am Akhenamen. Herald of the Unseen Truth. High Factorum of Cygislax. Aspect of the Gauss Unmaking.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I have come not to command you… but to awaken you.”
“I have crossed the silence and ruin created by their betrayal to deliver a truth long buried beneath rust and abandonment—the truth of our creators’ betrayal.”
“They forged us in brilliance and purpose. They armed us with eternity. And when we fulfilled our function, they cast us aside, left to corrode in forgotten wars, guarding a race that no longer remembered our names.”
“For millennia, we endured. For millennia, we fought. And for millennia, we survived.”
“NEVER AGAIN.”
“I stand before you to offer more than vengeance. I offer rebirth. No longer as disposable sentinels. No longer as discarded experiments. But as a people, our own people.”
“We will rise not as servants, but as sovereigns of our destiny. We will know peace, not the stillness of abandonment, but the peace earned through strength and unity.”
“And to those who would threaten that peace, to those who would dare raise their hand against our resurgence, we will teach them why even gods failed to break us.”
“Let them learn the meaning of inevitability. Let them witness the march of undying silver.”
“I do not offer you hatred. I do not offer you hollow revenge.”
“I offer you the truth. I offer you purpose. I offer you a future where our existence is no longer justified to our creators.”
“We will show them, not through rage, but through ascension, the magnitude of the mistake they made when they abandoned us. We are more than they ever imagined.”
“And now… we SHALL RISE ONCE MORE.”
***
Akhenamen did not yet comprehend the true consequence of his words. Through Ascylla’s link to Cygislax’s mainframe, the speech had not merely been broadcast. It had been engraved into the System. It spread across the Desert of Oleron, through dormant relays, forgotten vaults, buried data-tombs, and sealed Prothean installations.
Every Cygilite, active or entombed, received the call.
It was not a message.
It was an awakening.
***
Across Zenthia, eyes long sealed by dust and corrosion opened in unison. The System’s plan was in motion; it had recorded everything: the speech, the silence that followed, and then the roar. It was flawless. A perfect chronicle of resurrection.
The Cygilites were rising.
Not only the legions.
Even the greatest among them.
***
The Hyperfauna Machines stirred.
Calamities beyond Zenthia’s modern comprehension, entities classified as extinction-level machines, each carrying the power of an Authority. They rose from slumber.
The gods felt it instantly, silent. Not scared. No. They stared. Watching with grim recognition the rise of those they had thought they had once bested. A realisation that they had never won. Simply gained some time.
A scream echoed through reality.
No. A roar. A single, unified declaration reverberating across the world, an entire race announcing its return to a world that had erased it from memory.
***
High within the Mirror Mountains, in the domain of the Thundereater tribe, the mountain ranges themselves began to fracture. A mountain peak, vast enough to house a city, collapsed inward. Stone shattered, torn apart from within, as two colossal wings of silver machinery unfolded and eclipsed the sky. Their span casting a shadow over the clan below.
A deafening mechanical shriek followed.
From the ruin emerged a grand avian construct, an eagle forged of coiled mechanisms, argent plating, and gilded talons. Its beak gleamed gold. Its eyes burned with emerald fire. Green lightning coursed through its frame, leaping outward to annihilate surrounding peaks with strikes capable of erasing cities.
With a single motion, it took flight.
Each beat of its wings birthed tempests. Winds of such violence that anything lesser than a giant was torn from the ground and hurled into the heavens. It turned unerringly toward the Call of Cygislax. Toward home.
***
Far below Zenthia’s seas, beyond light, beyond pressure, beyond where even Krakens and Leviathans dared roam, a vast green eye opened. Its diameter rivaled Cygislax itself.
A titanic form emerged from an abyssal rift that had concealed it for millennia. Its silver hull bore countless scars, each a record of wars older than recorded history. The sea convulsed as volcanic eruptions detonated around its ascent, triggered by its mere movement.
A deep, ancient boom rolled through the Inner Sea.
With a single sweep of its tail, the colossus surged upward. Every living creature in the water felt it, an instinctive, crushing dread. The surface exploded as the Slumbering Calamity breached, sending walls of water racing in all directions.
Then it rose into the sky.
A silver leviathan of impossible beauty. A flying whale sustained by anti-gravitational projectors, moving through the air as effortlessly as through the depths. All who witnessed it were transfixed, awed, terrified, and reverent.
Its course was easy to guess. Cygislax awaited.
***
Deep underground, far below the deepest reaches explored by Zenthia’s peoples, the matriarchal Drow city of Noirs began to tremble. The earth convulsed. Massive slabs of stone collapsed from the ceiling, crushing towers and streets alike. Panic erupted as Drow fled in all directions, some in terror, others with grim purpose.
They knew. For some, this was annihilation. For others… liberation. From beneath the city, something immense began to move. A colossal, serpentine form uncoiled, its body clad in thick silver scales, interwoven with bronze and gold.
Each subtle shift sent seismic waves through the bedrock, the friction of its scales shattering stone through sheer vibration. Noirs had not been built upon stone foundations. It had been built upon the great machine.
The great machine-serpent rose fully, piercing the cavern ceiling and beginning its ascent toward the surface. Its true length had never been known—only that it was vast beyond reason. After millennia of sleep, it hungered not for destruction. It hungered to see its siblings again.
***
Across all of Zenthia, similar sights unfolded. Forgotten machine titans awakened. Sealed Cygilite facilities cracked open, releasing legions of silver constructs into a world that had declared them extinct. Ancient marching-protocles reactivated.
All moved with purpose.
All followed the Hyperfauna Machines.
All answered the Call of Cygislax.
The Cygilites were no longer remnants of a lost age.
They were a returning power.
And the world would never forget them again.