STARLIGHT UNBOUND by Deus Ex Machina - HTML preview

Chapter 21

The rebels stood at the edge of the sector, where the central districts bled into the outskirts.

For decades, this part of the city had been left to decay —an afterthought, a place where plans were drawn but never completed.

Now, it was theirs.

The streets stretched before them, uneven and cracked, grass sprouting between fractures like nature’s quiet rebellion. Buildings stood half-finished or skeletal, steel frameworks exposed where glass had long since shattered. A thick, metallic scent hung in the air—a ghost of abandoned factories, forgotten infrastructure, and lost ambition.

Lucien gaze swept across the landscape.

This is it. A blank slate.

A place where everything they had fought for could begin —or fall apart.

The quiet of the sector stretched with expectation.

Harun stepped forward, hands on his hips, grinning as he surveyed the ruins. “Well... I’ve seen worse.”

Corin snorted. “Yeah? When? The Age of Discord?”

A chuckle rippled through the group, but it didn ’t last.

Lyra stepped forward, boots crunching against loose gravel, her sharp eyes scanning the area with the precision of a strategist. Already, she was thinking ahead —not of what stood before them now, but what it could be.

Her voice was clear, steady. “It’s not about what it looks like now. It’s about what we can build here.”

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