Starforged Ships filled the blackened skies, casting sleek silhouettes against the crimson sun. Intricate gold trim adorned their burnished flanks and the muzzles of their guns.

Warriors clad from collar to toe in gilded armor filled their assault compartments. They held swords with whirring serrated blades in their right fists and pistols loaded with high-explosive armor-piercing rounds in their left. Azure lines of light danced across the mirrored visors of their golden helms, denoting the comms data dancing through their midst.

They’re chanting prayers to Narayana, Hiran thought, as he looked up at the Starforged Enforcers in the skies above him. That’s what they always do, offer prayers of praise and dedications of battle to the Starforged Overlord, that pompous, arrogant bastard.

The Starforged Ships opened fire.

Plasma beams lanced from the barrels of their underslung guns.

Shrapnel bombs thumped from tubes.

Sunfire and scything steel descended upon the single man standing upon a plain of frost-white sand.

But Hiran wasn’t going to simply accept his ten-thousand-and-ninety-seventh death, not without a fight.

Hurling himself skyward, he called upon his mastery of the [Darkened Mist] Martial Form to weave a swift, erratic, and flickering path through the deluge of plasma and steel falling from the Starforged Ships. His bare feet kicked off the top of shrapnel bombs, using them as stepping stones to further his ascent before they burst apart and filled the space with swirling sharpened steel.

Hiran strove toward the heavens, heading straight for the Starforged Ships. Their short-range guns unleashed their wrath as he approached, saturating the air around their flanks with clouds of bullets and flak.

Hiran thrust his hands out and brought them through the motions of the most advanced technique within the [Woven Cloud] Martial Form, the Intercepting Matrix. Shockwaves radiated from his palms to intercept the gunfire converging upon him.

Bullets fell limply from the skies, their initial momentum stolen. Flak pellets hurtled away, radiating from Hiran in every direction to slice into the sides and noses of the Starforged Ships.

One of the golden vessels lurched in the air, its engines reduced to ruin by redirected flak pellets. A moment later, it tumbled earthward, bringing with it the contingent of Starforged Enforcers lodged in its belly. It met the plain of frost-white sand with a resounding crash, turning into a column of fire and twisted metal. The other Starforged Ships tried to redress their formation, so that they might best bring their weapons to bear against Hiran, who’d now made it to within striking distance of one of their number.

He kicked out with his right leg, hammering his bare shin against the side of a Starforged Ship. It was called the Arrogant Tide, one of the most basic techniques within the [Stride of the Conqueror] Martial Form, but it was enough to smash through the golden vessel’s armor plating and send it spinning through the skies until it crashed into one of its fellows. The colliding ships spiraled earthward.

By the time the two golden vessels had crashed upon the sand, Hiran had already made it to the final Starforged Ship, having relied on the impact of his kick to send him streaking across the skies to his foe. More flak and bullets washed toward him. He thrust out his palms and executed the Intercepting Matrix again. Shockwaves rippled from his hands again to envelop the projectiles hurtling toward him and send them crashing back upon the Starforged Ship, ripping up the surface of its cockpit, and shredding apart its right wing engine. Beneath the canopy of armored glass sheathing the cockpit, the pilot convulsed, his skull reduced to shards of bone and his torso torn open by redirected gunfire.

Hiran spun a full circle in midair and brought his heel up and around, evoking the Falling Hammer, one of the advanced techniques from the [Stride of the Conqueror], before crashing it down upon the nose of the Starforged Ship. The impact blasted the golden vessel from the skies and spiked the twisted ruins of its chassis into the ground.

The fallen Starforged Ships erupted into geysers of flame and swirling metal as Hiran landed in the midst of their sandy graves.

Waves of intense heat washed over his skin, but they brought him no warmth. It was a curious sensation, one that made no sense, but Hiran had gotten used to it. That was just how things were in the Beyond, where all Ghandarnians went upon the end of their lives.

But perhaps that was not true, at least not in other parts of the Beyond. Hiran was in the Abyss, the deepest depths of the Ghandarnian afterlife, sentenced to eternal torment for his crimes against the mandate of the Starforged Court and their Master, the Starforged Overlord Narayana.

Those who’d spent their lives in virtuous service and pious worship went elsewhere, perhaps to languish in eternal bliss or to embark upon another stretch of existence in which they continued their servitude to the Starforged Court.

Hiran didn’t know, and he couldn’t bring himself to care, not now when the bulky silhouettes of Starforged Enforcers were rising amidst the wreckage of their fallen vessels and congregating upon him. Their armor was melting upon their frames, turning into molten slag that ate away at their flesh and charred their bones, but that didn’t stop them. They weren’t alive, after all. They were mere phantasms conjured by the Abyss to enact Hiran’s endless sentence.

In a way, Hiran was grateful about that. In life, he’d killed more than enough Starforged Enforcers. Not having to slay more of them in death was one of the few things he still took some small comfort in.

Hiran studied the burning revenants as they tightened their cordon around him.

One and all, they stood head and shoulders taller than Hiran, their powerful frames packed with thrice as much muscle as he once had, even in the prime of his life. Their living counterparts would possess Starforged Cores, biomechanical marvels of artifice and engineering which transformed their bodies on a genetic level and enhanced their strength, speed, and resilience to levels far beyond anything attainable by any mortal warrior.

Hiran wasn’t sure how exactly Starforged Cores worked, but he knew that they were fueled by Quiessence, energy born of the collective worship mortals offered to Starforged across the Ghandarna Empire.

Encased in nigh-impregnable golden armor and armed with the most fearsome weapons in the Empire, the Starforged Enforcers were Narayana’s Devas, the sacred executors of his will and law.

But they’d been no match for Hiran. With his Martial Forms and his Mortal Core burning with cultivated Aether, the endless energy of the stars, he’d carved through battalions of Starforged Enforcers. He’d struck down their mightiest champions, their Mahadevas, and laid waste to swathes of the Starforged Court’s regime, liberating—for a short time—hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of fellow mortals from Starforged tyranny.

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And he’d done so alongside Keyi, the Lady of Light. Their crusade to overthrow the Starforged Court had burned its way across all three worlds of the Ghandarna Empire, culminating in a final titanic battle against Narayana in his own throne room.

It was there that Keyi had perished, and shortly after, Hiran had followed her into death. Or so he’d thought. He’d searched for her until the Abyss’s crimson sun had rolled across its blackened skies tens of thousands of times, in hopes of reuniting with her so that they could at least endure their eternal punishment together, but she was nowhere to be found, and eventually, he was forced to accept two facts.

The first was that Narayana had lied to him, just one more betrayal stacked upon the heap already weighing down upon Hiran’s soul. The second was that he would never see Keyi again. All he had to look forward to was the eternity of torment Yamayana, the Lord of Death, had bestowed upon him.

That torment was upon him now, in the form of the unliving Starforged Enforcers encircling him. Hiran raised his hands, ready to enact his Martial Forms, but he felt a familiar leaden weakness building in his limbs. Things would unfold exactly the same way, as they’d done so countless times already. He would battle the Starforged Enforcers, and he would hold his own at first, but eventually, his strength would fail him and his Martial Forms would flee his memories.

There were few things more horrifying to a warrior-ascetic like Hiran than losing the skills he’d honed over a lifetime of training and the power he’d attained over a century of cultivation.

And then blades with whirring, serrated edges would rend his flesh. High-explosive bullets would shred his viscera and spill it before his eyes. Gauntleted fists would rip his heart from his chest and slam it down the shattered remnants of his mouth.

Nothing would be left of him but crimson smears on the cold, pale sands of the Abyss’s endless expanse.

After some time, the Abyss would render Hiran whole once more, restoring his strength and returning his Martial Forms to his mind, all so that the entire ordeal could occur once more.

There were times when Hiran wondered if his inability to find Keyi was part of his prescribed punishment. Perhaps Yamayana had decreed that Hiran’s endless torment would be flavored by an eternal sense of loss. The thought had nearly broken his will a few times, but he pushed it aside ruthlessly as it swam to the forefront of his consciousness now. He wouldn’t be broken, like the other mewling wretches he’d found in the Abyss who could do little more than curl up helplessly and shriek in terror as their punishments befell them.

the Abyss could kill him any number of times it wanted, but Hiran wouldn’t break. He couldn’t break, not until he saw Keyi again and told her how sorry he was.

He fought down a surge of despair as a small voice inside his head reminded him that he wouldn’t ever see her again.

Hiran snarled as he caught a descending blade between his palms. He kicked its wielder in the head, smashing in the Starforged Enforcer’s armored skull. Spinning on his heel, he enacted an advanced technique from the [Woven Cloud], the Abyssal Spiral. A vortex of force howled into existence between his palms. It funneled a flurry of high-explosive bullets into its depths before expelling them into a cluster of Starforged Enforcers charging at him from behind.

Whirring blades converged upon him from all angles. He slipped through them with footwork from the [Darkened Mist], before lashing out with a flurry of devastating kicks from the [Stride of the Conqueror]. Starforged Enforcers collapsed all around him, their armored torsos and skulls caved in. Hiran picked up two swords. The motors built into their hilts hummed in his grasp as they set the teeth across their blades into whirring motion.

They were ripperswords, the favored weapons of Starforged Enforcers, balanced and measured to fit their larger proportions. They were unwieldy weapons in the hands of even the strongest mortal, but Hiran had gotten used to their heft and length. He twirled them through the patterns of the [Twinned Songs] Martial Form, bringing their blades past the defenses of a Starforged Enforcer and down upon his chest.

The serrated edges of the ripperswords skidded momentarily across the surface of the Starforged Enforcer’s breastplate, before catching onto its gilded surface and churning straight through the metal, into flesh, bone, and finally viscera. Hiran forced his weapons out, completing his dual cuts, ripping the Starforged Enforcer’s body apart and reducing it into a pile of bloody, steaming chunks at his feet.

A bullet caught his right calf then, sinking deep into his flesh and cracking against bone before exploding. Hiran grunted in agony as everything beneath his right knee disappeared in a starburst of gore. Shrapnel made up of fragments of his shin bone sliced into his face and burst his left eye.

A Starforged Enforcer’s armored fist crashed into his side. It was a blow he would have shrugged off easily, but his strength failed him upon the moment of impact. He felt his ribs crumple under the Starforged Enforcer’s knuckles. Something burst wetly inside his torso, and a torrent of blood forced itself through his lips.

Hiran crashed onto the sand. He struggled to rise, but a rippersword tore its way into his abdomen, turning his intestines to mush. A Starforged Enforcer stamped down upon his right wrist, crushing the joint into powder, before leveling the barrel of a pistol at his face.

Here we go again, Hiran thought, bracing himself for his next death. He formed a mental image of Keyi’s face in his head and held tightly onto it with every iota of his will. But I’ll find you. I must. No matter where you are.

But the Starforged Enforcer didn’t fire his pistol. Instead, he looked up, toward a column of white light descending from the blackened skies.

Hiran blinked in surprise as the radiance enveloped him alongside his tormentors. The Starforged Enforcers disappeared into wisps of smoke, leaving him lying amidst a colorless expanse… with all his limbs intact and his injuries healed.

What’s going on? Hiran got to his feet. A silvery, mirror-like surface appeared in front of him, and for the first time in eons, he was able to see his own reflection… or rather, how he had looked like in the prime of his life.

He’d been a tall and powerfully built man, standing closer to seven feet than six. Thick ropes of muscles corded his limbs, neck, and torso. Dark hair tumbled messily from his scalp. A pair of black eyes, filled with pain and regret, stared back at him.

Hiran opened his mouth slightly, and the reflection’s square, clean-shaven jaw mirrored the movement.

He couldn’t help but reach out, so that the tips of his fingers brushed against those of the man within the mirror-like surface. Something flickered in the corner of his vision, then. Words scrolled into existence before his eyes.

Ajna Interface successfully installed…

Running diagnostics…

Diagnostics completed…

Initiating…

Ajna Interface? Hiran shook his head in surprise.

He knew that Ajna Interfaces were cerebral implants that saw widespread use across the Ghandarna Empire amongst both mortals and Starforged alike. They varied in cost and complexity. Mortal laborers used them to plan their schedules and keep track of their tasks. Starforged Sages used them to parse data and craft their intricate schemes. Hiran had never bothered installing an Ajna Interface when he was alive, so why would he have one now, when he was dead?

His reflection began to change, then.

Hiran took a step back as he saw how the man in the mirror grew even taller and even more muscular. The tattered rags draped across his frame fell apart, revealing a network of gold and silver circuitry covering every inch of his flesh. Colorless light pulsed from a spot roughly nine inches beneath his navel, where his Mortal Core would be… if he were mortal.

But he wasn’t. A Starforged stood where his reflection had been, wearing his face and mirroring his motions.

Hiran took a deep breath and looked down at his own body. He saw gold and silver strewn across his flesh. Something trembled where his Mortal Core had been. It promised him heights of power he’d never attained in life.

The mirror shattered into countless gleaming shards. Hiran raised his arms reflexively to protect his face.

White light flooded his vision.

He gasped, sucking in cold, real air into his lungs. A heartbeat, strong and powerful, filled his ears.

It was his own.

“Resurrection Protocol complete. Project Asura is successful,” a cold, feminine voice said. “Welcome back to life, Hiran the Godbreaker. It’s been a hundred Standard years since you died.”