The Veyron Family Tower is a structure of crystalline elegance, a massive 100 floor monolith visible from far in the skyline of the Core.
On each of its four sides, the Veyron Crest, a modern anchor of red gold color.
While the lower levels housed the heart of an interstellar empire with places like material gathering centers, mecha ordering shops for Veyron staff and family.
The top was a sprawling area of wall gardens and private quarters, isolated from the world by height and security.
But for Arin, the silence within its walls at top was the loudest part of the night.
He lay in the grand master suite, he was having a nightmare.
He was no longer just the Head of the Veyron Empire; he was a soldier again, back at the edge of the galaxy, near the weak node of the galaxy.
In the dream, the void was a coloured bruised purple by the radiation released by forceful breach by a Void Whale from other Universe.
It was a beast of very large size who can easily swallow a battleship in one go.
"Resonance at 98%," Lyra's voice cut through the void. "Arin, the Whale is destabilizing the sector. If we don't stop it now, the breach will swallow us together with the whale."
Arin looked at Lyra and made his mind and said "Convergence Protocol start Dual-Resonance!".
Their two frigates of Lyra and Arin spiraled toward each other. His void-black fiber and Her purple fabric weaving into a terrifying obsidian-violet garment.
They friagates combined into a single Super-Destroyer with magic garment layer over it.
Lyra took the main bridge, executing a high speed operation in seconds speciality of Aetherion's to snap them out of the Whale's suction.
"I've freed us from the suction force! He's not moving for now. Go!"
Arin launched in his custom black Mecha. His level raised to Advance Garment Realm with the help of there dual resonance. Arin covered his mecha with the special protective garment layer and accelerated toward the Whale's core, his Mecha's arm specially modified with high output boosters for a singular strike.
He hit the entity with a burst of Veyron magic fibers.
The blow didn't just cause physical damage; it caused his magic garment to cover the space around the Whale which restricted it's movement and cause it to fall back in the breached location.
The creature shrieked, its body mutilated, before it recoiled back into the infinite void of the multiverse but the creature eyes were locked onto Arin mecha and it looked like the creature can see Arin face in his mecha.
Arin bolted upright in bed, slick with cold sweat.
He looked to the side. There, sleeping peacefully between him and Lyra, was Kaelen.
The boy's face was soft and innocent, showing none of the heavy burden he may carry in the future.
Arin watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his son's chest, a pang of fear hitting him. Someday, Kaelen would have to face entities far worse than a Void Whale.
Unable to return to sleep, Arin quietly stepped out to the balcony. The wind at the 100th floor was cold and sharp.
He activated his secure comms.
"Father," Arin whispered.
On the holographic display, an elderly man in a suit of heavy magic armor appeared. Arin's father, stationed at one of the Node defense Fortress on the edge of the galaxy.
Looming back behind the old man was the manifestation layer of a Master Garment Realm Mage covering a defensive fortress from downside of which continuous black fabric mixed with assimilated metals come down and close a breach in the void.
And just behind Arin father was a semi conscious entity.
It was a heavy-combat, "gothic-industrial" construct a hybrid of metal, garment cover, and pure fiber mana energy that functioned as the his father's "Mecha Butler" and guardian. At high level Mecha gains consciousness and can protect there masters.
The entity possessed a massive, mechanical gorilla-posture upper body, bulked out with thick, jagged armor plating designed to shrug off very large beasts like void whales easily.
Its head was a faceless, uncanny rig, crowned with a floating, ring-like halo that pulsed with a slow, rhythmic light.
Two massive, energy-conductive blades were mounted behind its back, their V-shaped red motifs glowing like dying embers.
It didn't look like a machine from a factory; it felt like a cursed relic, a phantom of matte charcoal and glowing red vents that existed in a semi-phased state, constantly checking the space around arin dad for any sign of a breach.
"How is the situation at the node?" Arin asked, his voice steady despite the adrenaline still fading from his nightmare.
"Stable for now, Arin," the old man replied, his eyes weary as the Sentient mecha behind him shifted its weight, its clawed gauntlets gleaming with mana.
"How is my grandson and daughter-in-law? Keep them safe, and take good care of Kaelen's education."
The old man's gaze softened as he looked into the distance. "His mind is extraordinary, Arin. Like our ancestor... maybe he can be the next best in our line to stabilize this galaxy."
"I do not know how long the Ancestor alone can handle the situation," he confessed, "but we still have a lot of time. So do not worry, my son."
Arin nodded, the weight of the lineage pressing down on him. "We are preparing him, Father. One step at a time."
Then arin talked with his father about various things related to family business, magic and machine.
After ending the call with his father, Arin checked in with his mother at the UCC.
The conversation left him feeling somewhat relaxed, but as he set his comms aside, he felt a pair of warm arms wrap around his waist. Lyra had finally woken up.
She saw the tremor in his hands and leaned her head against his back, hugging him tightly.
"You're thinking about the future again," she murmured softly. "Don't, Arin. We are here. We are the Veyrons and the Aetherions. We will do what we can, and we will prepare him for the rest."
Arin turned, catching her gaze, and gave her a lingering kiss on her lips. Then he chuckled softly, the tension in his shoulders finally breaking.
"How can you think I'm worried? Don't you remember how I married you?"
Lyra smiled. It had been the controversy of the decade.
Ancient Mage Families almost never married into one another; their work was too specialized, and the bloodlines were kept separate to ensure the all Pillars remained distinct.
But Arin Veyron and Lyra Aetherion had met at the Higher Mage Academy, sparks flowing instantly between the Anchor and the diviner.
They had stood the test of time, supported by parents who saw the value in their bond.
But the legend was cemented on that very battlefield arin just dreamed of.
After the Void Whale was repelled, amidst the wreckage of asteroids and the shimmering radiation of the breach, Arin had used his Mecha's external speakers to broadcast a proposal to her who was in there combined ship.
The rescue fleets arriving at that moment had frozen in their tracks, dumbstruck. It was still called the "Proposal of the Age."
"Ten years since graduation," Arin whispered, looking back toward the room. "Kaelen arrived, and now he's already five. Life happens fast."
Lyra hugged him tighter. Arin looked out at the glowing transparent blue cover over the Core, and at a silent defence fortress watching over the Core and then at the peaceful night time in the city and people who had no idea how close and how many times they were close to destruction.
On the other side in the center of the master suite, Kaelen lay perfectly still.
To his parents, he was a five year old lost in the deep sleep of childhood.
In reality, his Aetherion enhanced brain had been wide awake the moment his father bolted upright.
He had heard it all the nightmare of the Void Whale, the condition at the edge of galaxt, and the "Proposal of the Age."
He did that? Kaelen thought, his mental gears spinning.
My father proposed on a literal battlefield while the radiation was still high? He felt a strange mix of awe and second hand embarrassment.
He had always seen his father as a strict but logical man.
The image of Arin Veyron, the man who lectured him many time on magic fibers. Using a Mecha's external speakers magnified by magic fibers to scream a marriage proposal across a debris field was... jarring.
It was a something Kaelen hadn't factored into his father's character profile.
But as the warmth of his mother's and father's hug after coming back to the room surrounded him, Kaelen's thoughts turned normal again and he went back to sleep.