Heartstone - Chapter 51: Chapter 51

Smoke swallowed the sky.
The last of the sky machines groaned, twisted, and collapsed into the forest floor, flames bursting through its steel frame. Villagers cried out—not in fear, but in victory. The final engine hissed and died, its red eye flickering out like a defeated beast.
Avera, sword dripping and hands trembling, looked across the battlefield. The field was littered with scorched metal and broken weapons. Her people stood bloodied, bruised, but breathing.
They had done it.
They had won the first battle.
Marah limped toward Dalen, blood on her forehead, but a fire in her eyes. “We’ve never brought them down before. We’ve never even scratched them. Today, we crushed them.”
Dalen, leaning against a shattered wing of the jet, gave a faint smile. “That’s because today, they underestimated us.”
Villagers gathered, forming a wide circle in the center of the burning wreckage. The banners of the five clans waved high. For the first time in generations, they stood united.
Chief Drakon raised his voice. “Let the world know—we are no longer prey.”
Cheering echoed into the night.
But even as celebration began, Avera’s gaze turned to the mountains. She could feel it—like a tremor in her blood. The pulsed again… but now in warning.
She whispered to Dalen, “This was only the beginning. They’ll come back—with more, and worse.”
Dalen nodded grimly. “Then we prepare again. This time… for their full force.”
And far away—beyond the horizon, hidden deep in the underground facility of X-3—Ryker Voss stood, watching the footage of the defeat.
He didn’t speak.
But the rage in his eyes was unmistakable.
Then, he turned.
“Wake Project Revenant.”