Excerpt from Foundations of Aetheric Cataclysm, Third Imperial Edition

  Authored by Archivist-Lector Halvain Tress, Aurelith Collegium

  The Asharkith are not a species in the conventional sense, nor are they a singular organism. They are best understood as a systemic intelligence expressed through innumerable biological forms, bound together by shared purpose rather than shared anatomy.

  Early records misidentified them as a variety of dungeon aberrations. Later accounts classified them as rift-born parasites. Both conclusions were incomplete.

  The Asharkith do not invade worlds in the manner of conquering armies, nor do they consume them indiscriminately like void-spawned entities. Their expansion follows a methodical and adaptive process that suggests long refinement, perhaps across countless worlds and epochs.

  At the center of Asharkith activity lies what modern scholars refer to as a nidus. These structures are not merely nests or dungeons, though they frequently manifest aspects of both. A nidus functions as a localized convergence point where Asharkith intelligence, biomass, and aetheric infrastructure are anchored to a world. Through it, the Asharkith observe, learn, and alter their approach to conquest.

  The creatures commonly encountered by defenders are not individuals in any meaningful sense. They are expressions. Each form is purpose-built, grown rather than born, and discarded once its function is fulfilled. Variation among them is not evolutionary in the traditional sense but reactive. When resistance is encountered, the nidus records the interaction and adjusts subsequent generations accordingly.

  This adaptability has led to the mistaken belief that the Asharkith are chaotic or uncontrolled. In truth, they are precise.

  Their method of conquest follows a consistent pattern. Initial contact is subtle. Small disappearances. Localized corruption. Limited parasitical growth. These early stages serve as reconnaissance, allowing the nidus to map biological resilience, magical tendencies, and societal response. Only once sufficient data has been gathered does overt expansion begin.

  At that point, the landscape itself becomes a weapon.

  Asharkith parasitical growth is not merely biological contamination. It is a form of territorial assertion. Soil, stone, flora, and even ambient aether are repurposed into conduits for biomass flow and information transfer. The land ceases to belong to its native world and instead becomes an extension of the Asharkith system.

  Contrary to popular fear, the Asharkith do not seek annihilation. They require living systems to function. Worlds are not destroyed outright but transformed into stable production environments capable of sustaining further expansion. Native species that prove adaptable are sometimes preserved in altered states. Those that do not are recycled.

  They often choose a central location to gain a strong foothold. The Asharkith then stop at nothing to claim that region, establishing a central hub through which they accomplish this task. They have also been known to try to convert individuals near where they want to gain a foothold in a new world. How they do this is still unknown.

  The role of dungeon-rift amalgamations is central to this process. By integrating dungeon mechanics with rift structures, the Asharkith create self-sustaining invasion points that are both defensible and regenerative. These hybrid constructs allow them to bypass many of the natural limitations that would otherwise slow interworld expansion.

  Perhaps most troubling is what the Asharkith do not do.

  They do not pursue leaders once identified. They do not respond emotionally to losses. They do not retreat in the face of overwhelming force unless such retreat serves a long-term objective. Every engagement appears to serve as data acquisition, feeding a greater strategic intelligence that remains largely unseen.

  Whether the Asharkith possess a centralized consciousness or operate through distributed decision-making remains unknown. Evidence suggests elements of both. What is certain is that no single nidus acts independently for long. Their individual cores are linked to their mother cores, which as best as I can conclude may be linked to a kind of origin core that may be the genesis of the Asharkith and controls them. That last part is some of my own speculation.

  To study the Asharkith is to confront an uncomfortable truth.

  They are not improvising.

  They are repeating a process that has worked an innumerable of times.

  And if the surviving records of other fallen worlds are to be believed, if they have chosen where you live as their strategic foothold the only real question is how long you will last.

  —

  “We have lasted two months behind these walls. Fortifying and preparing for an unending siege. Yet, we have made no progress toward fighting back against this threat. All of us understood the need to stay within the walls for this time to set up a proper defense, but now we need a plan of attack.”

  Asher’s voice carried through the council chamber, steady but worn thin. He stood with both hands resting on the edge of the table, eyes moving slowly from face to face. There was no accusation in his tone. Only inevitability.

  “Wraith, Wing, and I have scouted Velmine thoroughly,” Viper said next. “All land outside the capital has become Asharkith domain. There is not an inch of ground untouched by their parasitical fungal growth, and it grows denser by the day. Fortresses have begun forming around the original dungeon sites. They are no longer simple nests. They are strongholds.”

  He paused, letting that sink in.

  “The only positive observation is it appears they have reached a limit on the number of dungeons they can generate. No new formations have appeared in over three weeks.”

  A low murmur rippled through the room. The first descent news in weeks.

  “What would you suggest we do?” King Strider asked the room.

  His voice was calm, measured, but the tension beneath it was unmistakable.

  I took in the room as the question hung there.

  The council chamber consistent of the King and his sons sat at the head of the table. Members of the Hand stood at various points around the room, some in shadow, others in the open. Talons rotated off the walls leaned against pillars, armor scuffed and repaired more times than it should have endured. Guild masters from the strongest guilds stood in clusters, expressions guarded. The highest-ranking commanders of the martial and magical branches sat together, maps and reports spread before them like wounds that refused to close.

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  “If I am honest, Your Highness, I have no idea what we should do,” Alric finally said.

  The admission carried a truth that no one had been willing to say out loud.

  “The militaries first and most important duty remains the protection of Aurelith until our last breath. That has not changed. But that reality leaves any meaningful offensive action to the Hand and to guilds willing to abandon the safety of the walls.”

  He exhaled slowly.

  “I am unsure how many could survive beyond the walls at all. The entire empire is saturated in that Asharkith tainted land. There will be no foraging. No clean water. No true rest. Any extended operation would require very specific aetheric powers or shard abilities to even function.”

  His eyes moved, not accidentally, to where Asher stood. Then to me. Then to Dusk’s who lay next to me, followed by several other individuals in the room that fit his description.

  “That means sending our strongest and most uniquely suited fighters against our enemies into their territory where retreat may not be possible.”

  Silence followed.

  Wraith broke it first.

  “We essentially already are in their territory,” he said in his ethereal voice. “Every day we wait, the Asharkith adapt further. They surround us and are growing stronger by the day.”

  Wing nodded once. “Their aerial forms are increasing. It is only a matter of time until they adapt enough to get through our aerial defense. The oreowls are slowly dwindling in numbers, and they do not just grow out of the ground like our foes.”

  The room could feel Asher’s anger radiate through the room at the mention of the loss of his oreowls. Emerilia leaned into him on his shoulder and the tension in the room slowly dissipated.

  Solar spoke next, his voice controlled but edged with heat. “These walls will not win this war. It only delays our defeat.”

  A few nobles shifted uncomfortably at that.

  “And what happens if they breach the walls?” one of them asked. “What then?”

  No one answered immediately.

  Most of our allies had chosen not to allow large influxes of refugees due to dealing with their own while fighting battles in their lands. This left all who were in Aurelith at the mercy of whatever outcome would be. Many guilds have abandoned the city heading to other branches believing staying here was a lost cause.

  Asher straightened.

  “We cannot outlast them as things are,” he said. “We either find a way to cripple them, or this siege ends with the fall of the city.”

  Viper’s eyes flicked toward me.

  My party, Asher, and Viper were the only ones I had spoken to about the entropy shard directly. A few on the walls had seen what my abilities did to the nidus when we fought side by side, but they did not understand the why of it.

  Until I had time to adapt to the changes and see how far the shard’s influence truly went, I had wanted that knowledge kept close. Power without understanding was a liability, especially here.

  “There may be another factor now,” Viper said. “Something we did not have before.”

  King Strider followed his gaze. “Explain.”

  Viper inclined his head slightly in my direction. “Bryn has recently undergone a shard integration that has demonstrated properties which directly counter Asharkith regeneration, adaptation, and parasitical growth.”

  A ripple of quiet curiosity moved through the council chamber. It was restrained, but I felt it all the same. The weight of attention pressed against my senses like a rising tide.

  “The entropy field?” Alric asked. He knew everything that happened on his walls.

  “Yes,” Viper replied. “Our alchemists and aetheric specialists are working night and day to determine whether it can be weaponized at scale. We have not achieved any significant breakthroughs yet, but they believe they are close.”

  He paused, letting the implication settle.

  “If we can buy enough time, we may find something viable. If we launch an attack on one of the Asharkith strongholds and draw their attention away from the capital, even briefly, that respite may be all we need.”

  I felt the eyes of several powerful people settle on me more fully now. Commanders. Nobles. Guild masters.

  “If we can find a way to use it,” Viper continued, “we may finally have a means to fight back at scale. Our other attempts have failed because of the sheer aetheric output required to counter the Asharkith’s growth. We lost too many key minds and aetheric magicians in the attacks the last few years. People who might have found a solution sooner.”

  The name did not need to be spoken.

  The Arrogans had vanished at the very beginning of all this. Their estate stood empty, untouched, as though its occupants had simply ceased to exist. No trace at all.

  It was the dragon in the room. Everyone knew it. No one said it aloud.

  Asher broke the silence.

  “I propose that Viper and I assemble a strike team,” he said. “We target one of the Asharkith fortresses directly.”

  Several people shifted at that.

  “If we can do what Viper believes is possible,” Asher continued, “and buy even a short window of time for our researchers, then this might change the outcome of this war.”

  His gaze moved across the room, steady and unflinching.

  “Without that,” he said quietly, “or another breakthrough soon, I fear we will be forced to begin conversations none of us want to have.”

  No one spoke after that.

  Because we all understood exactly what those conversations would be.

  —

  Our team stood at the gates as they opened, comprised of some of the most powerful people left in the Velmine Empire.

  From our original party, only Sirius and I were going. Milo was not suited for a mission like this, and Malorn had chosen to remain behind with him to fight on the walls. We didn’t question the decision.

  The strike team itself was built from combination of groups. Every member of the Hand was willing and ready to leave the safety of Aurelith and had chosen to go. The Talons remained behind to guard the city, all but a carefully selected few. I was among those exceptions.

  Asher stood near the front, his presence encouraging everyone. Several members of the Wild Wardens flanked him, their presence steady and familiar. To my surprise, Elorian of Elderbough had arrived with his full party. Seeing them there eased something tight in my chest. Elderbough did not send aid lightly.

  Three other guilds had committed to the assault.

  The Strikers were the least surprising. They thrived in direct conflict and possessed the raw strength needed for a mission like this. If anyone could push through an entrenched Asharkith stronghold head on, it would be them.

  The Scouts came for a different reason. We needed eyes everywhere. Knowledge of enemy movement, adaptation, and positioning mattered just as much as force. More importantly, they could relay information between our fractured groups once we were deep inside hostile territory, where visibility and communication would otherwise collapse.

  The final guild was Radiant Dawn.

  They were small, but powerful. Every member wielded either fire or solar aligned aether. There were no exceptions among them. Their presence alone caused the air near the gates to feel cleaner, lighter, as if something foul had been pushed back by proximity alone.

  Fire was still our most reliable counter against the Asharkith. It worked in the short term. It killed individual creatures efficiently. But it had never progressed beyond that. The fungal mutations had adapted so the flames no longer spread the way they normally would. Growth burned, but it burned contained, as though the parasitical landscape had gain resistance to flames.

  Solar affinity was different.

  It was potent. Purifying. It cut through the oppressive fungal haze and cleansed the air itself, if only temporarily. The problem was scale. No one had yet discovered a method to wield it broadly enough to matter in a war like this. They way we were all hoping that entropy would.

  Until then, Radiant Dawn would help us carve a path.

  Their task was to help us burn a passageway through the parasitical landscape. While granting us cleaner air and helping take down behemoths and wall. They could melt through them effectively.

  We were not marching to reclaim land.

  We were burning a hole through the corpse of an empire, aiming straight for the heart of a dungeon fortress, knowing full well that once we stepped beyond the gates, there would be no retreat until either the fortress fell or we did. The strike team had to buy enough time.

  As the gates creaked fully open and the stench of Asharkith territory rolled in like a living thing, I tightened my grip on my knives dove into the stone with Dusk. Travel would be easier for us down here.

  This was it.

  The moment Velmine decided to fight back.