The R-39 galaxy was once a paradise, woven from dust and starlight by the Ilthari– divine sentinels of metal and magic. They constructed sanctuaries where starborn humans thrived, their gilded cities powered by living technology and their Flux Arcana magic, which evolved everything it touched.

But now the Ilthari are gone, leaving behind technologies that no one knows how to fix. As vital systems fail, the citizens of R-39 are exposed to the wrath of its dying suns, and eldritch horrors stir from their sleep–starving in the starless deep. The Astral Veil Empire turns a blind eye to it all, casting away warnings of the past and clinging to the remnants of a fading order. But Hael Astraeus remembers. 

As the Fifth Pillar of the Silvrenthriel Path–divine paladins still bound to the Ilthari–he is oathsworn to protect the system and its citizens at all costs. Even from themselves. An oath that was broken when his kind failed to prevent the tragedies of the Astaris War and the purging of the system’s vital historical archivists. As a child, Hael lost everything—his homeworld, his family, his humanity. But his deepest regret was failing to protect Melantha, the Ilthari of Eternal Night, whose death ended the system’s promised eternity.

When solar storms and flux anomalies ignite unrest across the empire, Hael and his Dread Knights seize the chance to break into Aurora Noctis and resurrect Melantha, triggering a protocol that could rewrite history. But what begins as salvation unravels into devastation as they uncover the truth behind the system’s origins and the failsafe to restore the suns. 

For Hael, redemption is no longer a question of duty–it is a sacrifice that may be the end of everything he fought to protect, and with it, the fragile light he’s come to care for in this dying galaxy. The citizens of R-39 must confront an inevitable choice: unite under the last flickers of humanity and evolve, or perish in the cruel darkness of space.