A summary of Roman Prokofiev’s "Stellar:
Ephemeral"

This book is the seventh installment in a sprawling fantasy saga, written in 2021. The text reveals the grave consequences of past decisions, proving that gaining power requires enormous sacrifice. The novel’s protagonist confronts the ghosts of his previous life, attempting to right the wrongs of bygone eras.

Academy and the secrets of the orbital

Gray, the new reincarnation of the legendary Grand Legate Prometheus, is actively training his hand-to-hand combat skills. Classes are held at the Timus Academy. Mentor Raven proves to the hero that without his azuric abilities, he is extremely vulnerable. The Incarnators are preparing an operational reserve of the Cube’s reset criminals. They plan to re-land on the Black Moon in exactly one year.

After completing his training, Gray travels to the Zvezda space station. Arachne, whose consciousness has completely merged with the orbital’s systems, has taken up residence there. She shows the hero the cryptor of the murdered leader of the Cat Clan, which contains the soul of Gray’s ally, Mora. Arachne also demonstrates the surviving equipment of ancient Utopia — the Transformation Cauldron for creating new Incarnators. To operate it, there is a critical shortage of brahma particles — an experimental "living matter."

Arachne invites Gray into a virtual reality. They find themselves on a picturesque tropical beach. The possessed woman openly explains the launch of the Incarnation Protocol after the fall of the Shards. It is revealed that the first emissaries of the Star sacrificed the lives of one hundred thousand ordinary people. Stellar took their souls to create one hundred and forty-four thousand immortal soldiers.

The Battle for Legacy

Returning to the City, the hero convenes a tribunal of the First Legion. The Incarnators judge former rebels and traitors: Orpheus, Furius, Amber, and others. The most dangerous criminals are stripped of their memories and sent to Timus as simple recruits. Stalker, the Legate of the Seventh Cohort, provides Gray with new information. Reserves of "living matter" can be found in the secret bases of the closed corporate project "Aurora."

Gray recalls the Aurora’s Master Key. He found it on the dead body of Legate Lionface in the nest of a giant roc. The team decides to return to the mountains near Fort Angelo. The Incarnators discover the nest has been ravaged by a powerful mutant — a purple skink. The mechanically enhanced reptile was sent by unknown mercenaries.

Together with Stalker and Tuman, the hero destroys a poisonous monster. Gray finds a poisoned adult roc and uses A-energy to heal the bird. A mental connection forms between Ink and the feathered creature. Meanwhile, the squad discovers a hidden Aurora bunker beneath the ruins of an ancient observatory. The heroes recover a small batch of brahma particles and obtain the coordinates of other restricted facilities.

The squad follows the trail and finds a mercenary camp. It turns out that hunters from the Cat Clan have kidnapped a roc chick. Gray offers a fair trade, but the traders flatly refuse. Suddenly, their hired bodyguard appears — the renowned Incarnator Horus of the Dragon Clan. He hates Prometheus with all his heart for destroying his brethren in the distant past. A brutal battle ensues. Horus summons a colossal azure serpent. An adult roc, healed by Gray, flies in to protect the chick. The colossal bird slays the phantom monster, but Horus unleashes his devastating "Dragon Claws" skill. The feathered predator dies, cleaved by energy blasts.

Gray engages Horus in close combat. The enemy pierces the hero’s armor and prepares to deliver the killing blow. At the critical moment, a young roc, escaping from its cage, distracts Horus. Gray uses the disintegration beam from the Hand of Prometheus, disintegrating the enemy. The hero takes the valuable Golden Dragon genome and saves the fledgling.

In the depths of machine intelligence

The squad’s next target is a gigantic underground Polaris Corporation factory. The underground city has been captured by Prime, a single machine intelligence creating hordes of mechanical monsters. Clearing the upper levels is progressing slowly. The machines resist fiercely, using durable carrach armor and continuous, massive attacks. Gray proposes a bold plan. Using "living matter" and a wrist replicator, he creates the geohod "Midgard." This compact drilling machine allows the hero to bore a path through the rock directly to the lowest, tenth level. After melting through the rock, the geohod collapses into a colossal cavern.

Prime concentrates his main forces there. Thousands of robots merge using arteries made of brahma particles. They form a gigantic mechanical monster that takes Gray captive. Normal abilities inflict no damage on the enemy. The hero implants the dangerous genome of Ahriman the Devourer into his body. This allows him to absorb other souls and destroy azuric bonds. Gray drains Prime’s energy, destroying the machine intelligence from within. During this process, Ink sees the memories of the artificial intelligence. He learns that the Aurora Project was created to synthesize artificial souls — ontoprions — uncontrolled by the Star’s coordinators. By defeating Prime, the hero receives millions of units of A-energy and over ten tons of "living matter."

Meeting with aliens

Gray returns to Timus Academy. He summons three reset tributes: Scorch, Fury, and Icepaw. The hero tasks them with traveling to the orbital Ringworld to search for the lost Project Cosmo arkships. If successful, he promises to restore their old names and blocked memories. Gray himself flies to the snowy Fiordas at the south pole, riding a grown roc. The Incarnator searches for the Starshot, Prometheus’s secret superweapon. As they approach the massive alien ship "Sower," the hero is attacked by the powerful mental field of Bin Shi’s swarm.

A little girl emerges from a snowstorm. She transforms into Sophia, the Supermonad and the new Mother of the alien swarm. Sophia explains that the aliens want to leave Earth. They need to return to space to battle the entity Shard, which is consuming worlds with Darkness. To launch the ship, they need the Stellar System Core. Gray agrees to hand over the Core in exchange for working together to clear the Black Moon.

The True Face of Prometheus

Sofia instantly transports Grey to a massive ice cavern. Hidden within is the Starshot, a surviving fragment of a collapsed space station housing an orbital cannon. The hero disables the force field with the Hand. Suddenly, he is attacked by a guard at the facility. It is an ephemeral — an exact physical replica of the original Prometheus. The duplicate possesses the original’s combat skills and easily defeats Grey in a brutal fight. It then activates a neural seal in the hero’s brain. The ephemeral initiates the process of erasing the current personality, instilling the original Prometheus consciousness into Grey’s body. Miko’s neural network, obeying the Grand Legate’s old protocols, is permanently disabled.

Gray is on the brink of total annihilation. The process suddenly stops. A fragment of the true Prometheus, dormant deep within the hero’s subconscious, overrides the ephemeral’s command. Gray regains control of his body and impales the doppelganger with the Devourer’s azure claw. The ephemeral disintegrates, transferring its last memories to the hero. Gray learns the true nature of the monster Daath and the terrible price that must be paid for future victory.