An original AI-generated sci-fi illustration on an immutable blockchain – The Bleeding World of Ventor – The planet bled light. Rivers of molten crimson snaked through the twisted terrain like the veins of some wounded titan, each pulse illuminating the lone explorer who had dared to step onto its scorched surface. Commander Rhys Ventor could feel the heat through his suit—unnatural, alive, as if the ground itself were breathing. Above him, the swollen red world loomed like a furious god, its molten scars shifting as though watching his every move. He had come in search of the lost expedition, but the structures rising from the wasteland didn’t belong to any human mission. They writhed like fossilized nightmares—towering spires fused with tendrils of metallic flesh, each dripping strands of glowing bio-circuitry. The air hummed with an otherworldly resonance, vibrating against his helmet. As Rhys approached a massive, spider-like machine in the distance, its central eye flickered open, flooding the valley with a cold, intelligent glare. A signal pulsed beneath his boots, rippling out across the crimson streams like a heartbeat. The planet answered. From the pits and ravines surrounding him, shapes began to rise—tall, skeletal silhouettes made of living circuitry, awakening at the presence of the intruder. Rhys stood alone in the heart of a world that was not dead, but dreaming—and now fully aware of him.