An original AI-generated sci-fi illustration on an immutable blockchain – The Sentinel of Ruin – Under the blood-lit sky of Vargus IX, the creature rose from the crimson lake as if the planet itself were exhaling a forgotten nightmare. Its skeletal form towered over the jagged spires, robes of decay trailing behind it like drifting ash. White, hollow eyes gleamed with an ancient hunger, reflecting the twin moons that watched its return with silent dread. The air trembled around it, rippling outward in concentric waves that warped the surface of the poison lake. Legends whispered that this being was once a guardian—a sentinel forged from cosmic dust and sworn to protect the realm between life and death. But when the stars shifted and the ancient seals crumbled, its purpose twisted. Now it wanders the desolate plains, searching for the echoes of the souls it once guided, its jagged claws scratching the ground as if reading the scars of a forgotten universe. Each step it takes stirs the dust of the long-dead civilizations that once worshiped it. A lone scout, orbiting above in a dying shuttle, watched the scene unfold on trembling monitors. He had come seeking answers about the lost colonies, but instead found a relic older than memory itself rising again. As the creature tilted its head toward the sky, the scout felt its gaze pierce through steel, space, and sanity. He understood then that the planet was not abandoned—it had simply been waiting. And now, the sentinel of ruin had awakened to reclaim what was left.