The moment the monster's mocking screech faded into the atmosphere, a heavy silence descended over Sanctum. A silence not of peace, but the suffocating stillness before something cataclysmic.
Iden didn't wait for the system prompt. He grabbed the emergency command crystal and activated the city-wide interlink.
[COMMAND BROADCAST – LEVEL Ω AUTHORITY]
"ALL CITIZENS OF SANCTUM. INITIATE OMEGA CODE BLACK."
"REPORT TO YOUR ASSIGNED SHELTER NODES. UNDERGROUND BUNKERS ARE NOW ACTIVE.""YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES."
The crystal in his hand pulsed once—activating the pressure-locked bunker gates in every district. Across Sanctum, civilians froze in place as the signal lit up glowing crimson glyphs on the walls of each home, each hall.
Panic was swift. But organization outpaced it.
Underneath every residential shelter, unseen by even most citizens until now, bunkers carved from reinforced mana-stone powered by buried siphon-cores began to awaken. Kael had built them under Iden's orders months ago, a silent defense for a threat they couldn't yet name.
Now, those very constructs were their last line of survival.
Nyra took charge of the southern district. Her voice echoed as she guided the last wave of people underground."Keep moving. The wards will hold if you don't panic. If you're scared, keep breathing. Sanctum's guardians haven't fallen yet."
Rael was at the medical shelter, calmly leading the elderly and injured through enchanted lifts reinforced with purified bones."Iden's watching. And so is the light," she said gently to a crying child. "So trust us. Trust him."
Iden stood before the heart of Sanctum—the Reactor Nexus.
Twelve mana reactors, each rotating with glowing power, were wired directly into the defense grid. Arlen, Kael, and three specialized builder-class skeletons worked in concert to reinforce the cooling conduits.
"Status?" Iden asked.
"We're nearing critical compression," Arlen replied, sweat on his brow. "Even the upgraded stabilizers are groaning."
"Mana viscosity is thickening," Kael added, his spectral hand glowing as he analyzed the central lines. "It's like the air itself is resisting containment."
The screens began pulsing amber.One reactor had already passed 90% load. Another two weren't far behind.
[SYSTEM WARNING]Mana Core Integrity Threshold ApproachingCatastrophic Overload Possible in 12 Hours
"I need something," Iden said, eyes locked on the swirling vortex inside the main reactor chamber. "Something that can consume mana at a rate fast enough to stabilize these levels—and weaponize it."
Arlen pulled up a schematic they had discussed only in theory.
"Remember the discarded prototype?""The Displacer Cannon?""No," Arlen said, bringing up another—older, darker, half-sketched blueprint.
"Project: Fallout.""The one we buried when we thought the Big One was enough."
Iden looked at it now. The concept was chilling.It wasn't a projectile weapon.It was a mana siphon that would refract the atmospheric flow of a 10-kilometer radius and condense it into a living orbital payload—capable of forming 200 autonomous airborne constructs, each carrying a version of the Big One. Not from storage, but directly forged from ambient energy.
"Reactor load is exactly what we need," Arlen said. "We build the weapon out of the overload itself."
Directive Logged
[NEW SUPERWEAPON DEVELOPMENT QUEUED]Name:Fallout – Skies of SalvationProgress: 1%Requirements: Mana Reactor Nexus Sync + Schematic Finalization + Reinforced Launch Grid
Cooldown Post-Activation:14 Days of Local Mana Starvation
Remaining Mana After Activation: ~10% (Regional)
Outside Sanctum's gate, the clouds were starting to rot.Tzakaroth hadn't moved from its perch near the shattered frostline… but now it watched.
Its corruption percentage ticked upward.
[UPDATED THREAT READOUT]
Tzakaroth – Corruption Level: 43.1%
(Projected Evolution in 48 Hours if Unchecked)
Iden turned to Kael. "I want training shifted to anti-omega tactics. Focus on resistive shielding and mana-piercing rounds."
"To kill it?"
"No," Iden said coldly. "To survive long enough to build what can."