The sky itself seemed to bleed.
An aurora of corrupted mana swirled around the towering monstrosity that had once been sealed beneath layers of mana-sealed bedrock. Now, those chains had long been shattered.
Tzakaroth, the Prime Omega-tier Beast, had fully awakened.
The abomination twisted into the sky—a fusion of wyrm, root, and godlike entity. Dozens of fragmented aetheric eyes blinked open across its body, tracking something beyond vision. With each twitch of its claws, reality bent. Its voice didn't just echo—it warped time.
[SYSTEM ALERT – CLASSIFICATION: PRIME OMEGA-TIER THREAT DETECTED]
Threat: Tzakaroth Prime
Distance from Sanctum: 156 km
Estimated Arrival Time: 33 Minutes
Inside the war-forged heart of the Sanctum stronghold, silence had fallen.
No one spoke.
No one needed to.
The launch sequence had already begun.
[FALLOUT – LAUNCH SYSTEM ONLINE]
Construct Status: 200/200 Pre-Launch Charging]
Estimated Time Until Full Deployment: 00:30:00
Time Remaining: 00:29:42
Steam vented from the mana core converters beneath the chamber. Kael and Arlen were fine-tuning the flow equations, rerouting auxiliary mana reserves into the relay grid. The arcane reactors pulsed faster than ever before—on the edge of critical saturation.
Iden stood at the control platform, holding a sealed obsidian orb in his hand. The trigger. The final command.
A bead of sweat ran down his cheek as he stared at the pulsating mana lines connecting to the sky silos.
His breath was steady.
His heartbeat wasn't.
Nyra stood under the moonlight outside the reinforced control dome, the winds of Sanctum tugging at her silver-black hair. Her familiar was beside her, quietly watching the horizon.
Footsteps approached.
Iden.
She didn't turn until he stood next to her.
They stared silently into the distance, toward the growing storm of corrupted energy.
"Do you think we'll survive this?" she asked softly.
Iden didn't answer right away. His eyes were calm, but distant.
"Only if we finish what we started."
Nyra gave him a sideways glance, then stepped closer.
"Then if we do survive…"
She paused. Her usual smirk absent.
"…stay with me, Iden. Not as a Commander. Just as you."
He turned, startled for a fraction of a second.
Her hand brushed against his.
The warmth was real—even in the middle of impending doom.
He nodded.
"I will. I promise."
Rael helped a family of villagers into the final lower chamber. Then, as if feeling something behind her, she turned.
Kael stood at the entrance, quiet, pale, dust on his armor.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
Finally, she broke the silence.
"I told you not to push your summons this hard."
"And I told you," he smiled faintly, "that I'd keep you safe, remember?"
She looked away.
Then stepped forward.
And hugged him.
Tightly.
"If we live…" her voice trembled, "You're not leaving me behind again. Got it?"
Kael blinked.
"Got it," he whispered.
Back inside, Iden walked in just in time to see Rael return from the shelter tunnel, her expression brightened and… glowing.
She smiled at Kael.
Iden frowned. Then blinked.
Wait. What?Since when were they this close?
Kael glanced over. Met Iden's stare.And just gave a small, awkward shrug.
"…What the hell did I miss?" Iden muttered.
Nyra chuckled next to him. "Apparently, a lot."
Dozens of Fallout constructs now hovered in formation.
200 apex skeletal sky-constructs, each armed with Big One-class warheads and mini nuke-tipped cluster payloads of their own.
Their wings rippled with mana filaments as they hovered like silent reapers above the mountains.
[Constructs 01–200: Mana Sync 94%]
Regional Mana Drain: 90%… 85%… 78%…
The very air shimmered. The sky had gone darker than midnight.
[Time Remaining: 00:15:00]
Far away, the world cracked.
Tzakaroth opened one of his ten maws and vomited a tide of black flame that scorched mountains off the map. The mana storm above him formed an inverted spiral, drawing in corrupted souls.
And then—he moved faster.
Distance from Sanctum: 87 km
Everyone gathered.
Kael, Arlen, Nyra, Rael, the Tyrants, even Iden's earliest skeletons—now evolved, armored, and braced for extinction-level war.
Iden stepped forward to the launch pad.
"This is it," he said quietly.
He held the trigger orb.
The symbol on it pulsed once.
"No turning back."
He looked at Nyra.
At Rael.
At Kael.
"If I fall… the rest of you survive."
Rael immediately slapped his arm."You idiot, that's my line."
Everyone smiled.
For the last time.
Iden lifted the orb and whispered:
"Bring the silence."
And crushed it.