The ninth year began not with fire—but with silence.
Across the splintered fragments of the shattered Earth, life continued not by hope, but by momentum. Cities once reduced to bones of steel had grown back—patched with soulsteel, laced with crystallized mana, and veined with the circuits of old-world memory.
Above them, the fractured sky shimmered in unstable hues. Blue. Red. Void. And then, silver. A sign. A warning.
They had entered the final year.
Atop Sanctum's highest tower, Iden stood alone, his arms behind his back, overlooking the world he had helped keep breathing. His obsidian armor gleamed faintly in the morning fog. Beneath his feet stretched the vast expanse of his army—1.4 billion skeletal units, categorized, disciplined, and upgraded beyond imagination.
Every day for the last year, these undead had trained—not to grow stronger, but to survive the end.
"The Core Cradle will open," said Kael, joining him on the tower."One way or another… this cycle ends."
"Then we make sure it ends on our terms."
Rael, now a glowing beacon of divine resonance, stood in the crystalline gardens of the Remnant Grove, her hand gently resting on the lone tree grown from the soil of pre-cataclysm Earth.
The Echo Tree. It bloomed with silver blossoms now. Blossoms that only bloomed in years when death was close.
"It's blooming again," whispered Kael, arriving behind her."Do you think it knows?"
Rael looked at him and smiled softly.
"It always knew."
They didn't speak after that. Not in words. Only in memory. And in the unshakable rhythm of two souls bound by war.
Meanwhile, in the heart of Sanctum, within the command citadel, the final global summit was convened. Factions long at odds now sat shoulder-to-shoulder:The Skyburned Clans. The Eastern Riftwalkers. The Silent Choir. Even the exiled Abyssforged.Each had lost cities. Each had buried millions. Each had nowhere else to go.
Iden stood before them—tall, calm, with shadows behind his eyes and fire beneath his voice.
"Ten years. That's how long we endured.""You all know what comes next. The Final Tear will open. The world will burn.""The Cradle waits, but it does not offer safety. Only a gate."
"In the end, it is not the gods who will choose who enters.""It's us."
Then he took a slow breath.
"And when that final gate opens…""I will marry."
The hall went still.
Iden looked to the side, where Nyra stood, silent but unwavering. Her hand didn't tremble. Her heart did.
"I don't ask for blessings," Iden said."Only that my sister walk beside me on that day."
Rael, watching from above, didn't answer then. She vanished from the chamber.
That night, beneath the Echo Tree, Rael found Iden waiting, watching the blossoms fall.
"You kept your word," she said.
"Will you walk beside me?" Iden asked softly."Not just as Sanctum's light. But as my sister. On the day I make my vow."
Rael didn't smile. She didn't cry. She just nodded.
"I will."
Then she handed him a ring, forged from shattered stardust.
"Then give this to her. When the final war ends. If you still live."
Iden closed his fingers around the ring.
"I will."
The preparations continued.
Mana reactors entered Overload Sync Mode.
Last-generation dreadnoughts were constructed from the remains of fallen gods.
The newly awakened Sentient Colossus, Gravemind-Ω, accepted Iden's command.
The final evacuation protocols were mapped—where those who survived would teleport with their cities, tech, and memory into the new world.
Every soul in Sanctum carried a seed crystal now—bound to their essence. When the gate opened, their memory would go with them.
On the final day of preparation, the horn was mounted.
The Last War Horn—forged in the fire of the first Abyssal Rift. Coated in bone from the First Beast. Whispered into by all twelve living Warlords.
Kael stood at the gate, holding it.
He looked back only once—at Rael, then Nyra, then Iden.
"For Terra," he said."For tomorrow."
And then—he blew the horn.
The world shuddered.
The stars dimmed.
And the fractured skies cracked—bleeding red light.
[FINAL WORLD QUEST – THE MEMORY OF EARTH: PART VI – INITIATING]
Time Until Dimensional Breach: 13 Days