The war horn's cry didn't echo—it resonated, like a faultline being shattered across time itself.
Twelve long notes. One for each of the final bastions that still stood. One for every continent left clinging to fractured space. One for every year of survival under cosmic siege.
And when the final note fell silent, it was as if the world itself exhaled.
But the silence didn't last.
Within seconds, the sky ripped.
Reality fractured, like cracked glass beneath unseen pressure. Across every continent, in every sky, towering shadows surged like boiling ink. The Cradle Tear had begun to open—splitting the final boundary between the corrupted remains of old Earth and the new realm waiting beyond.
But nothing would be granted freely. The final enemy would not allow escape.
From the fractured sky above Sanctum, the first descent began.
Black thunder. Red lightning.Howls without mouths.Weapons shaped like sins.
And at the center of it all—The Architect.
The battlefield was chosen.
The Origin Ring—an artificial valley of jagged mountains and crystalized tectonic debris. It had once been a rift. Now, it would be the world's crucible.
Iden stood at its highest peak, looking down as millions of corrupted beasts surged from across the breach, forming a semi-sentient storm of chaos and mass. Eyes opened in the sky. Wings folded in space.
He raised his hand.
"Deploy Skeleton Armada—Sectors 1 to 40."
Across the horizon, portals split wide. Hundreds of millions of skeletal warriors marched in lockstep, bearing weaponry no mortal kingdom had ever dared dream.
Each of them bore marks of evolution:– Fractureborn plating.– Soulweave conduits.– Core-bound weapon arrays.
Every step shook the fractured crust of the dying world.
From the western mountain lines, Kael took his position with the Tyrant Ascendants—undead juggernauts each the size of a fortress, commanding skybound siege cannons aimed at the tear.
"All siege arrays locked. Prepare impact stabilization."
Rael, elevated on a disk of radiant mana above the highest spire, began chanting the Final Resonance Hymn—the last defense dome, made not of barriers, but purpose. It was designed to hold for 10 minutes.
Ten minutes to escape.Ten minutes to survive.Ten minutes to reach the gate.
Beside her floated a sealed mana conduit. Its name: Vowlock, the ring that would only open if Iden survived the battle.
And then—it began.
The enemy surged.
Waves of abyss-forged titans.Celestial aberrants who mimicked gods.Corrupted guardians of lost kingdoms.Shardborn machines from the first planetary collapse.
The sky turned red. The air screamed.
And Sanctum answered.
"FIRE CROWN SHARD BATTERIES!"
"LAUNCH FLAMESTRIKE CORES!"
"SHIELD FRONTLINE—SECTOR EIGHT COLLAPSING!"
The ground became ash and plasma. Bones broke and reformed within seconds. Flamestorms mixed with divine lightning as Rael channeled sanctified bombardment from orbit.
Skeletons burned. Beasts melted. Space folded.
And yet—the enemy kept coming.
Somewhere in the storm, Nyra danced like a phantom, her twin blades glowing blue-white as she cleaved through elites twice her size. Each kill became an echo that fueled Iden's command network.
Every wound healed as long as Iden stood.
But then—a tremor struck beyond comprehension.
The sky tore wider.
The breach pulsed.
And from the far side of the storm—A shape descended.
The Architect.Cloaked in living metal. Eyes formed of orbiting stars.It walked as if gravity bent around it. It spoke in no tongue. But every soul on the battlefield heard its voice.
"You were never meant to last this long."
"But if you must rise—then I will be the one to lay you down."
Iden stood atop the burning cliffs, his cape half-torn, his blade drawn, and his core pulsing at full overload. The air bent around him.
"Come, then," he whispered."Let's end the world together."
And in that instant—he charged.
[NOTIFICATION – SANCTUM OMEGA PROTOCOLS INITIATED]
All forces engaged at maximum.Escape window: 7 minutes.Iden Status: CORE LOCKED IN COMBAT.
Architect: Scanning complete.
ALERT: Threat Classification – [ENTITY: 001 – BEAST OF THE SEVEN TRIALS]
Identity match confirmed.
[REVELATION: ARCHITECT = FIRST BEAST ENCOUNTERED AT TOWER OF SEVEN TRIALS]
The battlefield froze—for just a breath.
And then the screams began again.