The catacomb nodes drew together in the dark above Terria, their heads locking against one another until they formed a vast hexagon, and the separate streams of their fire condensed into a single beam aimed straight at the Tarstenia. The only thing standing between that beam and the ship was Tethys. It was unlike any of the other Fallen Units. Clad in blood-crimson armor, it hung proud and monstrous against the void, its upper body almost bare of plating — nothing but a jutting chest and an angular head split by a single wide silver visor. Its lower half was another matter entirely. Its legs flared out like mechanical wings, sheathed in a second layer of heavy plating that swept close along them and braced the enormous rifle it now held level against the node formation. The rifle's beam met the catacombs' fire head-on, and against every expectation, it held.
Inside the cockpit, Leon watched the two streams of light grind against each other a few hundred meters ahead of him and grinned. "This unit has exceeded every expectation I had," he muttered. "To think a mere Orbiton could hold back this much firepower… Now I see why they were so confident it could rival a God Unit."
The grin didn't last. Something moved at the edge of his vision. Hyperion was crossing the orbit at light speed, flashing into existence in front of one node after another until every one of them had turned its fire on it. Countless beams of light streamed after the machine as it glided along the curve of the planet. Then it turned sharply and climbed back toward open space. From Leon's cockpit it looked as though Hyperion had sprouted wings, hundreds of burning lines trailing behind it like feathers made of light. He frowned. "What the hell is that guy doing!?"
Just beyond the edge of the atmosphere, Hyperion vanished. It reappeared a heartbeat later directly in front of the giant formation Tethys was holding back. Every beam that had been chasing it swung toward its new position at once and came tearing through space, racing straight for its back. Inside the cockpit, the strain of the jump had taken its toll on Larsen. Blood ran from his eye and from his nose, and the warning lights painted his face red. He smirked anyway.
"Let me give you a taste of this newfound power," he said, half to the machine and half to himself. "Alright, Hyperion. Time to show these motherfuckers the devil is back."
Hyperion's hands began to glow a bright, burning yellow. The light crept up its arms and spread across its frame until it had swallowed the whole machine, folding inward into a single sphere of condensed light that hung in the very midst of the node formation, as bright as anything in the sky. Larsen's voice went out across every open channel, calm in spite of the blood in his mouth.
"Bear witness, Terrians. This is a sun of my own creation — and I'll be the one to burn your skies, the way you burned the one in my heart."
Then the node beams struck the sphere.
In a flash, the void around Terria turned white. Everyone who had been watching Hyperion was blinded in the same instant. "What the hell—!" Leon managed, before the light swallowed his vision completely.
"No — Lars!" Roxie shouted across the comms.
"What is that idiot doing!?" Patricia cried.
No one had time to say anything more. The moment the light died, a massive explosion erupted across Terria's orbit. It rolled over the whole of one side of the planet and buried it beneath a vast cloud of smoke, and for a few long seconds every channel was filled with nothing but static.
"Larsen, what did you do!?" Serin's voice finally broke through.
"What you asked me to," Larsen answered. His breathing was slow and ragged. "I showed them my fire. The one fire they can't put out."
There was a short silence on the line. "I understand," Serin said, her voice dropping low. "You can rest now. We'll take it from here."
"Hey, Valis?" he asked faintly.
"What is it, Lars?"
He smiled, his face slick with blood, his head resting back against the seat. "I told you. I've got a sun in my pocket."
Serin smiled at that in spite of herself. Then she turned to Dellor, and the smile was gone. "The door is wide open. We can make our entrance now."
Slowly, the smoke over Terria began to thin. Through it drifted the fragments of shattered nodes, tumbling end over end through the dark — broken pieces of what had once been the Empire's pride and its guardian. For as long as anyone could remember, the catacombs had watched over Terria, and no enemy had ever come close to breaching them. Now they were gone, destroyed by one man: Larsen Steelspear, the devil of seven years ago, who had come back to hunt the Empire once again.
Back on Terria, minutes before the explosion, Leonora was still being held inside the Central Building. With the Emperor's new orders and the declaration of martial law, Vesir had no choice but to release her. That didn't mean he had any intention of leaving her side, not until they reached the war room at the Royal Palace. He walked a step behind her like a servant trailing his master, his hands folded neatly behind his back. Leonora turned to look at him, and the disgust on her face was impossible to miss. Whatever duty he claimed to be doing, she knew there was something else hiding behind those glasses. Vesir was a predator, and one who didn't mind waiting for his prey.
"Who do you think you're looking at with those creepy eyes?" she snapped.
Composed as ever, Vesir smiled. "At one of our best generals. And, if I may say so, one of the finest women the Empire has to offer."
Leonora turned on him in an instant and seized him by the throat, her disgust feeding straight into her rage. "I could tear you to pieces right here," she said quietly. "Thank His Highness, and the situation we're in. If it weren't for that, I'd feed you to my dogs."
Vesir stood perfectly still in her grip. He didn't struggle, and he didn't reach for her wrist. His cheeks only flushed a faint, visible pink. He was enjoying it. That made her angrier than anything he could have said, and she shoved him away from her as though she had touched something rotten.
By then they had reached the entrance of the Central Building. Before she could take another step, a blinding light swallowed the whole structure, followed by an explosion that shook every inch of Terrian soil. Leonora was thrown off her feet. She lay on the cold floor with her head in her hands while the aftershock rolled through the building and a piercing ring filled her ears, drowning out everything else. Slowly she pushed herself up. She picked her way over fallen glass and broken stone toward the open doors, one unsteady step at a time.
When she finally stepped outside, what she saw was something she would never forget. The blue sky over Terria was gone. In its place hung a darkness so deep and so complete that it looked like the void itself.