King Felix II and Knight-Captain Rhea were on the cusp of reaching the Northern Wastelands border, watching the distant horizon glow with the catastrophic energy of the escalating war.
They found a concealed vantage point and risked a brief activation of a low-power, non-directional sensor. The news was devastating.
[SYSTEM ALERT: REGIONAL FLOW NET COLLAPSE DETECTED. HIGH-AESTHETIC DESTRUCTION IMMINENT.]
"They are hitting the cities, Sire," Rhea whispered, her face pale. "Lunio's Purity Magic is devastating, but look at the energy signature of the failures... it's not the enemy's attack that's failing the shields, it's the shields themselves."
The war was going exactly according to Evelyn's destructive design.
Back at the capital, the war had reached its first critical turning point. The Holy Kingdom of Lunio launched a massive, coordinated counter-attack on the border city of Aethelgard—a critical industrial hub.
Chief Evelyn (RC), acting as the flawless Commander-in-Chief, ordered the deployment of the city's primary defense: the Grand Flow-Shield Array. This shield required immense, coordinated Flow energy and was designed to repel any magical attack, be it Lunio's Purity or even a rogue Ego-Cultivator's Contempt.
"Deploy the Array! All Flow assets, synchronize the defense!" Evelyn commanded, her voice calm and authoritative, masking the triumph in her heart.
The array surged to life, a beautiful, multi-hued dome of aesthetic energy. But then, the sabotage took hold.
Evelyn, anticipating this moment for two centuries, had built a single, microscopic Flow-Draining Node into the Array's core programming. It was invisible to all diagnostics.
As the Flow-Shield attempted to absorb Lunio's Purity Magic, the Node activated, not to block the Flow, but to invert and drain the shield's own internal energy.
The effect was instantaneous and catastrophic.
The shield didn't just fail; it collapsed inward, creating a vortex of raw, uncontained aesthetic energy that tore through the city. The beautiful, multi-hued energy dome turned into a terrifying, collapsing singularity of color and light.
Thousands of loyal citizens were caught in the Aesthetic Implosion. The city of Aethelgard was functionally erased, not by Lunio's attack, but by the failed defense designed by the very person leading the war.
The catastrophic failure was witnessed live by the Command Center. For the loyalist Generals and Lord Reginald (GCVTD), the shock was profound.
Logical Breakdown: The Grand Flow-Shield was considered infallible. Its failure could not be attributed to Lunio's brute force magic; the failure was internal and absolute.
The King's Warning: Felix's final, desperate message—"The Shadow is inside the palace"—now resonated with terrifying clarity.
The Sacrifice: Evelyn's immediate reaction was not horror, but clinical redirection. "Aethelgard is a loss. Focus all remaining resources on the next strategic target! We cannot afford sentiment!"
General Theron, a highly decorated and fiercely loyal commander, slammed his fist onto the console. "Chief Strategist! That failure was systemic! It was sabotage! You dismissed the King's warning, and now Aethelgard is ashes!"
Evelyn turned to the General, her eyes cold and devoid of fear. "General Theron, your focus is compromised by grief. You are creating dissent in a time of crisis."
The General's public, voiced suspicion created an immediate schism. Evelyn had achieved her chaos, but she had also created the first organized threat to her internal control. The Loyalists—those who still believed in Felix—were now actively suspicious of their Commander-in-Chief.
Felix, witnessing the destruction from afar via the sensor trace, felt a deep, wrenching pain. He had failed his people.
"She is burning the bridges, Rhea," Felix said, his voice flat. "That failure was no mistake. She just eliminated thousands of lives and created a massive political crisis, all to speed up the end. She wants the Imperium destroyed."
He crumpled the Confession scroll, now more determined than ever. "The loyalists will now be looking for a new leader, and that leader cannot be me. I need information, allies, and a weapon that Evelyn never factored into her equation."
"The Nomads are our only hope," Rhea agreed. "We must find them, and we must find a way back into the Imperium before Evelyn can consolidate full control."
They descended into the un-aesthetic void of the Northern Wastelands, leaving the burning remnants of the Flow-World behind them, knowing that the war they left was being won by the person they were trying to defeat.