Location: Sector 3, The Forge (Control Spire).
Time: 04:00.
The factory hummed. It wasn't the grinding, screaming noise of the Vulcan anymore. It was a rhythmic, electronic beat—a high-tempo pulse that vibrated in the chest. Glitch was playing upbeat chiptune music through the city-wide PA system while he worked, turning the apocalypse into a rave.
"Printing is... fun?" Glitch's voice boomed, skipping happily between octaves.
"Just keep the extruders running," Dante said, watching the holographic map table. His new Star-Metal arm rested on the console, heavy and cold.
The map showed the southern border of Sector 3. The White Void was eating the landscape. It moved silently, erasing hills, pipes, and old ruins. It was a tidal wave of non-existence. Where it passed, the world simply... wasn't.
"We have two hours before it hits the main processing plant," Aurum reported via hologram from the Enclave, his face pale in the blue light. "The material cost is astronomical, Dante. We are using the entire mineral reserve of the Industrial Zone. This will bankrupt the sector. We are literally burning money."
"If we get erased, the reserve doesn't matter," Dante countered. "Glitch, initiate the print."
The ground of Sector 3 shook.
Massive extruder arms—usually used to build starship hulls for the Old Empire—rose from the depths of the earth. There were thousands of them, stretching in a line across the southern horizon like the ribs of a giant. They were fed by rivers of molten Star-Metal, the alloy created by the Forge (Fifth Axiom) mixed with the adamantine scrap of the World-Eater.
"Mortis," Dante said into his comms. "You're up."
In the Necropolis (Sector 5), Mortis sat on his throne of bone. He held the Fourth Axiom (The Lantern) in his lap.
"I am ready," the Necromancer rasped. "Sending the binding agent. The glue of the soul."
A beam of green soul-fire shot from the Necropolis, arching across the sky like a spectral rainbow. It slammed into the molten metal rivers of Sector 3, infusing the alloy with screaming faces.
"Dante," Valerius warned, shielding his eyes from the glare. "The heat... it is intense. The air is distorting."
Dante stepped onto the balcony of the spire. He raised his Star-Metal hand (Fifth Axiom) and his Mechanical Arm (First Axiom).
"Axiom Fusion: The Immutable Barrier."
He poured his own mana—Entropy—into the mix.
Usually, Entropy breaks things. But Dante inverted the principle. He used Entropy to freeze the state of the metal. He locked the atoms in place so rigidly that they could not be changed. Not by time. Not by heat. And hopefully, not by Deletion. He made the wall "Dead" in the most absolute sense.
The extruder arms began to move.
They didn't build a wall brick by brick. They printed it in continuous layers, moving with the speed of a machine god.
A wall of black, shimmering Star-Metal rose from the earth. It was thick—five hundred meters of solid alloy. It was tall—piercing the smog layer and reaching for the stratosphere.
It didn't look like stone. It looked like the night sky frozen into a solid block. Green veins of soul-magic pulsed deep within the black metal, acting as a spiritual reinforcement—giving the wall a "Concept of Existence" that could not be easily ignored.
"It's working," Valerius gasped, watching the structure rise. "It is rising faster than the Void."
"Glitch is overclocking the fabricators," Dante said, sweat dripping from his nose as he held the Entropy-Lock. "He's burning out the assembly lines to get this done. We only get one shot at this."
The White Void arrived.
It didn't crash. It didn't roar. It simply slid against the new wall.
Usually, matter would vanish instantly.
But the Star-Metal Wall held.
The White Light hit the black metal and hissed. Sparks of reality flew off the surface—purple and black fractures in space-time. The Void tried to delete the metal, but the Soul-Binding held the concept of "Existence" in place, and the Entropy-Lock prevented the state change required for deletion.
The Void rippled, like water hitting a dam. It flowed sideways, looking for a weak point.
It found none. The wall stretched across the entire southern border, a monolithic shield of defiance against the end of the world.
"IMPOSSIBLE."
The voice came from the sky. It was perfectly calm, perfectly terrified. It was The Zealot.
"MATTER IS FLAWED. WHY DOES IT PERSIST?"
Dante grabbed the microphone of the control spire.
"Because we built it to last!" Dante shouted at the sky, his voice amplified by the factory speakers until it shook the clouds. "You can delete the accident, Lucian! But you can't delete the Design!"
The White Void receded slightly. It had hit a hard limit. The expansion stopped. The wall stood black and absolute against the blinding white.
"We did it," Aurum cheered from the speakers. "The market stabilizes! The assets are secure!"
Dante collapsed against the railing. He felt heavy. The Star-Metal arm felt like it weighed a ton, dragging him down.
"It's a stalemate," Dante whispered, breathing hard. "We bought time. But we can't stay behind this wall forever. Eventually, he'll figure out how to debug the code."
He looked at the Hammer tattoo on his hand. He looked at the vast, industrial wasteland of Sector 3.
"We have the defense. Now... we need an offense."