The golden pyramid—the World-Harvester—hovered over the Atlantic like a silent judge. Its shadow covered the entire Port of Casablanca, turning the afternoon into a premature, golden-tinted night.
"All units, engage!" Director Marouane's voice crackled over the comms.
From the roof of the Emporium, Omar watched as hundreds of hunters, equipped with his new [Eye of Truth] gear, soared into the sky on mana-gliders. It looked like a swarm of hornets attacking a mountain.
"Kaelen, activate the Sovereign Array," Omar commanded.
The tower of the Emporium groaned as its obsidian plates shifted. The massive cannon Omar had formed—the [Void-Breaker]—began to glow with a dark, pulsating violet light. It wasn't drawing energy from the earth; it was sucking the very "concept" of light from the surrounding air.
"Master, the weapon is at 80%," Kaelen reported, his spectral hands merged with the shop's control core. "But the Harvester is launching its 'Cleaning Crew'."
From the base of the golden pyramid, thousands of white spheres detached themselves. They weren't ships; they were Sentinels—automated killing machines that could erase a human's mana-signature with a single touch.
"Yuki, Vance! Keep those spheres off the tower!" Omar roared into his headset. "If they hit the forge, we're all dead!"
Yuki, the Japanese Blade-Mistress, became a blur of silver. Her katana, now coated in the Herald's Gold Omar had sold her, sliced through the spheres like they were made of paper. But for every ten she destroyed, a hundred more appeared.
"Omar! We can't hold them forever!" General Vance yelled as his tanks on the ground fired mana-shells that barely dented the Harvester's hull.
"I only need ten more seconds!" Omar's eyes were bloodshot. He was pouring his own soul-essence into the cannon.
Suddenly, a massive beam of golden light shot out from the pyramid, aimed directly at the Hassan II Mosque.
"No!" Laila screamed.
Omar didn't hesitate. He used [Shadow-Step Flash], but on a massive scale. He didn't move himself—he moved the Space in front of the beam.
[Skill Used: Dimensional Displacement.]
[Cost: 40% of Merchant's Soul Pool.]
The golden beam hit an invisible ripple in the air and was redirected harmlessly into the ocean, vaporizing millions of gallons of water in a split second.
"My turn," Omar whispered, his voice trembling with the strain. "Fire!"
The Void-Breaker cannon roared. A beam of pure blackness—absolute nothingness—shot out from the Emporium. It didn't explode when it hit the pyramid. It deleted it.
A massive, circular hole appeared in the side of the Harvester. The golden geometry of the ship began to crumble. But it wasn't enough to bring it down.
"It's regenerating!" Laila gasped. "The code... it's fixing itself!"
Omar looked at the hole, then at his hands. He realized that as long as the Harvester was connected to the Architects' server, it could never be destroyed from the outside.
"Laila, Kaelen... stay here and defend the shop," Omar said, grabbing his spear.
"What are you doing?" Laila grabbed his arm.
"I'm going to do what I do best," Omar smirked, though he was pale as a ghost. "I'm going inside to make a 'Final Sale'. I'm going to offer the Harvester a deal it can't refuse: Its life in exchange for its Core."
Before she could protest, Omar jumped off the roof. He didn't fall. He used the momentum of the Void-Breaker's blast to propel himself through the air, a lone black speck flying into the heart of the golden god-machine.
[Warning: Entering High-Density Divine Zone.]
[Oxygen: 0%.]
[Reality Stability: 12%.]
As Omar vanished into the breach of the pyramid, the sky over Casablanca erupted in a series of secondary explosions. The war for Earth had just moved inside the enemy's brain.