The throne room dimmed with a low hum of ancient mana.
The figure before Iden wasn't just a shadow mimic. It shimmered with that impossible, transcendental weight—an aura that made the very air resist movement. Its body mirrored Iden's outline, but its eyes were wells of shifting light—neither alive nor dead.
"You... you're from the Tower," Iden muttered. "The Third Spire. Level 31."
A memory flickered: that level from the ancient Dungeon Tower Run, long abandoned after a harrowing sacrifice. It was where he and a handful of others had fled—barely—after waking something not meant to be touched.
"You left me behind," the mimic said. Its voice was not just heard—but felt across the walls. "But I remembered. I remember you, little heir."
Suddenly, the crystal panels blinked red.
[System Warning: Mana Field Disruption – Tower Core Signature Detected][Entity Classification: PRIMORDIAL—Fragment Type][Status: Invasive Anchor Established]
Across Sanctum, the calm shattered.
The inner security grid collapsed like wet paper. Sentries turned to static. Defense automata rebooted into safe mode. In the Central Spire, whispers began to crawl under people's skin.
People didn't know what was happening—only that the center of the city was suddenly dark, silent, and wrong.
Nyra was the first to react.
She'd been in the upper spire when the breach triggered. A dozen elite units surrounded her, all rapidly turning toward the throne room.
Kael, meanwhile, received the report via mental link—his connection with Iden flaring erratic.
"Nyra. He's alone with it. I'm coming."
With one incursion, the heart of Sanctum was compromised.
Logistical outputs plummeted. Mana routing stalled. The Nexus Relay—which powered the summon forging bay—flickered offline for 14 seconds, just long enough to destabilize over 20,000 automated skeletons running operations in deep dungeons.
Even worse: the Etheric Defense Grid deactivated itself, interpreting the primordial's presence as a system administrator override.
[Internal Security Level Reduced – Tier-B and Below Infiltration Permitted][Causal Fault Detected: Invasive Anchor – Origin Trace Blocked]
Chaos surged.
Crowd panic began rippling in districts closest to the throne complex. Rael and her escort teams immediately took position, forming Sanctum's Inner Wall Watch, a last line of defense to contain any internal breach monsters.
Inside the throne room, Iden backed away, gripping his staff. The mimic took a step forward, its smile slow and warped.
"I'm not your enemy," it said, too smoothly. "I am your memory. The part of you that survived the Tower when the others didn't."
"Liar."
"Am I?" The mimic tilted its head. "You touched the fragment. You absorbed the Mark. I am you, unshackled."
Iden's heart raced. He hadn't told anyone—but during that Tower run, after their desperate escape, he had indeed kept a black shard, just to study later. He thought he'd destroyed it.
He hadn't.
As the news spread that the threat wasn't external—but internal—the morale of Sanctum's people fractured.
Many had believed in the walls. The shields. The summon armies.
But now, none of that seemed safe.
Kael had to suppress small outbreaks of panic in the Eastern Garrison. People whispered the words "Primordial" and "Omega-type" with increasing dread.
Nyra took command of elite guards and issued psychological shields—enchanted bands to suppress fear effects. She sealed half of the spire's passageways with magic glyphs and stationed the Mythal Warden golems.
Rael rallied the medics and made the bold call to open Sanctum's vault gardens, allowing anyone near the breach zone to take shelter underground.
Inside the throne room, the mimic raised a hand.
"You need me. You're not ready for what's coming."
Iden's response was ice-cold.
"I don't need another voice in my head."
He raised his staff—and unleashed Valkurian Spiral, a personal-type mana seal designed to lock soul echoes.
The mimic screamed—but not in pain. It was... laughing.
"Then awaken me properly. When you're ready to become what you were always meant to be."
It exploded into shadow, vanishing—leaving behind a floating glyph.
[You have encountered a PRIMORDIAL FRACTAL][This glyph contains locked power – To access, reach Tier Ascension at Level 50][Countdown to Event Acceleration – 8 Days Remaining]
The breach was sealed—for now.
But something had changed. Everyone could feel it.
"It got in without touching the gates," Rael said later. "How do we defend against that?"
"We don't," Kael replied. "We finish this before it happens again."
Iden stood before the gathered inner council, his eyes sharp, his face pale but resolute.
"We can't rely on systems anymore. Not fully. This war just became personal."
A new directive was issued: Tier Ascension became the primary objective.