The winds over Sanctum no longer screamed. But silence did not mean peace.
Above the tower ring, Iden's Throne of the Ninefold Legion hovered in quiet orbit. Its glow had dimmed, its banners lowered. Yet the command presence it exuded was stronger than ever—something fundamental had changed.
Beneath him, more than a million skeletons worked tirelessly. Roads were rebuilt. Traps reset. Walls scorched by ether were recharged and re-inscribed.
And above it all, the System whispered.
System Notifications – Post-Wave Advancement
[Wave 4 – Status: CONTAINED][Victory Milestone Achieved – Level Up: 49 → 50][Class Breakthrough: MYTHICAL CLASS ACHIEVED]
[New Mythical Class: Sovereign of the Ninefold Legion]
[Summon Capacity Doubled]
Previous: 1,376,256New: 2,752,512
[Title Gained: Dominion Architect]• Assign sub-commanders to direct autonomous legions• Unlock legacy traits within evolved summons• Begin laying groundwork for World-Scale Territory Anchoring
Iden didn't celebrate.
He didn't even blink.
Because while Sanctum had survived the Fourth Wave, what came next was worse.
The enemy hadn't just retreated.
It had dug deeper—into the Unforgiven Tower, a sealed Dungeon Branch long believed to be dormant. But now?
It pulsed with corruption. And something inside had called to the Warden.
Kael, Nyra, Rael, Arlen, and Iden stood over the blackglass table in the command dome, watching projections of corrupted spires growing west of Gate Omega.
"It was a lure," Kael said grimly. "The Warden wasn't here to destroy Sanctum. It came to mark this tower."
Arlen added, "We assumed the Unforgiven Tower was unlinked to the deeper lattice. We were wrong."
Nyra's voice was quiet but dangerous. "Which means more are coming."
Rael glanced at Iden. "And we only have nine days left."
[Mission Parameters Initialized – OPERATION: SCOUR]• Cleanse Dungeon Branch Sigil 19• Destroy corrupted core pulses• Locate and terminate remaining Warden fragments• Anchor tower floor to prevent systemic drift
1. Etheric Recyclers – CORVAX-A3 Units - Pull ambient corruption, convert to mana vapor, and store in conduit towers.
2. Phase-Shift Bombards - Requested by Kael, able to launch kinetic payloads through corrupted stone, detonating internally.
3. Command Tether Relays - Connect the Throne of the Ninefold Legion directly into dungeon nodes, letting Iden issue full-scale orders in real time.
4. Sovereign Pikes and Lances - Anti-corruption weapons distributed among elite ranks, especially Rael's Knight-Bound division.
Kael – Leads Siege Team 1, responsible for breaching anchor zones and deploying bombards.
Nyra – Leads Strike Team A, specializing in covert corridor infiltration and Warden trace hunts.
Rael – Maintains Support Node Sigma, responsible for cleansing pulses, mana stabilizers, and evacuation failsafes.
Iden – Oversees all squads via the Throne, flanked by nine evolved Bone Generals.
Each legion now had autonomous command capability. Each general led over 300,000 elite variants.
[Town Classification: LARGE TOWN][Population: 39,871 (Living), 2,752,512 (Summoned)][Mana Density: Saturated – Safe Threshold 93.4%][Corruption Pressure: 2.2% hourly increase near Gate Omega]
[Next Wave Projection: Tower-Origin Pulse in 18 hours][Full Fifth Wave Breach in: 8 days, 23 hours]
In the war-dampened quiet, Rael found Iden standing at the western overlook, just beyond the throne's glow.
"You didn't say anything about leveling," she said gently.
"I didn't need to," Iden replied. "This power—it's not for celebration. It's preparation."
Rael looked toward the looming silhouette of the Unforgiven Tower.
"It's been waiting, hasn't it? For someone like you to open the doors."
Iden turned his gaze toward her, voice low and resolute.
"No. It was waiting… for me to walk through them."