The countdown struck zero—and the air changed.
Above Crownfall's Edge, the heavens peeled open like breaking glass, hurling shards of unnatural light across the battlefield. The earth groaned beneath Sanctum's feet, and distant mountain ranges shattered in vertical scars, as if rejecting the very notion of gravity.
And then came the sound—Not thunder. Not explosion.A silence so heavy it crushed the soul.
Then the first wave appeared.
They arrived without flash or drama. Just existence. Impossible shapes stepping between one frame of reality and the next.
Six twisted beings emerged from the collapsed sky, each one twice the size of a warbeast, their forms unfinished, like sculpture denied the final hammer. Their bodies pulsed with unstable ether, glitching between dimensions with every breath.
And behind them: a shadow. Not yet close. Not yet visible. But the air knew it was coming.
Iden narrowed his eyes.
[Omega-Designate Threats Detected: 6]
[Estimated Power Rating: High-Transcendent (Tier 9.8+)]
[Crownfall Spear Matrix: Charging – 71%][Fallout Armament Network: Armed – Range Locked]
[Target Lock Status on Final Entity: Not Acquired][Estimated Range: 923 km and closing]
Arlen's voice crackled in over the com-tether. "Commander, all forward turrets aligned. We've baited the first six into Grid Epsilon-9. Fire control awaiting greenlight."
"No," Iden said immediately. "Hold all Fallout class missiles and Crownfall strikes. Not until the true one gets within the net."
Kael, perched atop the central watchtower with mana rifles slung across both shoulders, turned. "Then what are we firing?"
"Us," Iden answered. "All of us."
Sanctum's elite forces surged into the breach like waves of steel and bone.
Kael led a unit of flame-cored warriors and adaptive-class skeleton tanks. Their formation was surgical, optimized to harass and delay, not destroy. Every attack was a test. Every retreat fed data into the command cores.
From above, Nyra launched precision strikes using skyboarded scouts, marking weak points with crimson flares. The first Omega-tier was slowed by arc-trap snares and nova mines—but not stopped.
Arlen's drones released EMP bursts of auric compression, forcing one of the six back into a containment zone, allowing for direct damage input measurement.
Then the enemy retaliated.
A black tendril burst from one's chest, impaling five defenders in a single pulse.
Another one blinked behind the frontline with a spatial fold and unleashed a scream that melted three tower spires into slag.
Rael's voice cut through the chaos: "Iden! We can't hold this for hours!"
"You don't need to," he replied calmly. "We just need to hold it until it arrives."
Iden turned toward the Crown Engine's interface, now fused with his soul core. The runes etched into his arms burned gold as the system aligned.
[Scanning Dimensional Tether Points…][Analyzing Fragment Pulses…]
[Two Fragments Detected Within Sanctum Radius: ACTIVE][Resonance Match With Final Entity: 99.7%]
[Estimated Interception Path: Confirmed][Time to Engagement: 41 minutes and 13 seconds]
[Trajectory Sync: Stable][Location Match: Crownfall Edge – 99.9% Accuracy]
The beast wasn't just approaching.
It was coming straight for him.
"I want all units in Phase Delay Pattern Delta," Iden ordered. "Cycle the elite summons. Burn through your mana, not your soulforce. We need thirty uninterrupted minutes to get the Crownfall Lances into synchronicity."
Kael's laughter cut in. "You're buying time for the world's largest cannon to load. Love it."
Arlen, from the command trench, smirked. "And what if it reaches us before the beam's ready?"
Iden didn't hesitate. "Then we fire from point blank."
The sky dimmed—not from clouds, but from the sheer mass of something outside the range of sight. Birds fell mid-flight. Trees bent toward the east. Mana conduits within the ground began to crack.
Iden looked toward the stars—and saw them shift.
Like eyes blinking.
He turned to Rael. "It's coming for the fragments."
Her hand instinctively went to her chest. The second fragment pulsed beneath her ribs, steady, rhythmic.
"Let it come," she whispered.
Then the final alert sounded.
[Final Entity Has Breached Visual Range Threshold][Estimated Size: 27.4 km total mass][Category: Ω-TITAN][Designation: Z'RHAKUL, EATER OF INFINITY]
[Current Speed: 2.7 km/min][Time Until Weapon Range: 11 minutes]
And then the sky parted.
From the far edge of the horizon, a leg broke through cloud and mist, a mountain-sized appendage that landed with a quake. Then another.
Z'RHAKUL had arrived.
And it was walking straight toward Sanctum.