The sky churned.The ground trembled.And Sanctum—prepared to meet annihilation.
The world's last stronghold stood at full alert. Sirens blared across every sector. Wards shimmered to life in layered rings around Crownfall Edge, each designed to redirect force, not stop it. Nothing could stop what was coming.
Iden stood at the peak command spire, black cloak coiled in the howling wind. His eyes glowed a soft gold as mana streamed through the dozens of Crown Interfaces embedded in the platform.
[Crownfall Spear Matrix: 96% Charge][Fallout Construct Armament: Target Lock Acquiring – Range Entry Imminent][Final Entity Distance: 9.8 km]
[Impact Radius Estimated: 27.4 km | Primary Strike Target: Central Sanctum]
[Defensive Parameters: At Maximum Capacity][Emergency Shelters: Online]
Across the city and outer settlements, civilians flooded into the deep subterranean vaults. These weren't panic shelters—they were engineered bunkers, reinforced with dimensional phase-locks and thickened with mana-hardened steel.
Kael oversaw the evacuation personally, shouting orders to command golems and shepherding the last few stragglers into lift tubes. Rael stood atop one transport bridge, her wings unfurled and glowing with radiant aura, comforting panicked children as they descended into safety.
"It's not fear," she whispered. "It's reverence. We're not running. We're enduring."
A moment later, her gaze flicked skyward—toward the silhouette of Z'RHAKUL, now so close it eclipsed the setting sun.
In orbit, 200 Fallout-class constructs reached positional lock. Each hovered like a star reborn, their cores humming with compressed mana detonators. Below, four floating Crownfall Spears adjusted microthrusters, locking into an impossibly perfect tetrahedral formation above Sanctum's central spire.
[Fallout Deployment: Standby – Range Verification Pending][Crownfall Spear: Final Beam Path Correction – 99.2%][Combined Detonation Pattern: ∞-Pierce Spiral Confirmed]
[Required Overlap Time for Optimal Hit: 8.4 seconds][Estimated Safe Window: 12.7 seconds]
Arlen's voice buzzed through the command net. "That window's too damn tight."
"It always is," Iden replied calmly.
Iden reached inward—beyond flesh, beyond code. Into the very core of the Crown Engine fused with his being. Lines of ethereal glyphs floated in his vision. He issued three silent commands.
Crown Logic Shift: Prioritize Synchronization Over Raw Power.
Overclock Fallout Class Constructs by 12% – Accept Recoil.
Divert 15% of his own soul energy to stabilize the network.
His body staggered.
Rael caught him in a flash of light. "You're burning through your own soul."
"I've already borrowed enough time," he said softly. "It's only fair I pay some back."
A deep, inhuman howl echoed across the battlefield. The kind of sound that folded thought, that twisted the mind like paper. Several skeleton-class units paused as their feedback cores overloaded, and Kael had to deploy two suppressor chants just to keep his elite squad coherent.
Z'RHAKUL's form loomed now in full—the shape of a titan made of fragments, as if thousands of destroyed gods had been melted together to forge this monstrosity. Its eyes weren't eyes—they were wells of stars, and each one watched Sanctum.
A whisper entered Iden's mind:
"Give them to me. The fragments. And I will leave you breath. Refuse… and I will erase you from memory."
Iden's fingers gripped the hilt of the Crown Shard blade at his side.
He spoke aloud, eyes burning.
"No."
The battlefield lit up like a constellation. All the traps laid in the last two days—suppression sigils, anti-phasic coils, shatter-beam pivots—activated simultaneously.
The terrain around the titan trembled. Dozens of glyph-marked columns rose from the earth and locked into place, creating a kill corridor—Sanctum's Final Cage.
Arlen smirked from the far edge of the command bunker. "That's our runway."
The creature accelerated.
Each step cracked fault lines into the land. Seismic readings spiked. The air turned metallic. The mana flow of the region spiraled into chaotic eddies.
And then—
[Z'RHAKUL HAS ENTERED FIRING RANGE]
[Fallout Network: LOCKED][Crownfall Spear Array: LOCKED]
[Awaiting Manual Confirmation – FIRE ON COMMAND]
Iden raised one hand—open palm toward the heavens.
His voice echoed across all channels.
"Hold."
The entire battlefield fell silent, despite the rage of the storm, the roar of a god, the tremble of a planet preparing to break.
Z'RHAKUL raised its eyes—directly at Sanctum's core.
And stepped one last time—
[Distance: 0.0 km – DIRECT RANGE CONFIRMED]