No alarms rang.
No sirens screamed.
But every citizen of Sanctum felt it—the crushing, invisible pressure that settled over the city like a storm waiting to devour everything they had built.
From the highest silver spires to the deepest underground caverns, the entire city had gone silent.
It wasn't the quiet of peace.
It was the weight of something vast, pressing from above.
Z'RHAKUL PRIME hovered beyond the clouds—its sheer size obscured stars, dimmed the sun, and warped the horizon with a haze of spatial dread.
[ATMOSPHERIC COMPRESSION: 18% INCREASED][MANA STREAMS: DISTORTED][NATURAL LIGHT PATTERNS: COLLAPSING][CIVILIAN SHELTER OCCUPANCY: 100%]
Iden stood at the central terminal.
His voice echoed over the speaker-net across Sanctum's hundreds of districts.
"You feel it. I know you do. That instinct screaming you should run. That's not fear—it's your survival whispering."
"Ignore it."
"Because we are not the ones who run."
He cut the broadcast, turned toward Kael, Arlen, and Rael—his core triumvirate.
"Status?"
Kael adjusted the mana fuses. His Tyrant body gleamed with black-gold plating as he responded:
"Fallout is on a full triple-phase staggered cycle. The final wave will anchor in the planar core. Even if this thing shifts dimensions, we can still phase-burn it."
Arlen's fingers danced across a crystalline projection.
"Crownfall anchors stable. The spear arrays are linked to your mana signature—if you fall unconscious or die, the failsafe triggers. No command delay."
Iden nodded.
"Then we proceed. Full system ignition."
The Citadel dimmed.
Outside, four twin beams surged from the mountaintop. Crownfall's anchors ignited, creating a luminous lattice in the sky like a divine cage.
Simultaneously, the Fallout constructs took flight—two hundred of them, trailing blue-white afterburn as they began phasing across space like glitched stars.
[FALLOUT – ONLINE][CROWNFALL – IGNITION PHASE][SYNCHRONIZED FIRING WINDOW: T-30 HOURS][LOCK STATUS: 97%][Z'RHAKUL PRIME: DIMENSIONAL SHIFTING DETECTED – TRACKING ADJUSTING]
"It's trying to escape," Arlen muttered.
"It won't," Iden replied. "We built this to kill a god."
In the shelters, thousands stared at the live broadcast projection.
Children wept into their mothers' arms.
Old soldiers whispered prayers they hadn't said in decades.
Engineers held hands with miners. Priests sang quietly in groups. Necromancers knelt beside civilians and promised they'd resurrect every soul if needed.
Above them all, one figure remained constant:
Iden.
His face projected from every wall, calmly issuing updates.
He didn't lie. He didn't soften his tone. He told the people the truth:
That Z'RHAKUL PRIME was death incarnate.
And that Sanctum would not kneel.
Iden returned to the throne—the seat that linked him to every summon, every node, every defense array.
He sat.
And for the first time in hours, he closed his eyes.
A vision unfolded—not magic, not a dream, but the collective thought echo of a billion skeletons, waiting, watching, preparing to die at his command.
He saw jungles.
Ruined cities.
Ice fields.
Floating isles.
They were everywhere. Silent. Watching the sky. Ready.
[CURRENT SUMMONED UNITS: 1,409,286,144][REMAINING MANA STORAGE: 82%][EMERGENCY RE-SUMMON PROTOCOL: READY][UNIQUE TIER SUMMONS: 3,219,877 – IN POSITION][PLANAR STABILIZERS: FULL CHARGE]
Then Rael entered quietly.
She approached the throne.
"You've done everything you can," she whispered.
"I haven't done enough," Iden said, still eyes closed.
"You don't have to carry it alone."
Iden opened his eyes. He stood.
"Don't let Kael die. Or Arlen. Or you. Or Nyra. If it's me or the world, I'll do what I have to. But I don't want you gone."
Rael smiled sadly. "I'm not leaving your side."
He stepped down from the throne.
"Then stay close."
The world shuddered.
Not metaphorically.
The entire tectonic system groaned as something breached the planetary boundary. No explosion. Just wrongness.
The shape in the sky was not a single body.
It was a writhing city of flesh, folded around a blackened heart glowing with fire.
Tentacles pierced space. Wings that looked like stitched realities beat soundlessly. An eye opened—massive, burning, alive.
And it stared directly at Sanctum.
[Z'RHAKUL PRIME: LOCK 99.8% – FINAL ALIGNMENT SECONDS AWAY][PLANAR PHASE STABILIZATION COMPLETE][CROWN SPEAR SYNC: 100%][PRE-FIRE WINDOW: T-29:47:12][DO YOU WISH TO INITIATE COUNTDOWN?]
Iden stepped into the main balcony, accompanied by Rael, Kael, Arlen, and Nyra—each wearing the final warframe enhancements they had been preparing.
Around him, thousands of elite skeletal units hovered silently, their eyes burning azure.
Iden raised his voice.
"To all forces of Sanctum. This is your Sovereign."
"In less than thirty hours, the world will either burn... or be reborn."
"We have no backup plan."
"We don't need one."
"We are the end of this corruption. We are the executioners of a dead god's will. We are not pawns—we are the players now."
"And I—Iden, of Earth and Sanctum—am done holding back."
He turned to Rael.
"Start the final prayer. One last benediction."
She stepped forward, hands glowing.
From her voice flowed a power older than light—a song that Sanctum itself responded to.
Skies opened.
Mana surged.
[BLESSING OF THE LAST DAWN – ACTIVATED][FALLOUT OVERLOAD DAMAGE +12%][CROWNFALL'S ESSENCE PIERCING – NO RESISTANCE][ALLY MORALE: UNBREAKABLE]
And as the final music of the dawn washed across a dying sky...
Z'RHAKUL PRIME began to descend.
The fire to kill a god was almost ready.