The world ends at 3:47 PM on a Tuesday.
Kael's blade cuts through chitin and gore, each swing precise despite the chaos erupting around him. The Nexus integration has turned downtown Seattle into a hellscape, office buildings stretch impossibly tall, their glass surfaces rippling like water, while streets fold into themselves in geometric impossibilities that hurt to look at directly.
"Kael! Left flank!" Dorian's voice cuts through the screaming.
A Vorthak Reaper lunges from between two melting cars, its six arms ending in bone scythes that gleam with acidic poison. Kael rolls low, hamstrings the creature with his combat knife, then drives the blade up through its throat as it stumbles. The system notification flashes blue across his vision:
[+147 EXP. Vorthak Reaper defeated.]
"Nice kill." Dorian appears beside him, his own blade dripping with black ichor. They've been fighting for six hours straight, ever since the merge turned reality inside out. Kael's shoulders burn, his legs shake with exhaustion, but Dorian looks fresh. He always looked fresh.
That should have been Kael's first warning.
The horde presses closer. Dozens of creatures pour through a tear in space above the Space Needle the landmark now a twisted spiral of metal and bone that pulses with otherworldly light. Kael can see humans in the distance, some fighting, others running, most already dead.
"There!" Dorian points toward the center of Pioneer Square, where something massive has fallen from the sky. "That's it, the Shard of Dominion."
The artifact lies embedded in cracked asphalt, a crystal the size of a car door that radiates power in visible waves. Around it, the air itself bends and warps. Kael has never seen anything like it, but his system interface immediately provides context:
[Shard of Dominion (Divine Artifact)]
[Classification: God-Tier]
[Effects: Unknown]
[Warning: Proximity may cause reality distortion]
"God-tier…" Kael breathes. In his two years since the merge, he's never seen anything above Epic classification. This is the kind of artifact that changes everything.
"We take it together," Dorian says, gripping Kael's shoulder. "Equal shares, like always."
Like always. Kael nods, trust flowing through him like warm blood. They've been partners since the first day, survivors who found each other in the tutorial zones and never separated. Dorian saved his life in the Crimson Depths. Kael returned the favor during the Siege of New Vancouver. They're brothers in everything but blood.
They sprint across the square, cutting through smaller creatures that try to intercept them. Kael's stamina bar flashes red, he's running on fumes, but adrenaline carries him forward. The Shard grows larger as they approach, its surface reflecting not their faces but something else, something that shifts and writhes just beneath the crystal.
Ten meters away, Dorian stumbles.
Kael turns, concerned, and sees the blade sliding between his ribs.
The pain comes second. First is the incomprehension, the way his mind refuses to process what his eyes are showing him. Dorian's hand on the hilt. Dorian's face, calm and focused. Dorian's other hand already reaching for the Shard.
"Sorry, brother." Something flickers across Dorian's face, regret, perhaps, or just impatience.
The blade twists, finding his heart. Kael's health bar plummets from yellow to red to black in seconds. His legs give out, knees hitting the cracked ground hard enough to send shockwaves up his spine.
"Why?" The word comes out as a whisper, blood frothing on his lips.
Dorian pulls the blade free and wipes it clean on Kael's jacket. "Because I was chosen for this. He stands, moving toward the Shard with casual confidence. "Because you're weak, Kael. You always were."
The crystal responds to Dorian's touch, flaring with golden light that makes the air sing with power. Through his fading vision, Kael watches his best friend, his brother, transform. Dorian's skin takes on a metallic sheen, his eyes burn with internal fire, and when he speaks again, his voice echoes with divine authority.
"The age of mortals is over. The age of gods begins with me."
Kael tries to speak, tries to move, but his body no longer obeys him. The system interface flickers and dies, leaving him alone with his thoughts and the growing cold. Around them, the monsters stop fighting and kneel before Dorian's transformed figure.
The world doesn't end with explosions or cosmic catastrophe. It ends with betrayal, with trust shattered like glass, with the one person who mattered most revealing that nothing ever mattered at all.
Kael's last thought, as darkness closes over him like deep water, is simple:
*I should have seen this coming.*
Then the world goes black.
Then the world comes back.
Kael jerks awake in his old apartment, sunlight streaming through windows that shouldn't exist, in a room that burned down ten years ago.