The first fracture appeared above the Spire District. At first, it was only a line of light, thin and trembling like a hairline crack in glass. By the time Lira reached the command balcony of the Raider outpost, that line had multiplied into dozens, each glowing with a brilliance that no sun could claim.
The air itself quivered. The hum that had haunted Ares since dawn deepened into a pulse that crawled under the skin, as if the city had grown a heartbeat of its own.
"Power grid's down again," one of the Raiders shouted over the rising static. "Backup generators fried!"
"Forget the grid," Lira snapped, fastening her harness and pulling on her gloves. "Lock down the shelters. We keep comms open until the last signal burns out."
She could feel it in her bones, the Dominion wasn't sleeping anymore. It was reaching. The light in the sky wasn't lightning; it was something older, something that wanted to come through.
A deep rumble rolled beneath her boots. The ground trembled, the steel beneath her feet flexing as if breathing. She ran to the edge of the platform and looked out. Ares, once a fortress of iron and glass, now looked like a living thing in pain.
Buildings bent inward. Shards of radiant light cut through clouds. Streets buckled and split as if the city's veins were bursting open.
"Commander!" another Raider cried, pointing toward the northern district. "There's… something coming out of the breach!"
Lira followed his gaze. Out beyond the industrial quarter, a column of light pierced the sky. Inside it, silhouettes moved, slow, enormous, featureless shapes, each step cracking the ground below. The light clung to them, defining them in impossible geometry.
"They're not creatures," Lira whispered. "They're… projections."
"Of what?"
She didn't answer. She didn't know.
The wind howled, carrying with it fragments of sound, faint, like whispers through water. Her earpiece buzzed, then cleared for a moment.
"...Lira...can you hear me?" The voice was hoarse, strained. It was Ren, the technician stationed at the southern relay.
"I hear you," she said, steadying her breath. "Report."
"Containment fields are failing. The old seals ,they're reacting to the light. It's rewriting the structure, commander. It's alive."
The line cut.
She swore under her breath. "Team Delta, you're with me," she ordered. "We head south and pull anyone still breathing out of the relay zone."
"But commander," one of the Raiders began, "the fractures..."
"Move!"
They descended through collapsing stairways and debris-littered corridors, flashlights cutting through the dust. The further they went, the stronger the vibration became, a low, resonant thrum that seemed to sync with their heartbeats.
Outside, the world had turned red and white. Lightning crawled sideways through the air. Shattered glass floated for seconds before gravity remembered its duty.
When they reached the street, they found the relay station half-submerged in light. The concrete was melting, not burning, but unraveling, every particle turning translucent and drifting upward like ash.
"Ren!" Lira shouted.
A voice answered weakly from inside the collapsing control room. She sprinted forward, ignoring the searing heat that wasn't heat at all, but the pressure of energy folding space around her.
She broke through the doorway and found Ren pinned under a fallen beam. His left side was burned, his skin flickering with faint traces of light.
"It touched me," he gasped. "The code… it's rewriting everything."
"Save your strength." She gripped the beam, her gloves sparking as she forced it aside. The hum intensified, becoming a roar in her skull.
Ren coughed, his eyes unfocused. "It's not destruction, Lira. It's translation."
"What?"
"The Dominion isn't breaking the city. It's trying to pull it in."
A deafening crack split the sky. The fractures above widened, merging into one vast wound of light. For an instant, Lira saw something beyond it, a landscape inverted, glowing rivers flowing upward, shadows that shone brighter than fire.
Then the vision vanished, replaced by chaos.
"Everyone out!" she shouted. "Now!"
The Raiders dragged Ren toward the evacuation tunnel as the building dissolved behind them. The light followed like a tide, swallowing everything it touched.
They made it to the tunnel entrance just as the station imploded in silence. The ground heaved. The air vanished. For a heartbeat, the city held its breath.
And then the sky shattered.
Every window, every piece of glass, every surface that could reflect light exploded outward. A blinding wave rolled across Ares, flattening towers, toppling bridges.
Lira clung to the tunnel frame, shielding Ren with her body. The blast threw debris in every direction, but it wasn't heat that burned her, it was memory. The Dominion's light wasn't fire; it was the past trying to overwrite the present.
When the wave finally passed, Ares was unrecognizable. The skyline was gone. The world glowed faintly, like the aftermath of a storm that never ended.
Lira rose, coughing, her body trembling. "Report," she rasped into her comm, though she knew no one would answer.
Only static. And beneath it, a whisper, not human.
"…the First Light calls…"
Lira froze. It wasn't in her earpiece. It was inside her head.
She looked up. The breach still glowed, vast and terrible, like an open eye staring down at the ruins.
Somewhere beneath it all, far below, Aiden moved and the light pulsed in answer.