The silence that followed the slaughter was absolute. The crashing of the waves against the shore seemed distant, muted by the lingering hum of the Aura of Dread.
Selene clutched Miri to her chest, her paws deep in the bloody mud of the Coastal Road. She looked at the sea, where the bodies of the Iron Legion bobbed like broken dolls, and then she looked at the black wall of knights that had saved them. The Obsidian Asturias sat motionless on their monstrous destriers, their serrated armor drinking the weak sunlight.
But it was the man standing in the center of the road who held the world's attention.
Corvin Nyx did not sheath his sword. He handed it to Centurion Kael, who took the blade with a bow so deep it looked like prayer. Corvin's hands were empty now, but the air around him began to distort, shimmering like heat rising from pavement.
"Lord," Kael said, his voice a low grate through his helm. "The slaves... they are waiting for orders. Shall we marshal them for the march North?"
Corvin looked at the five thousand souls huddled against the cliff face. He saw their bruised feet, their starving frames, the terror that still lived in their eyes. They could not walk to the Dominion. The North was too far.
"No," Corvin said, the word carrying a weight that made the ground tremble. "We do not march. We take root."
He turned to face the ocean, spreading his arms wide. The violet fire of the Shadow Heart flared in his chest, visible even through his armor. He was pushing against the ceiling of his own power, clawing at the edges of the Third Circle. The air grew heavy, tasting of ozone and ancient stone.
"Watch," Corvin commanded.
The earth screamed.
It began as a low vibration that rattled the teeth of every living soul on the beach. Then, the coastline exploded. Not with fire, but with creation. The grey mud and the sandstone cliffs groaned as Corvin seized the geological spine of the land and twisted.
"Rise," he whispered, sweat breaking on his brow.
The ground liquefied. A massive shelf of bedrock tore itself free from the earth, blackening instantly as it was infused with megatons of raw mana. The slaves gasped, stumbling back as the rock surged upward, defying gravity.
First came the Lower Tier. The obsidian flowed like oil into the churning ocean, solidifying instantly into massive breakwaters and deep-water piers. The chaotic surf was smashed into submission, leaving a harbor as smooth as a mirror.
Then, the Middle Tier. A second plateau erupted from the first, rising fifty feet into the air. Stone wove itself into barracks, armories, and training yards. The sheer density of the magic was suffocating; the air crackled with violet lightning that arced between the rising structures.
Selene fell to her knees. She wasn't watching construction; she was watching a god carve his name into the planet.
"He... he is making a mountain," Miri whispered, her eyes wide and reflecting the purple glow.
"He is making a home," Selene wept.
Corvin gritted his teeth. The strain was immense. He wasn't just building; he was designing a machine. He visualized the Upper Tier, the seat of his power.
"Amplus Observo," he groaned, the name acting as a spell key.
The walls roared into existence—a perfect circle of black glass, two hundred feet high, impenetrable and smooth. Four gates tore open at the cardinal points: the Sea Gate facing the harbor, and three Land Gates facing the hostile world. Inside each tunnel, the stone knittted itself into complex Chambers of Ordo, customs houses where magic would be weighed and measured.
But the true work was yet to come.
Corvin dropped to one knee, his breath hitching. He had to reach higher. He had to anchor the domain.
"The Crown," he gasped.
In the center of the Upper Tier, the Main Pyramidal Tower pierced the sky. It rose hundreds of feet, a sleek, deadly geometric perfection. At its peak, Corvin manifested the Void Stone—a singularity of crystallized void that pulsed like a dying star.
Simultaneously, four smaller Cardinal Towers erupted around it. Corvin didn't seal them; he hollowed their peaks. He forced the magic to circulate.
WHOOSH.
A stream of liquid shadow burst from the central Void Stone, arcing through the air and pouring into the hollows of the Cardinal Towers, only to rush back to the center. It was a heartbeat. The city took its first breath.
The Atmospheric Mana Engine roared to life. The wind above the coast was sucked into the Void Stone, crushed by the density of the obsidian, and exhaled as pure, refined domination.
Corvin's power didn't just return; it multiplied. The domain expanded, exploding outward from the city, turning the hostile southern air into the cool, comforting embrace of the Imperium.
On the ramparts of the Cardinal Towers, stone platforms groaned into place, waiting for ballistae. Inside, the hollow halls of the first Schola Major formed, waiting for students. Below, the massive vaulted stables of the Obsidian Asturias opened their doors, the troughs filling with enchanted water.
It was done.
A city for twenty thousand souls. A fortress that could break a siege of millions.
Corvin collapsed forward, catching himself on his hands. His armor was smoking. The silence returned, but it was different now. It was the silence of a cathedral.
He heard the sound of footsteps in the mud. He looked up.
It was the slaves. Five thousand of them. They weren't running. They were walking toward the open gates of the Lower Tier, their faces bathed in the violet light of the Void Stone.
Kael walked to Corvin's side, offering a gauntleted hand to help his master rise. The Centurion looked up at the towering black pyramids, his helmet reflecting the sheer scale of the achievement.
"It is... terrifying, My Lord," Kael murmured, his voice thick with reverence. "The Union will see this shadow from their capital."
Corvin stood, his legs shaking, but his spirit soaring on the high of the Third Circle's edge. He looked at Selene, who stood at the front of the crowd, clutching her daughter. She looked at the city, then at him. There was no fear left in her. Only a profound, shattering awe.
"The Capital is a dream for another day," Corvin said, his voice amplified by the city's acoustics, reaching every ear. "But this... this is the Watch."
He gestured to the open gates, where the warm glow of the obsidian heating grids was already banishing the coastal chill.
"Enter Observo Marus," Corvin said softly. "You are slaves no longer. You are citizens of the Imperium."
As the first of them crossed the threshold, weeping as they touched the warm black walls, Corvin felt the Cohesion Collective surge. It wasn't just magic. It was faith. And it was stronger than any stone.