The sirens did not stop.
They didn't rise and fall like drills or scheduled alarms. They screamed—raw, continuous, layered over one another until the air itself felt wounded. Red emergency runes ignited along every surface, pulsing in violent rhythm, bathing the Grand Frontlines in a warning hue that made stone look like exposed flesh.
Yna and I were already moving.
South.
Against the current.
People ran past us in the opposite direction—officers, cadets, civilians, logistics staff—faces pale, eyes wide, some bleeding, some shouting incoherent warnings. Shoulders slammed into mine. Someone tripped and fell. Another screamed when they were pulled back to their feet and dragged along.
"RUN!"
"DON'T GO THAT WAY!"
"GET AWAY FROM THE DOCKS!"
I caught a man by the sleeve—older, uniform half-fastened, breath ragged.
"Mister!" I shouted over the sirens. "What's happening?!"
His eyes locked onto mine, unfocused, wet with terror.
"T-The Blight—!"
He tore free and ran.
I stood there for half a heartbeat too long.
"That's impossible," I muttered, breath coming fast. "This base—this place—it's wrapped in purification layers. External hostiles can't—"
"Unless," Yna said sharply beside me, her voice steady but tight, "they weren't classified as hostiles."
I froze.
Her words slid into place like a blade finding a gap.
The train.
Late arrival.
Southern frontlines.
The realization struck hard enough to make my stomach drop.
"…Yna," I said, already turning. "You need to get back to your unit. Now."
She grabbed my wrist. "Elrin—"
"Listen to me." I met her eyes, forcing calm into my voice. "Alert the Arcanum Spiral. Evacuate civilians. Anyone near the docks or commercial districts—get them moving north and west. Don't engage unless necessary."
Her grip tightened.
"H-How about you?"
I looked south.
The glow was wrong. Not firelight. Something darker. Thicker.
"I'll help whoever I can," I said. "I won't slow you down."
For a fraction of a second, she hesitated.
Then she nodded.
"Don't die," she said, voice barely above the sirens.
"I don't plan on dying yet," I replied.
We split.
She ran back toward her district.
I ran straight into hell.
—
COMMAND & MONITORING CENTER — 2200 HOURS (10pm)
Before Impact
The command chamber was never silent—but tonight, it was strained.
Twelve armored trains glided across the holographic display suspended at the center of the room, each represented by a pulsing sigil threaded with damage markers. Structural breaches. Axiom instability. Emergency seals hastily applied in the field.
They were supposed to be limping home.
"Southern Frontline Retreat confirmed," an operations officer reported. "All twelve units cleared for emergency docking. Orders from High Command were explicit—no calculated risks."
Ignis watched the projection carefully.
Risk was never something you calculated. It was something that waited for arrogance.
"Open the southern dock barrier," an executive official ordered. "Lower the Axiom field. Prepare medical and containment teams."
Runic layers shimmered as the defensive field around the southern rail docks thinned, glyphs rotating into standby patterns meant to receive, not repel.
Something twisted in General Ignis's gut.
"Velocity check," Ignis said quietly.
A pause.
Then—
"…Sir," the technician said slowly, fingers flying across the console. "They're not decelerating."
He leaned forward.
The hologram updated.
The trains were accelerating.
"What the hell?" an officer snapped. "Alert the pilots! At that speed, they'll overshoot the dock—those rails can't—"
"No," another voice cut in. Low. Uneasy.
An executive official stared at his screen, face draining of color.
"There's… no response," he said. "No pilot feedback. No internal signatures. The axiom readings are—wrong."
Everyone felt it then.
That cold, instinctive certainty that something had already gone beyond command.
"SHUT THE BARRIERS!" Madam Roseanne shouted.
"Now! Full seal—those aren't normal trains!"
Runes flared as the system responded—but defensive fields were never instant. Power had to cycle. Layers had to reweave.
Too slow.
The first two trains hit the dock at full speed.
The impact was not an explosion.
It was a catastrophe.
Steel screamed as the lead engines tore through reinforced rails, momentum folding armored wagons into each other like crushed bone. Entire cars lifted off the tracks, spinning sideways into surrounding buildings. A core ruptured—Axiom backlash detonating inward, then outward in a violent pulse.
Then the next two slammed into the wreckage.
And the next.
Each collision compounding the last.
The display flickered as debris signatures flooded the system. Wagons were airborne—launched beyond the docks, arcing into nearby districts. Residential blocks. Training halls.
"No—no—no—" someone whispered.
The final pair of trains approached.
For one terrible moment, a sound cut through everything.
A train whistle.
Long.
Desperate.
Human.
A warning—too late to matter.
Then it cut off.
Silence.
And the last impact came down like a hammer.
"THIS IS BAD!" someone shouted.
"RING THE ALARM!"
The chamber shook as secondary explosions rippled through the south. Consoles sparked. Holograms fractured.
Ignis didn't hesitate and drew his sword.
"Southern Train Docks compromised," Ignis barked, already moving. "Main base breached."
The emergency announcement echoed as he ran.
"By authority of General Ignis: Full evacuation authorized. Combat permitted strictly for defense. All personnel—board northern, eastern, and western docks immediately. Airships to the northwest fields. Abandon the main base."
The fortress screamed as one.
—
CADET SQUAD 28 QUARTERS — 2217 HOURS (10:17pm)
During Impact
The first impact rattled the walls.
The second knocked dust from the ceiling.
Captain Renia was already standing when the alarms hit.
"…That's wrong," she muttered.
The evacuation order from the General boomed through the quarters.
Her breath caught.
South.
Her mind snapped to one name instantly.
Elrin.
"Shit," she hissed.
She turned sharply to the cadets. "Weapons up. Full gear. We're moving south."
"Captain—what's happening?" someone asked.
"No time," Renia snapped. "We're locating Elrin Mornye and extracting civilians, staff, and injured on the way. Move!"
They poured into the corridor—and nearly collided with another unit.
Cadet Squad 12. The squad where Tairi Enon is enlisted.
Their captain stiffened. "Situation, Captain Renia?"
"Worst case scenario," Renia replied without slowing. "One of ours is unaccounted for near the southern districts. We're heading for the commercial square."
The other captain didn't hesitate. "We're with you."
Tairi Enon pushed forward, face pale.
"Elrin is missing?!"
Renia met his eyes. "Yes."
Her jaw tightened.
"The faster we move," she said, "the more lives we save. Let's go."
They ran.
—
The Grand Frontlines unraveled.
People flooded the tracks—some disciplined, some panicked. Officers shouted commands that went unheard. Civilians and staffs stumbled, clutching children, belongings forgotten.
Some froze.
Some dropped to their knees.
Some ran until they couldn't remember why.
Near the Arcanum Spiral district, Yna burst into her unit's quarters, breathless.
"Evacuation order!" she shouted. "South is compromised—move civilians first!"
Her squad reacted instantly, spell matrices igniting as they formed protective corridors. She grabbed a trembling woman by the shoulders.
"Follow us," Yna said firmly. "Do not stop."
"But my husband—"
"We'll find him," Yna lied gently. "Now move."
As they escorted people through smoke-lit streets, another tremor rolled through the ground.
Somewhere far behind them—
Something screamed that was no longer human.
And the night swallowed the sound.
—
SOUTHERN DISTRICT — ELRIN
The closer I got to the southern train docks, the worse it became.
Buildings cracked under stress they were never meant to bear. A wagon lay embedded sideways into a barracks wall, steel bent like paper, its core still hissing unstable Axiom into the night. Fires burned—not cleanly, but in choking bursts that spat blackened smoke into the air.
People screamed.
Not in panic.
In pain.
I pulled a merchant free from beneath collapsed scaffolding, ignoring the way my shoulder screamed in protest.
"Can you walk?" I asked.
He shook his head, coughing blood.
I hoisted him up anyway, staggered, then passed him to an officer rushing past.
"Get him north," I ordered. "Now."
The officer stared at me for half a second—then nodded and ran.
"What are you doing?" he shouted over his shoulder.
"I need to see what I can do," I replied.
The ground shook again.
Somewhere ahead, metal screamed.
I pushed forward.
Near the residential block closest to the docks, chaos reigned. Train wagons lay scattered like the bones of some enormous beast—some intact, others split open, spilling cargo and bodies alike.
Fires licked at everything.
A group of civilians huddled near a fountain, coughing, eyes watering.
"Cover your noses!" I shouted, grabbing a cloth from my pocket, soaking it in water from a shattered pipe. "Like this—breathe slow!"
I dragged one man free who was barely conscious, his clothes already smoldering. Another tried to stand and collapsed again.
"Don't look back," I told them. "Just move."
Then I heard it.
A voice.
"H—H—HELP!"
Hoarse. Broken.
Old.
I turned toward the sound.
"Where are you?" I shouted back.
"H—H—HELP!"
I followed it down a narrow service path between two collapsed trains wagons. Smoke thickened. The heat intensified.
Then I saw him.
A soldier.
Frontlines uniform—southern detachment markings, torn and soaked dark. He stood hunched, back to me, shoulders trembling.
"I found you," I said, relief surging despite everything. "This way—to the evacuation—"
He turned.
My blood went cold.
His face was wrong.
One eye was gone—torn free, the socket a wet, pulsing cavity. Skin had split and swollen similar to an untreated wound bursting with pus, reddened and throbbing as if something beneath it were trying to crawl out. His jaw hung at an unnatural angle, teeth clicking softly as if testing how to move.
His mouth opened. A distorted voice came out.
"H—H—HELP!!!"
He lunged.
I barely had time to react.
I grabbed the nearest thing—a length of metal pipe, still glowing with heat—and swung it up between us. He slammed into me with inhuman force, driving me backward. The pipe jammed into his mouth.
He bit down while still barely saying the words "help."
"AAAAAAGGGHHH!!"
I screamed as heat burned my hands, but I held on, muscles screaming, heart pounding so hard I thought it might burst.
It's screaming its last words while biting hard into the molten hot metal pipe. Not even in pain.
This wasn't a monster.
This was a person. Was...
And the Blight had hollowed him out and worn him like a suit.
This wasn't just a disaster.
This was an arrival.
And it had brought the end of something with it.
I gritted my teeth.
And pushed back.