It happened without warning.
The mark exploded with heat.
Aren dropped to one knee as the ground trembled beneath the city. Not an earthquake.
Something opening.
Across the sky, faint cracks of pale light spread like broken glass.
People screamed.
The air itself bent.
Lyra grabbed his arm. "It's starting too early."
Aren forced himself upright. "What is?"
Her answer came too late.
The sky tore.
Not wide.
Just enough.
Through the fracture, something enormous moved—too vast to see clearly, its shape hidden behind layers of distance and reality.
The watchers had opened a gate.
And something behind it was pushing through.
System Alert:
Correction Protocol Initiated.
Anomaly Containment Failure.
The streets erupted into chaos.
Guards ran. Bells rang across the city towers. Above them, the crack widened slowly, reality struggling to hold itself together.
Aren stared upward.
For the first time since the fire…
He felt small.
Lyra whispered, almost to herself,
"They're not sending another cleanser."
The light from the fracture grew brighter.
"No," she said.
"This time…"
"They sent a god." ⚡