Thunder echoed across the fractured sky, rain battering the broken glass windows of a forgotten cathedral—its walls charred and roof caved in, yet it now served as shelter for the few left breathing.
The fire in the center cracked weakly. Around it sat the battered remains of heroes—Eve, her golden wings drooping with exhaustion; Xiao Ling, silent and numb; Dr. Jin, tending to a broken teleportation core; and a few scattered, grieving soldiers too stunned to mourn aloud.
They waited for Alexander.
When the heavy doors groaned open, he stepped through—soaked in blood, his eyes vacant, a sword strapped to his back and Ty's broken blade in his hand.
No one spoke.
He didn't sit.
Instead, he walked toward the fire, gaze fixed into the dancing embers. For a long, terrible moment, there was only the storm and the hush of the dying world around them.
Alexander (low, hoarse):
"She's gone."
He dropped the broken blade beside the flames.
Alexander:
"I wasn't there. I promised I'd protect her—and I wasn't there."
He looked at none of them. His voice trembled, but not from grief—from fury.
Alexander:
"I don't know who did it. I don't care if it was a demon, a god, or something else... I will find them. And I will kill them."
The others stirred uneasily.
Eve:
"We need you, Alexander. We have to stay together—"
Alexander (coldly):
"No."
They all froze.
Alexander:
"Staying together... that didn't save Ty. It didn't save the knights. It didn't stop Leviathan. It didn't stop anything."
Alexander: All that training didn't do shit and you know it, training doesn't mean anything against the might of true power."
He turned his eyes to the group—burning with something sharp, dangerous.
Alexander:
"I'm weak. That's the truth. We all are. But I won't stay that way."
He took a step back, sword clinking against his armor.
Alexander:
"I'm leaving."
Xiao Ling (shocked):
"What…?"
Alexander:
"I'm going to become stronger. Strong enough that nothing—nothing—can ever be taken from me again. I need to learn to access that power I once had when I fought against the shadow Emperor. I will Learn every technique, every curse, every power no matter what it costs."
Dr. Jin:
"You don't know what's out there, Alexander. You could lose yourself."
Alexander (quietly):
"I've already lost everything that mattered."
He turned to leave, but paused at the doorway, his figure framed by moonlight and storm.
Alexander:
"When the time comes… I'll return. But I won't be the same."
Eve (softly):
"Alexander…"
He didn't turn back.
Alexander:
"This war isn't yours anymore."
Alexander:
"It's mine now."
And with that, he vanished into the night—alone.
Time had pass and the sun hadn't risen in weeks.
Ash covered the skies. Oceans turned black. The world was no longer divided by borders or nations—it was separated only by who still breathed, and who had already been consumed.
Massive chasms split the earth where cities once stood. Sky-rifts hung like bleeding wounds, pouring celestial fire and unnatural shadows into the world.
No one remembered how it began anymore. Only that the enemy was not human.
And that they were winning.
Smoke drifted over thousands of corpses—scorched armor, shattered blades, twitching limbs. The last unit of resistance fighters huddled in a crater, backs to the flame.
They were young. Too young.
A teenage boy whispered a prayer to a god that hadn't answered in months. A woman beside him clutched a blood-soaked photo, her fingers shaking. An older man stared at the blackened sky, waiting for a mercy that wouldn't come.
Then came the sound.
Footsteps.
Heavy. Mechanical. Wet.
From the smoke emerged a towering abomination—part machine, part beast, covered in bone, wrapped in screaming steel. Its eyes were embers, its mouth a mess of drills and fangs.
No one moved.
A girl tried to run.
She was the first to die.
The battlefield turned into a slaughterhouse.
Men were ripped apart mid-scream. Plasma beams tore through armor like cloth. A soldier tried to fire back and was split in half before he pulled the trigger. Blood rained. The ground trembled. A dying fighter reached for his brother only to watch him be crushed beneath a single iron claw.
They fought, but it was hopeless.
It always was.
In a crumbling building, survivors huddled around a flickering lantern. Rain pattered through the broken roof. No one spoke.
A child whimpered. An old woman wept silently in the corner, holding the helmet of someone who didn't make it.
Outside, the wind carried screams from distant hills.
One soldier stood by the doorway, watching the darkness.
He whispered to himself.
Soldier:
"If hell is real... I think we're in it."
Location: Deep within a fortified bunker beneath a mountain range. Storms rage outside.
Inside, the cold hum of old lights mixes with quiet breathing and tension so thick it crushes the lungs.
The survivors had regrouped. Scarred, hollow-eyed, but alive. Not by luck—by sacrifice.
At the long steel table surrounded by flickering monitors and war maps, the leaders of the frontier had gathered.
Eve stood at the center, arms crossed, face shadowed by grief and firelight. She hadn't been the same since Victoria's words haunted her… since Ty's death.
Xiao Ling, armored and battle-worn, leaned against a wall, arms folded, her eyes closed, sensing every vibration in the room. Her world had long been consumed—this war was now hers too.
Dr. Jin flipped through readings on a cracked tablet, lips pressed into a tight line. "Global leyline disruption is worsening," he said grimly. "What was once a dimensional breach is now a full collapse. Entire continents are vanishing."
Adam was silent in his corner. He hadn't said more than ten words in months. Eyes cold. Detached. He leaned back in his chair, arms folded, unmoved by the footage of burning cities cycling across the screens.
The air grew colder as the meeting wore on.
Commander Li, one of the last high-ranking generals of the Frontier, slammed his fist on the table. "We've lost sixty percent of our outposts in the last ninety days. And every time we respond, we're losing more lives."
Suddenly, the lights flickered.
The main screen powered on by itself, static hissing across it. Then a shape formed.
A black tower—not the one they destroyed. A new one. Taller. Alive. Surrounded by a red moon and screaming wind.
A single message blinked on screen in blood-red letters.
> HE IS COMING
Adam narrowed his eyes, reading it once. Then turned away.
Eve nodded. "Is this the end?"
She looked around the table. Her voice cracked, but she held steady.
"We've all lost something. Some of us… everything. But I swear this—we end this war. No matter the cost."
Xiao Ling stepped away from the wall, her boots echoing against the cold concrete floor of the war room. The glow of the monitors cast sharp shadows across her face—still young, but hardened by war.
Her red eyes, once fierce and defiant, were now solemn as she bowed her head slightly.
Xiao Ling:
"Apologies, everyone… but I must return to my world."
The room fell silent.
Eve turned toward her, shocked. "You're serious?"
Xiao Ling:
"I've lingered in this war long enough. I helped because I believed it was tied to mine. But now, I sense the balance of Xianzhou is slipping… if I don't return, it will fall. My people… my knights… they still wait for me."
Dr. Jin looked up from his device. "The portal you came through has long collapsed. There's no known stable route left—"
Xiao Ling stepped forward and placed a small, shimmering cloudsteel token on the table.
Commander Li:
"Will we ever see you again?"
Xiao Ling looked him in the eyes, then turned to Eve, then to Adam, whose expression hadn't changed.
Xiao Ling:
"If the stars align, and our paths must cross again… you'll know me by the blade."
With that, she gave a final nod and turned, her cape fluttering behind her like storm wind through a forgotten temple.
As the war room doors shut behind her, silence returned.