The Gate shattered without a sound.
Reality folded in on itself, and a spiral of space and time collapsed inward like a sinkhole devouring the heavens. From its heart, no light emerged, only a void that twisted the very idea of perception.
Then… it came.
A claw the color of dead stars pierced through the swirling rift, impossibly long and segmented like some ancient predator. The second claw followed, raking open the Gate fully — not as an entry, but as a birth canal for something that should never exist.
Out slithered a mass that refused to be understood — pitch-black skin that shimmered across infinite dimensions. Its head, if it could be called that, twisted downward with a maw lined in jagged rows. That maw breathed — pure, unfiltered pain.
The Abomination had arrived.
Arkzen stood atop his obsidian tower miles from the Gate. His eyes widened, his grin manic. The creature was beyond expectations.
And yet, the grin faltered. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple. Words caught in his throat as the air around him trembled under the weight of the entity's presence.
"This... this is—"
He couldn't even finish the sentence.
But the Sovereign could.
Far beneath, hidden within the planet's marrow where no light had reached in eons, the Sovereign stood before a massive altar of thorns, gazing at the spectacle above. His voice, calm yet triumphant.
"So many cycles. So many resets. And at last… you awaken."
The Abomination, freshly emerged from the Gate, released a guttural growl. No language. No meaning.
The world shrieked in response.
Mountains trembled and cracked. Oceans boiled at the coasts. Forests withered as if decades had passed in a breath. Birds fell mid-flight. The wind died.
The growl alone nearly broke the planet.
But the Sovereign did not flinch.
He smiled.
It did not attack him.
Instead, it watched him.
A silent bond — not of alliance, but of purpose. The Abomination's will was hollow, empty. And yet the Sovereign's Essence laced the corners of its being like residue soaked into stone.
"I shaped your vessel across realities," he whispered, extending a single hand. "Now... devour this world. Feed. Collapse the chains of balance and bring forth the perfect resonance."
He never said who the vessel was for.
But he knew.
And now, the end could begin.
The Abomination surged forward.
As it moved, its body expanded rapidly, absorbing energy, growing — a tide of despair rolling across the land. From a distant cave once hidden deep beneath obsidian canyons, it emerged into full view, blotting out the sun. Its limbs dragged through the sky, miles across, leaving trails of nothingness in their wake. Birds vanished. Mountains collapsed. The sky itself grew darker by proximity.
A living extinction.
Far from the impact point, in the center of Elandor's upper spire, Kael's eyes snapped open.
He felt it.
The Essence of Oblivion now had form.
Without hesitation, Kael's hands flared outward, and a dome of brilliant, crystalline Essence spiraled from his body — an all-encompassing barrier covering Elandor in a shimmering sphere. Storm, Flame, Lightning, Kinetic, and raw Will intertwined into a single unified aegis.
It held.
For now.
Without a word, Kael vanished from the city.
He reappeared miles away — a barren stretch of wilderness where nothing yet grew. There, alone, he stood.
The wind had died.
The trees were silent.
And far on the horizon, he saw it — a black blot that twisted reality itself as it moved. A storm of death, a crawling apocalypse.
Kael breathed slowly.
He flexed his hands. No techniques. No stance.
Just a warrior standing at the edge of the end.
His eyes narrowed.
"This is it…"
His voice was steady, resolute, unflinching.
"My— No. Humanity's final stand."