They fell fast, the emergency tube guiding them downward through chaos.
Lenny's voice cut through the noise.
Lenny: "The core…destroying it must have started a chain reaction."
Emilia: "Then we head for the old freight tunnels. It's the only way out before this whole sector turns into a crater."
As the shaft opened to the tunnels, the group landed hard, bruised but alive.
The room was filled with sirens, scattered voices, and flickering maps—but Ronnie said nothing.
He stood alone before the central command screen as it displayed Sector Twelve, now twisted into a downward spiral of collapsing architecture and floating debris. Gravity had been torn open in pieces—cars suspended sideways, water flowing upward, buildings folded in on themselves.
Officer: "Sir, gravitational distortion is expanding across five districts. Emergency stabilizers are failing. We're evacuating Neon Point and Sector Four—"
The officer stopped mid-sentence as Ronnie raised a hand. His eyes hadn't moved from the screen.
Ronnie was silent.
His breathing was slow, almost distant.
Ronnie (to himself): "What… did they awaken?"
He watched as the Halo's anchors ignited one by one across the grid—too synchronized for chaos, too chaotic for order.
Above the chaos, where no alarms echoed and no commands rang, Elara stood on the rooftop, her hood drawn up, wind blowing gently across her face.
She watched the distant lights flicker and bend. From this height, it looked surreal—like the city itself was breathing.
But she felt it. In her bones. Something had shifted.
Her fingers curled over the edge of the railing. Her lips barely moved as she whispered:
Elara (whispering): "You're still out there… Don't fall… Henry."
The skies above Neoterra turned dark—not from weather, but from weight. All across the city, communication towers cracked into static—then reformed into a singular transmission. Monitors, projection walls, phones—all began to show the same image:
A single figure standing before a field of collapsing structures.
A black circlet floated silently above his head. His eyes were like twin singularities.
No background. No sound. Only Zorath Veil.
Then he spoke—his voice calm, absolute, and vibrating with power.
Zorath Veil:
"People of Neoterra."
"You were born in gravity. You will now die beneath it."
"Your world, once ruled by false kings and failed ascendants, has reached its final limit."
"You fear collapse. I am collapse."
The city went quiet.
Zorath Veil:
"Let the age of ascending fall. Let the veil lift. And let your towers—your truths—your gods…"
"…crumble."
His hand rose.
Zorath Veil:
"This is not Phase Omega."
"Welcome to the Event Horizon."
And with that, the screens blacked out.
Across the city, tremors rippled through every district.
Every gravitational anchor activated.
Neoterra Prime began to fall apart.
The walls around the group were shaking. Pipes twisted. Loose bolts floated for a moment… then slammed into the ceiling.
Lenny (panting): "That broadcast… did you hear what he said?"
Jack (low growl): "The whole damn city heard it."
Ichiro: "Zorath's not just some weapon. He's making war on the laws of nature."
Emilia: "And we're in the heart of it."
She looked toward Henry, who hadn't spoken. He was staring upward through a collapsed shaft where faint strands of inverted light drifted like smoke.
Henry: "Event Horizon…"
He didn't say it dramatically. Just… as a fact. A realization settling in.
Emilia: "Let's move."
They moved cautiously through the flickering tunnels. The tunnels had never been safe, but now they were groaning, threatening to collapse with every distant pulse of gravity above.
Lenny (checking his device): "If we head toward the lower transport spines, we can bypass the main collapses. The old freight rail should still be intact."
Jack (muttering): "Better be. I don't feel like flying through a black hole tonight."
Emilia phased forward, scouting ahead.
Ichiro moved beside Henry. His voice was low and serious.
Ichiro: "You saw what was in that core chamber. They changed their plan. Elion wasn't the offering anymore. You were."
Henry didn't look at him. He just nodded once.
Henry: "I know."
Ichiro's brows furrowed.
Ichiro: "Then why didn't you say anything?"
Henry: "Because if I say it out loud… it becomes real."
Silence.
Henry: "And I'm not ready to be someone's god."
Henry smiled, which shocked Ichiro for a second.
Ichiro: "Keep your head up."
He put his hand on Henry's shoulder.
Henry (nodding): "Got it. Have my back, will you?"
Ichiro smiled hard.
Ichiro (nodding): "Always, brother."
They reached the base of an old service rail station, half-buried in collapsed concrete and twisted steel. Lenny climbed a broken signal post and looked around.
Lenny: "Still functional. But we'll need to cut through the back line. Could be more Halo remnants down there."
Emilia (calmly): "We handle it. We don't have another choice."
Jack rolled his neck, ready.
Jack: "Let them come."
Henry stayed at the edge, watching a tiny pool of floating water spiral upward, gravity reversed in patches, warping even the smallest details.
Henry (to himself): "Zorath didn't take the city. He… rewrote it."
The tunnel ceiling had partially collapsed behind them. With dust rising and distant alarms echoing like fading sirens, Henry's group sprinted toward the circular freight hatch—the last gateway to the outer industrial zones.
A few more meters.
Just a few more—
But then…she arrived.
A soft hum.
A shift in the air.
And then… silence.
The space before the hatch cracked.
Then she stepped forward.
She raised a single hand—the gravity around them stilled.
Henry stepped forward, fists lit faintly with Heavenly energy.
Henry: "You're in the way."
But she didn't answer. She didn't move either.
Lenny: "We have to go. NOW! Veyras's data said that this is Viresa Knox, an Ascendant of the Halo."
A gravitational surge collapsed the floor beneath Ichiro and Lenny before they could react—only Jack leapt in time, dragging them out with one massive wing sweep.
Emilia (mist-form activating): "Scatter!"
But it was too late.
Viresa's second motion released cascading pressure pulses in precise concentric rings. They tore through the tunnel like slicing wires. Emilia's mist was shredded—she reformed weakly, coughing blood.
Jack (growling): "Let's see you bleed."
Jack hardened his fists with scales. He launched forward with a roar—but she was already behind him.
Her obsidian arm pressed against his back. A moment later—
CRACK!
Jack was slammed into the wall so hard the concrete folded.
Henry's energy flared—With shooting star he moved in her direction.
He became a streak of blue divine light, aiming a blow at her side with a Heavenly-charged fist—but she raised her finger, forming a barrier of pure density—
BOOM!
Henry was blasted backwards mid-dash, crashing through a steel pillar. Blue heavenly sparks burst off his body as he gasped in pain.