The storm broke.
Not as rain or wind, but as rupture. The sky above the Plateau of Echoes split like paper, revealing an endless chasm of void and stars. The Gate of the Void had fully awakened. Its presence pressed down on the earth like a god leaning too close.
Russ stood at its center, arms raised, the Codex glowing along his spine in lines of white fire. Veins of energy slithered through the stone under his feet, crawling outward in sacred patterns.
"It's stabilizing," Geo called from the edge, reading his device with shaking hands. "But barely! Your heartbeat is syncing with the damn thing. If it spikes, the entire Veil collapses inward."
"Then don't let it spike," Russ muttered, voice tight.
Layla hovered near him, her twin blades drawn, glowing with runes. Her eyes scanned the horizon, where the tremble of marching echoed like a war drum. "They're coming. Elira's whole army. We won't stop them all."
"We don't have to," Minx said, landing beside her. "We just need to delay. Long enough for him to finish what he's started."
A thunderclap boomed—no lightning, just sound. At the southern edge of the plateau, the first wave of the Crimson Dominion appeared.
They did not march in silence.
The ground cracked with every step of the Juggernauts. Sky-serpents slithered in swarms, their scales glistening red. War mages floated above the masses, chanting ancient oaths. And at their front—draped in a cloak of living blood—stood Elira.
No longer a sister.
No longer human.
Now, she was Queen of the Gate.
She raised her hand, and the gate behind her pulsed.
"You think your gate is the answer, Russ?" her voice thundered across the distance, louder than any megaphone. "Then I will show you what power truly looks like."
"Brace!" Layla shouted.
The first wave hit.
From both ends of the plateau, clashing forces collided. Flesh, steel, flame, and shadow. Layla was the first to meet them, her twin blades dancing through the air like light through crystal. Geo's turrets snapped into position, launching electromagnetic bursts. Minx leapt and vanished, cutting down scouts before they could blink.
Russ didn't move. He couldn't.
The Gate of Void fed on focus, and he was its center now. The Codex linked him to the energy field itself.
He began to float, inches above the ground.
"Russ!" Layla called out, barely dodging a war beast's strike.
"I'm not gone!" he shouted. "But I'm not fully here either."
The Gate pulsed, and with it, so did the battlefield.
Time slowed. Some enemies froze mid-charge. Others began to disintegrate, not from wounds but from sudden erasure—like the universe had forgotten them.
"What the hell is he doing?" Minx asked, stunned.
Geo's eyes widened. "He's rewriting the battlefield. The Codex is allowing him to selectively phase realities. He's bending rules."
Layla's eyes lit up with hope. "Then we stand a chance."
But at that moment, Elira leapt from the front lines—blades drawn, a smile of madness on her face.
She landed before Russ, who was still hovering, locked in trance.
"Hello, brother," she whispered.
And she struck.