The world did not end with a roar, but with the sound of a god's hunger. The wave of pure, psychic force that erupted from the Nexus threw Finnian and the others back, their ears ringing with a silent, soul-deep scream. He landed hard on the slick stone, the impact jarring his teeth.
Through the swirling chaos, he saw Ouen on the altar, bathed in a column of black energy, his face a mask of ecstatic triumph. The thousands of Covenanters surrounding the Nexus were on their knees, not in fear, but in rapture, their arms raised to the sky in worship of the abomination they had unleashed.
"The grate!" Eva's voice cut through the din, a commander's snarl of pure survival instinct. "Back to the pool! Move!"
Her order broke their paralysis. The fight to get to the altar had been desperate; the fight to get away was a frantic scramble for their lives. The elite Covenanter guards, recovering from the initial blast, moved to intercept them, but their formation was broken. Some were staring at the sky in a trance, while others seemed energized by the raw power, their movements becoming jerky and unnatural.
Finnian grabbed Hanna's hand, pulling her along as Praxus stumbled behind them. Eva and her sword were their shield, a whirlwind of steel that carved a path through the dazed and disorganized fanatics. They reached the edge of the great, black pool and, without hesitation, plunged into the churning water.
The pool was no longer just water. It was icy cold, and the water itself felt thick and oily, clinging to Finnian's skin like a shroud. It seemed to actively suck the warmth and strength from his limbs. The Nexus at the pool's center was now a terrible engine, glowing with a purple so deep it was almost black, and it was pulling the water towards it in a slow, powerful whirlpool.
Chunks of the Progenitor ruin, unable to withstand the forces being unleashed, were now calving off into the water, sending huge waves crashing around them. Finnian fought against the current, his powerful sailor's strokes barely enough to make headway towards the dark shape of the aqueduct grate.
He risked a glance behind him. He saw a Covenanter guard, wounded and lying at the water's edge, suddenly begin to seize. The man's limbs elongated at impossible angles, his skin turning a sickly, ash-grey. The purple light of the Nexus seemed to pour into him, remaking him.
Finnian looked away, a fresh wave of terror giving him a new burst of strength. He reached the grate, pulling himself and Hanna through the opening just as a massive, carved block of stone crashed into the water where they had been seconds before. Eva and Praxus scrambled in right behind him, and the four of them collapsed in the relative safety of the stone tunnel.
"The whole place is coming down!" Eva shouted over the roar. "We have to move!"
Their retreat through the aqueduct was a nightmare. The smooth stone walls groaned and shuddered around them, the entire structure threatening to collapse. Water, black and corrupt, now poured from a dozen new cracks in the ceiling. They ran, their footsteps echoing in the groaning darkness, leaving the sounds of their dying world behind.
They were halfway to the exit when they saw it.
Lurching out of a side tunnel was a thing that might have once been a man. It was one of the Covenanter guards they had fought on their way in, but the raw, chaotic power of Ghra'thul had found him and turned him into a new and terrible creation. Its limbs were too long, bending at the wrong angles. Its skin was the color of cold ash, and its eyes burned with the same sickly purple light as the Nexus. It let out a low, guttural shriek and scrambled towards them with an unnatural speed.
It was the first monster of the new age.
Finnian froze, his mind unable to process the horror. But Eva did not. Her sword was out, a streak of silver in the gloom. The creature was fast, but she was faster. She met its charge, her blade deflecting a clawed hand that would have torn a normal man's throat out. The thing was strong, unnaturally so, but it was mindless, driven by pure, chaotic rage. Eva, all grief and fear now forged into pure, deadly focus, sidestepped its next lunge and drove her sword through its chest.
It made no sound as it died, simply collapsing into a pile of dissolving shadows and grey dust.
They didn't wait. They ran.
They finally burst out of the aqueduct's entrance, collapsing onto the cool night sand, gasping the clean desert air. Moments later, a deep, grinding roar echoed from within, and the perfect arch of the Progenitor tunnel collapsed in on itself, sealing the passage forever in a cloud of dust and black stone.
A few figures rushed to their side. It was Captain Malik, his arm in a crude sling, with the three surviving sailors and one of Eva's guards. Their diversion had been costly, but it had bought the precious minutes they had needed.
The survivors, nine souls, all that remained of their company, stared back at the city of Qar-Teth.
The sight was apocalyptic. The column of black energy was no longer a beam; it was a permanent, swirling vortex of black clouds that seemed to have become a new, unholy mountain on the horizon. The unnatural storm blotted out the sky for miles. Strange, twisted shapes, no longer human, could be seen moving within the city's broken walls, their screeches carrying on the wind. The beautiful, impossible oasis was no longer a place of life. It was a cancer on the face of the world, a direct wound into the heart of reality.
Praxus, his face pale in the eerie light, finally gave voice to the terrible truth.
"It is done," he whispered, his voice cracking. "The prison is not just broken; it has become a throne. He is no longer just a voice. He can touch the world now. He can feel it. And he can… remake it in his own image."
Eva stood, her gaze fixed on the horror they had failed to prevent. The mission was a catastrophic failure. Joric, her men, the prisoners, all dead for nothing. She looked at her small, broken company of survivors. They were fugitives, a thousand leagues from a home that was no longer safe, in a world that now belonged to a monster.
She turned her back on the nightmare of Qar-Teth. There was only one direction left to go.
North.
---
The Chronicle of the Fallen
Time Period Covered: Day 191 of the Age of Fear (continued)
Victims of The Reaping: 0
Victims of the Covenant: 0
Deaths from the Qar-Teth Incident: Estimated 2,000+ (Includes Covenanter guards, pilgrims, and prisoners killed in the chaotic energy release, the collapse of the Nexus, and the subsequent birth of the first Ashen.)
Total Lives Lost: 2,000+
Of Note Among the Fallen:
— Twelve unidentified prisoners, sacrificed at the Altar of the Nexus.
— The majority of the Covenanter leadership and their followers at Qar-Teth.
Of Note Among the Living:
— High Scrutator Ouen, last seen at the heart of the energy vortex, emerges scarred but empowered, now the self-proclaimed Voice of the Tyrant.