The sky over Heart of the Dawn was clear that day. Too clear.
The clouds had withdrawn as if the heavens themselves feared what was to come. The black flags of the Republic flew over the Communications Tower, while in the streets of Gray City, Agrobia, and Fortis, citizens went about their routines with forced calm… as if habit were a cloak to avoid thinking.
High atop the Palace of Congress, surrounded by 120 empty seats, President Soren Vale studied reports on his handheld console. His face was gaunt, eyes sunken in dark circles. He hadn't slept in weeks.
"And what is this?" he asked dryly, displaying a hologram of a military protocol sealed with Fortis' emblem.
A trembling general replied:
"Order 77, sir. Approved by the Council of Pillars. Starting tonight… all civilian zones will be… permanently evacuated."
"Evacuated?" Soren frowned. "Where are the shelters? Where are the evacuation routes?"
Silence was his only answer.
Soren lowered his gaze to the report. There was no evacuation. No shelters. Only a code: National Purification.
His hands began to shake.
⸻
Fortis – The Steel Barracks
The Pillars were gathered in the Command Room, where red lights signaled the activation of all war systems. On a digital wall, a countdown glowed: 02:14:33.
Gabriel, the founding Pillar, spoke with firm authority:
"The country has grown weak. The people have forgotten order. Human corruption has rotted our roots."
"We must restore balance," added Michael, the Pillar of Fire, with a burning gaze.
"The method is extreme, but necessary," said Marcus, adjusting his cybernetic lenses. "Survivors will be molded from scratch."
Only one of them remained silent: Jackson, Pillar of Water. His eyes were fixed on the screen showing entire neighborhoods, families, children… all marked as "strategic targets."
"This is not what Shastakan would have wanted," he murmured.
Gabriel shot him a piercing glare.
"Shastakan sleeps. We keep his vision alive. Or we destroy it."
⸻
The President Awakens
Soren walked the halls of the Communications Tower, secretly recording his final message. He knew he was being watched, that any attempt to stop the operation would be considered treason. But he could not stay silent.
"To all who hear me," he said to a hidden camera, "today the country we love will be killed. Not by foreign enemies, but by its own guardians. The Pillars have betrayed us. They will purge the entire population. This is not Norgalia's will. This is genocide."
His eyes burned with rage and sorrow.
"Forgive me for being weak. I did not stop this sooner. But now… now I will do what must be done."
⸻
The Flood of Fire
At exactly 00:00 hours, an explosion shook the Hall of the Pillars.
Water burst from the underground security chambers, sweeping away titanium walls, reinforced vidrium columns, and millennia-old circuits. President Soren Vale, still with his hand on the release valve, was dragged by the torrent.
Surveillance cameras captured his final expression: a weary smile.
The Hall was completely destroyed. The control system collapsed.
The world saw his message before all the screens in the country went dark.
⸻
The Kingdom in Ruins
The next morning, silence was absolute.
The cities were empty. Streets blackened by smoke. Monuments covered in ash. News broadcasts had ceased. Networks were dead. The Pillars… vanished.
All of Norgalia, once an empire that spanned the world, had become a nameless graveyard.
For months, only the wind's echoes crossed the empty fields.
Until one day, amid the undergrowth, a young figure appeared, walking among the remains of a train station shrouded in mist.
His eyes were green. His clothes worn. His steps determined.
His name was Pablo.
And he was about to begin the restoration of the fallen kingdom
in memory of what happened in this kingdom long ago
The air in Norgalia had grown heavy. Not from the weather, nor from the dust of time-worn ruins, but from the premonition of the inevitable. Every street in Gray City, every field in Agrobia, every lab in Cintekis, every factory in Laboris… fell silent.
A sickly silence.
⸻
Gray City – 3 Hours Before the Blackout
People carried on with their lives. Between routine and scarcity, despair had become part of the landscape.
In the main square, an elderly woman sold bread made from fermented Agrobia roots. Beside her, a young man tuned an old guitar with broken strings patched by recycled wire. His songs were not cheerful—they were mourning songs, the music of people who had forgotten how to smile.
A boy approached, clothes torn, feet bare.
"When will the lights come back, sir?" he asked the guitarist.
The young man swallowed hard and looked at him.
"When the storm passes."
No one knew the storm was already here.
⸻
Laboris – The First Shot
At 9:17 PM, the first warning appeared on public holographic screens:
"National emergency. Do not leave your homes. The military will carry out containment and security operations. For your safety, obey all orders."
Seconds later, the first army units descended on the workers' districts of Laboris. Armed, helmeted with no insignia, their steps echoed like drums of death.
At Factory 31, where steel plates and components for interdimensional trains were forged, someone dared to speak up.
"What are you doing here armed?! This is a civilian zone!"
The soldier didn't answer. He raised his weapon.
A shot. A woman fell. Then another. And another.
Panic.
Workers ran, alarms blared, doors tried to close—but it was too late. The purge had begun.
⸻
Agrobia – Resistance Amid the Dust
Agrobia didn't fall without a fight.
Farmers, seeing troops advance across the fields, blocked dirt roads with old machinery. Excavators, tractors, and crop-sprayer flamethrowers became improvised weapons.
"This is sacred land!" shouted an elder as he set fire to a barn to block the way.
Gunfire followed swiftly. The air filled with smoke, ash, and screams.
A young woman, her face covered by a red scarf, ran through the heart of the fields with a radio in hand:
"This is Agrobian Resistance. They're wiping us out. The army is killing civilians! We repeat, they are—"
A bullet cut the transmission.
⸻
Heart of the Dawn – The Last Message
As the country burned, Soren Vale descended to the lowest level of the Palace of the Sun.
He didn't know if anyone would hear him. But he had to speak.
In front of a forgotten camera, he recorded his message and secretly uploaded it to the internal network he still controlled in Comunicaré. The file, titled "The People's Final Truth", was encrypted with a single auto-transmission key: Protocol 77 Activation.
And that activation was already underway.
He walked to the central gate of the Hall of the Pillars. Water roared behind the walls. Soren placed the key in the generator and took a deep breath.
"Forgive me for not fighting sooner. But at least… I will die a free man."
He turned the key.
⸻
Cintekis – Total Blackout
In Cintekis, engineers watched helplessly as their own servers were hijacked to control deadly drones. A young scientist, Ilyra, disconnected the last control system before shrapnel reached her.
Her sacrifice shut down thousands of drones.
But it wasn't enough.
⸻
Mediare, Hospitale, and Umbrallya – The Extermination
Hospitals were next. Defenseless. Unarmed.
Doctors lined up in front of soldiers. A female doctor raised her hands in protest.
"These people can't even walk! What kind of war is this?!"
The answer was a volley of bullets.
Bodies fell onto stretchers. Blood soaked the white sheets.
⸻
The Blackout of Norgalia
At exactly midnight, the central power system in Electrium collapsed.
The network went down.
Lights went out.
The last image projected on screens across the country showed President Soren Vale opening the gates of the Hall of the Pillars, followed by a monstrous wave of water. Then darkness.
For months, Norgalia ceased to exist. Not on maps. Not in communications. Not in memory. Only the echoes of a nation destroyed by its own heart remained.
⸻
Epilogue – "The Arrival"
In a forgotten station shrouded in mist, a young figure walked silently, exploring what remained of a skeletal city.
He broke open the rusted door of a train car. Inside, he found documents, ancient symbols, drawings of a crown.
Pablo.
His eyes lifted to see an inscription carved into a stone column:
"Here was born the power of the world. Here it will die. Or rise again."
And thus began the awakening of a new Norgalia.