The Watcher's silence shattered in an instant.With a roar like the breaking of worlds, it brought its colossal arms down on the marble platform. The impact sent cracks ripping outward, whole slabs of stone breaking loose and tumbling into the abyss.
The heroes clung to what ground remained as the Dominion itself buckled beneath the Watcher's fury.
The Sky Falls
The fractured heavens joined the assault.Shards of the broken sky fell like meteors, streaks of fire and shadow crashing into the platform. Each impact sprayed molten stone and raw energy, burning holes straight through reality.
Lys rolled aside as one blazing shard struck, the heat searing her skin. She loosed an arrow upward, and it split into three shafts of silver light, exploding against the shard before it hit the others.
"Move!" she shouted. "Don't stand still for a second!"
The Ground Collapses
The platform was no longer a single battlefield. It was breaking apart into smaller islands, each drifting in the void, some rising, others sinking. Chasms opened beneath them, and bridges of rune-light flickered into existence only to vanish again seconds later.
Thalor planted his shield in the ground, bracing against a storm of falling debris. "Stay together! If we're scattered, it's over!"
But the Watcher struck again, one colossal arm sweeping across the platform like a scythe. Thalor raised his shield, the impact ringing like a bell of war. He was thrown back, crashing against the edge, his boots skidding dangerously close to the abyss.
Rina darted in with both blades, slashing at the massive arm. Sparks flew, and for a moment the void-flesh peeled away to reveal cracks of light inside the Watcher's form. But its laughter boomed, and shadows poured from the wound, forming new creatures that clawed toward her.
The Storm of Chains
The Watcher raised its arms high again, and the chains returned—vast, black, and glowing with runes of torment. They whipped through the air, smashing fragments of the platform to dust.
One chain lashed out at Maren, faster than lightning. She thrust her staff forward, screaming a spell of light. A barrier of crystalline fire erupted, shattering the chain inches from her chest. The backlash sent her sprawling, coughing blood, but she lived.
Another chain coiled toward Carlos. He met it head-on, the Blade of Ascension igniting in his grip. He swung, and the sword cleaved straight through the chain. The severed pieces writhed, then exploded in a flare of white and black sparks.
The Watcher staggered. For the first time, its towering form faltered.
The Turning Point
"Did you see that?" Carlos shouted over the chaos. "The light hurts it! The blade can break through!"
The Watcher's roar shook the Dominion, its eyes blazing hotter. The air around it grew heavier, as though reality itself bowed to its anger. Shadows thickened, twisting into walls that tried to box the heroes in, cutting them off from each other.
But Lys shot a blazing arrow that cut a path open. Thalor charged through with his shield, breaking another. Rina darted ahead, striking fast and hard, while Maren's spells lit the darkness like storms.
Together, they pushed forward.
Carlos leapt onto a rising fragment of marble, blade raised high. The Watcher's immense head loomed above, its helm cracked, its eyes pure inferno.
"Come on then!" Carlos roared. "Test me! Test all of us!"
He brought the Blade of Ascension down in a strike that met the Watcher's helm dead center. The impact sent a shockwave through the Dominion itself.
The fractured sky screamed. The abyss howled. The Watcher staggered, its colossal body splitting with cracks of burning light.
It wasn't defeated. Not yet. But for the first time, the impossible being bled.
And the heroes stood ready to finish what they had begun.