Part Four
The rooftop was almost gone.
Half the building had already disintegrated into drifting particles.
Wen De forced air into his lungs.
"System…" he whispered weakly.
No response.
"System!"
Emergency protocol available.
The voice sounded distorted.
"Define emergency."
Temporary Overload of Host Potential.
Survival Probability: 3%.
"Better than zero."
Lea dragged herself toward him.
"Don't," she rasped. "You'll die."
"Working on it."
Warning: Overload will permanently damage Host foundation.
"Do it."
The world went silent again.
But this time—
It wasn't the sky freezing.
It was inside him.
Every dormant pathway ignited.
Pain unlike anything he'd known tore through his body.
He screamed.
Energy erupted outward.
Not refined.
Not controlled.
Chaotic.
The array in the sky stalled mid-descent.
The eye recoiled slightly.
Wen De stood.
Barely.
Cracks of light spread across his skin like fractures in porcelain.
"I'm not residue," he said hoarsely.
He raised one shaking hand—
And tore at the descending formation.
Not with technique.
With raw interference.
The sky itself distorted.
The array shattered into scattered fragments.
The eye narrowed furiously.
"Anomaly escalating beyond containment."
The crack above the city destabilized violently.
Lea's eyes widened in horror.
"You're destabilizing the seal!"
Wen De swayed.
Vision fading.
"I know…"
The eye began withdrawing.
Not defeated.
Recalculating.
The crack in the sky sealed abruptly.
The pressure vanished.
The array dissolved.
The colossal eye disappeared.
Silence.
Riverfall City lay half-ruined.
Buildings missing entire sections.
Power dead across several districts.
Lea caught Wen De before he collapsed completely.
"You idiot," she whispered.
He gave a faint smile.
"Did we win?"
"No."
Sirens wailed faintly in the distance.
The city would remember this.
Governments would notice.
Hidden factions would awaken.
And the higher realms now knew—
Earth was active.
Lea looked up at the sky.
"It's begun."
Wen De's consciousness faded.
As darkness swallowed him, the system spoke one final time.
Overload Complete.
Host Foundation: Severely Fractured.
Realm Progression: Delayed.
Then—
Attention.
Secondary Signals Detected.
Other Realms have noticed.
Far beyond Earth—
Multiple cracks began forming in the void.
And something else—
Something older than the Throne—
Had opened its eyes.