Elena's Return & The Unseen Threat
Liam's mind raced as he stared at Elena, who had just emerged from the rift—alive but… different.
The battle against Zairoth, the Architect, had stalled as even the godlike being turned its gaze toward the dark, growing mass forming above them.
> WARNING: UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED.
THREAT LEVEL: INDETERMINABLE.
SYSTEM RESPONSE: CATASTROPHIC RISK.
Liam's fingers twitched.
"The System can't even define this thing?"
Elena stumbled forward, still regaining her breath. Her eyes burned with knowledge.
Liam caught her before she collapsed.
"Elena," he said urgently, "what happened? Where did you go?"
She gripped his arm tightly, looking straight into his eyes.
And what she said next sent a chill through his entire being.
"The Architects… are running from something."
Silence.
The entire battlefield seemed to pause.
Even Zairoth's golden eyes flickered at her words.
Dante took a step forward, disbelief on his face. "Wait. You're saying these things—the gods that control the System—are afraid of something else?"
Elena nodded.
"I saw it," she whispered. "The true force beyond the System. Something that even the Architects cannot control."
Liam's heart pounded.
Because if the Architects were afraid—
Then humanity was already facing a war beyond anything they had imagined.
---
The Truth Beyond the System
Liam helped Elena steady herself, his grip firm.
"Start from the beginning," he ordered.
She took a deep breath before speaking.
"When Zairoth erased me… I wasn't dead. I was sent somewhere else."
Liam's frown deepened. "Where?"
She swallowed hard.
"A place between realities. A fractured dimension where even the System doesn't function properly."
Liam's blood ran cold.
"A place even the System doesn't control?"
Elena continued, her voice shaking slightly.
"There were others there. Things that shouldn't exist. And I saw it—the force that the Architects are running from."
She looked up, her face pale.
"It's not just the System that's at risk, Liam."
"Reality itself is breaking."
---
The Dark Entity Appears
Before anyone could process her words, the mass of darkness in the sky fully formed.
It wasn't just a shadow.
It was something alive.
Something wrong.
The world itself seemed to scream in rejection of its existence.
Zairoth, the Architect, turned toward the anomaly, its form glitching slightly.
For the first time since appearing, Zairoth spoke.
"Impossible."
Liam's eyes snapped to the Architect.
"You recognize this thing?"
Zairoth's golden gaze locked onto him.
"The Voidborn have awakened."
A wave of static energy rippled across the battlefield, and suddenly—
Everything broke.
---
The First Voidborn: The Endbringer
> WARNING! WARNING!
UNKNOWN ENTITY BREACHING REALITY.
DESIGNATION: VOIDBORN – CLASS ENDLING.
THREAT LEVEL: EXTINCTION-CLASS.
The mass of darkness condensed into a humanoid form.
But it wasn't truly a body.
It was a hole in existence itself, shaped like a man but filled with nothing.
Its face was smooth, void of features, yet everyone on the battlefield felt its gaze.
Dante gritted his teeth. "What the hell is that thing?"
The Voidborn spoke.
And its voice was not a sound.
It was a thought injected into their very beings.
"You are all anomalies. This reality is a failed equation."
Its head tilted toward Zairoth.
"Even you, Architect. Your design is flawed."
Zairoth reacted instantly.
The Architect fired a lance of golden energy, a blast strong enough to erase an entire world.
It struck the Voidborn—
And disappeared.
As if it had never existed.
---
The Architects Are Not Invincible
Liam's breath hitched.
"It just… deleted Zairoth's attack?"
Zairoth, for the first time, showed hesitation.
The Architect's form flickered, its composure faltering.
"This world is not meant to persist," the Voidborn continued. "You will all be erased."
Liam's mind went into overdrive.
The Architects were powerful, but they were still bound to the System.
But the Voidborn?
They weren't even part of reality.
They were something beyond existence itself.
And if Liam didn't act now—
Everything would be erased.
---
The Counterattack: Unleashing Hellstorm Again
Liam gritted his teeth.
"Reinhold!"
The Engineer immediately responded. "I know! Recharging Hellstorm now!"
The massive weapon hummed with energy, its power surging back to full charge.
But the Voidborn simply watched.
It didn't move.
It didn't react.
As if it didn't even care.
Liam's instincts screamed.
"Something is wrong."
Reinhold aimed.
"FIRING NOW!"
The Hellstorm Core roared, sending another beam of pure System destruction directly at the Voidborn.
It hit—
And then, just like Zairoth's attack, it vanished.
Liam's stomach dropped.
"It's deleting our strongest attacks like they don't exist…"
The Voidborn tilted its head slightly.
"Power means nothing in a broken equation."
And then it lifted a hand—
And erased Reinhold from existence.
---
The Fall of a System Master
One second, Reinhold Graves was there.
The next—
He was gone.
There was no scream.
No explosion.
Just… emptiness.
Dante's eyes widened in horror.
"REINHOLD?!"
Liam's chest tightened.
"This isn't like Elena. He's not coming back."
And for the first time in his entire journey…
Liam felt true fear.
---
The War Just Got Bigger
Zairoth, the Architect, finally moved.
The Architect turned to Liam, its voice sharp.
"System Breaker. The Voidborn are beyond your war with us. If they awaken fully, your world—ALL WORLDS—will cease to be."
Liam clenched his fists, rage and grief colliding inside him.
Reinhold was gone.
They couldn't kill this thing.
The Hellstorm Core failed.
And in front of him, the Voidborn stood—completely untouched.
Liam's mind raced.
There was only one answer.
He needed to unlock Titan Ascension—NOW.
Even if it wasn't ready.
Because if he didn't?
There wouldn't be a war anymore.
There wouldn't be anything.
---