The explosion of light blinded everything.
Mana — wild, ancient, and unfiltered — erupted from the cracked monolith, sending shockwaves through the collapsing vault. Symbols twisted midair, voices from forgotten centuries echoing like ghosts as reality buckled at the seams.
Alex stood at the center of it all, floating inches above the ground. His eyes were lit with white-blue flame, his mana signature no longer bound by Earth's suppression. For the first time, his full potential as a half-Saint — unchained — burst forth.
Selene Valtieri, bruised and bloodied, pushed herself off the fractured wall. Her crimson armor was scorched, her blade shattered. And yet, she stared at him not with fear… but wonder.
"You've awakened…" she whispered. "This… isn't mana. It's something else."
"Voidlight," Alex said, voice layered — one tone his, another ancient and foreign. "Buried in the blood of my father's line. Hidden by the Empire. You knew."
Selene didn't answer. She reached for her communicator.
"They'll come for you now," she said quietly. "All of them."
He raised his hand, Voidlight pulsing. "Then let them come."
But before either could make another move, the remnants of the monolith flared once more — revealing a shimmering portal, unstable and crackling with dimensional energy.
"Is that—?" Selene began.
"An access gate," Alex muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Not to anywhere on Earth. This leads... beyond the S-Wall."
And then the true voice of the Vault — deeper than time itself — rang through their minds.
> "The blood of the betrayers and the broken now merge. The Sixth Seal trembles. The Nameless stirs."
Selene stumbled. "The Nameless? That's just a myth—"
But Alex had already turned toward the portal. From its depths, a silhouette appeared: not humanoid, but shifting, ancient, and wrong.
"It's not just a myth," Alex said. "It's the Empire's greatest fear."
---
Elsewhere – Twilight Command, Underground Facility
Kael slammed his fist on the table.
"You left him behind?"
"We had no choice," Nyssa snapped. "He stayed to protect the data. And you didn't see it, Kael — the Vault responded to him."
Soren Graves, the Twilight strategist, stepped forward.
"What did it show him?"
Nyssa hesitated. "Everything. The sealing of Earth's mana. The rewriting of history. The Council of Five. And something else…"
"What?"
Her eyes darkened.
"A warning."
---
Back in Zeta – The Edge of Collapse
Selene sheathed the broken hilt of her blade. "We don't have much time. That thing's breaking through."
Alex stood at the threshold of the portal. "Then help me stop it."
"You think I'd betray my people that easily?"
"You're already doing it," he said, voice steady. "You chose not to kill me."
The silence between them was thick. And then Selene, daughter of the Warlord Queen, stepped forward.
"Just this once," she said. "I'll fight beside you."
As the Vault crumbled and the rift tore open wider, Alex and Selene stood shoulder to shoulder — half-enemies, half-allies — facing the horror that stirred beyond the seal.
And above them all, far beyond the wall, Emperor Orion Valerius opened his eyes.
"He's awakened."