Chapter 301: Chaos

The glass shattered inward, raining crystalline shards like diamonds. The creature from the abyss landed in a crouch and lunged, its razor-sharp claws aiming for Lunu’s throat.The two women froze for a split second, the primal fear of a top-tier unfamiliar predator seizing their hearts.

But the fear evaporated the moment Nyra raised her hand, incinerating the creature with just a thought.

Silence returned to the room, broken only by the howling wind from the shattered ceiling.

"That was..." Lunu stared at the dust pile. "Surprisingly weak."

"For us," Nyra corrected, her eyes narrowing as she looked at her hand. "But for a civilian without mana, that thing is fatal."

She walked to the shattered window. The sky above the Transit Hub was tearing apart. More rifts were spiraling open, bleeding violet lightning. From them, thousands of similar creatures were pouring out, descending like a plague of locusts upon the darkened city.

Panic was absolute. Below, the streets were a chaotic crush of fleeing citizens. Those with Sparkborn personal shields were surviving. Those without were being hunted.

"Lunu, what do we do?"

"The Concordat is headless," Lunu replied as she scanned the carnage. "Without the Council, there is no command structure. The Arbiters are likely engaged or neutralized as well. We are on our own."

"Then I guess we act like it," Nyra decided. "Let’s protect our people first. Everything else comes second."

***

Ten minutes later, the Vassals were gathered in the emergency command center of the Tower. The mood was grim.

A quick diagnostic confirmed the impossible: While the rest of the galaxy had been neutered, the Vassals retained their full power.

"Do you think Adrian is responsible for this?" Charles asked all of a sudden. "It’s the only logical explanation for why we are immune while the rest of the Galaxy are powerless."

"No," Nyra refuted the claim immediately. "Lunu confirmed that the Shadow Collective is behind the attack. They’ve done something. Adrian wouldn’t destroy the galaxy to save it. That’s not his style."

"It doesn’t matter who pulled the trigger," Karl said with a shrug. "What matters is that there are monsters in our city, and I want them gone."

"Agreed," Nyra said. "Here is the plan. Eli, organize every one of the Sparkborns. Get them onto the Ark-1. It’s the largest transport we have. Keep them cloaked in orbit."

Eli nodded comfortably. "I’ll keep them safe, lass. You just make sure there’s a city left to come back to."

Nyra continued. "The rest of us are going hunting."

***

The battle for the Transit Hub was brutal, with millions of creatures across the Sector. It seemed impossible to clear them all at once.

But to the Vassals, it was just a challenge. With their Void Gifts, they had gone all out on the creatures, wiping them at an astonishing speed.

But as they fought, the enemy evolved.

The initial wave had been mindless drones. The second wave was different.

Larger, armored beasts with multiple limbs and glowing violet eyes began to emerge from the rifts. They coordinated. They flanked. They had special abilities.

But despite the increasing difficulty, the Vassals held the line. They cleared the commercial district. They secured the residential areas. They created a perimeter of safety around the Sparkborn Tower, a beacon of blue light in a sea of darkness.

Hours later, they regrouped in the War Room. They were covered in black ichor, exhausted but alive.

Charles projected a new holographic map. It was a nightmare.

"The Transit Hub is stable," Charles reported grimly. "But the rest of the galaxy... it’s a slaughterhouse. We have reports from a thousand sectors. The Shadow creatures are everywhere. The death toll is in the billions."

He zoomed in on a dozen worlds. They were dark, save for the tiny pinpricks of blue where Sparkborn tech was holding out.

"We can’t be everywhere," Damien grumbled, wiping his hammer. "There are only nine of us."

Nyra stared at the map. She looked at the blue dots. They were the only things keeping the darkness at bay.

An idea formed in her mind.

"We don’t need to be everywhere," Nyra said slowly. "We just need to arm everyone."

She turned to Lunu. "The Factory. It has stockpiles. Trillions of creations. We’ve been hoarding them for fifty years."

"True," Karl agreed with her. "But how do we distribute them to everyone?"

"Lunu," Nyra looked at the former goddess. "You said the Council is dead. That means their clearance codes are open. Can you access the Galactic Transit Terminals?"

Lunu’s eyes widened. "I... yes. I can override the emergency teleportation network. I can hijack every cargo teleporter in the Concordat."

"Then we’ll do it. Let’s empty the Factory and send a weapon to every hand that can hold one. We’ll send shields, vehicles, and cells as well. We don’t need to ask for payment, so it’ll be an easy task."

Everyone understood her plan. Even though it meant all those high-grade military tech entering the wrong hands, it didn’t matter at this point.

And Adrian had told them to flood the Galaxy with his inventions, this was their chance to drown it.

Ten minutes later, every surviving screen, every emergency comms unit, and every holographic billboard in the galaxy flickered, and an announcement was made. One that would give them hope in the dire situation.

***

While the galaxy armed itself, the architects of its destruction waited.

The Queen of Silence and Zero stood before the blackened husk of the Galactic Core. The ritual was complete. The once-blue star was now a swirling vortex of vantablack, a stable wormhole linked to the deep, entropic universe of the Shadow Collective’s origin.

"It is done," the Queen whispered. "The bridge is built. Our ancestors... they can finally return."

"The purity," Zero rasped, watching the event horizon ripple. "This galaxy was too bright. It burned. Now... it will be cool. It will be quiet."

They weren’t waiting for an army. They were waiting for a god.

The Grand Cleansing required an avatar. A being of such immense weight that its mere presence would unravel the laws of physics that the Concordat had imposed upon the universe.

Suddenly, the black star pulsed.

The rift above them began to expand. The minor tears in reality that had been spewing out the creatures started to slide toward the center, merging into a single, massive gateway.