The shockwave had rattled the rig so hard it felt like the ground itself had risen to throw them back.

Alex gripped the controls, his knuckles white. His ears rang. His heart thudded in his chest.

Alex: “Everyone okay?”

Jack coughed, rubbing his face, trying to clear the grit from his eyes.

Jack: “Okay? Not really, no. That was insane.”

Kasumi wiped dust from the cracked display, trying to force the sensors back online. Her fingers trembled, but her voice stayed steady.

Kasumi: “Systems are fried. We’re blind. But… we’re breathing.”

Kagemaru sat still. Silent. His eyes locked on the horizon, where the sky still glowed faintly blue.

Elys adjusted her harness and glanced out the shattered window.

Elys: “We have to see what that was. Before anyone else does.”

Alex nodded. He started the engine. It groaned, metal aching from the force it had just endured.

But it moved.

⸻

Minutes later, they crested the last ridge.

No one expected what they were about to see.

Not them. Not anyone.

The stories had been told. The myths passed down. But no story—no legend—had prepared them for this.

The crater was massive—blackened earth still smoldering, the air warping with leftover heat. The wind carried the stink of burnt metal, ash, and something else… something like burnt bone.

They stared. No one spoke at first.

Jack: “…No way.”

Kasumi’s hands hovered uselessly over the dead console.

Kasumi: “That can’t be real. That’s one of the Prophet’s… No one can kill them.”

The skeleton of the Prophet knelt at the heart of the blast. His body a hollow shell of charred bone and melted metal, like the fire had burned the soul right out of him.

Nearby, the Inquisitors. Dead. Shattered. Torn apart like paper dolls.

Elys swallowed hard.

Elys: “One of the four. Gone. Just like that.”

Kagemaru stepped out first. His boots crunched over ash. The silence felt wrong. Too heavy. Too final.

Kagemaru: “Something’s watching. We need to find out who brought him down, before they come for us.”

Alex followed, slower, his face pale.

He couldn’t stop staring at the Prophet.

Alex: “No Shard gives that kind of power. Whatever this is—it’s something else. Something worse.”

Kasumi shook her head, eyes wide, voice low.

Kasumi: “No one should have that kind of power. No one can.”

Alex: “Neither should the Guardian. But you saw what he was…”

That shut them all up.

The wind hissed through the ruins. The heat bent the air.

⸻

The radio crackled. Static. Then Command’s voice cut through, sharp and tense.

Command: "Team 96, respond! Massive energy spike in your sector. What’s your status? What the hell happened out there?!”

Alex: “Command… we’re at the site. It’s bad. Worse than we imagined. The Dominion patrol’s gone. No survivors.”

Command: “They couldn’t trigger that kind of energy. Did you find something else?”

Long pause. Static hums like a scream that won’t come out.

Alex: “We found a body. One of the Church’s Four. The Black Prophet.”

Command: “… Say that again.”

Alex: “The Black Prophet is dead. Obliterated. Something erased him… like the darkness itself was torn apart.”

A crash of metal on the Command side. Voices shouting.

Command: “Alex—do you read?”

Alex: “Yes, Commander!”

New voice. Cold, controlled. Sein Walker.

Sein: “Where’s the target?”

Alex: "We don’t know. He must have slipped away in the chaos. No other bodies.”

Sein : “Then you have your objective. Find him.”

Alex: “Commander, we need to know who—”

Sein : “Find him.”

Silence. The team exchange looks, tension thick as smoke.

Alex : “Wait… Commander. You think that boy—”

Sein : “No one gets to him before us. You move. Now.”

The Comms cut. Only the hum of the open channel remains.

Command: "Team 96—do you need backup?”

Kasumi pointed toward the horizon.

Kasumi: “We’re not alone. Convoys inbound. Flags I don’t recognize. Syndicates. Merc groups. We need backup. Now.”

Alex clicked the comm again.

Alex: “Yeah. Request recovery team—now. Get someone to handle the bodies. Move fast. We have to find those kids.”

Command: “Support is mobilizing. Stay put. And Alex… this is history you’re standing on.”

The comm went silent.

Alex looked at his team, and they saw it in his eyes—the fear, the awe.

Alex: “Mark what you can. Move fast. And keep your heads up. This isn’t over.”

Far off, where the dunes met the sky, something else moved.

A convoy. No banners. No insignia. Their shapes distorted by heat and dust, but their direction clear. They were coming. Slowly. Patient. Like predators.

Closer to the blast zone, the ground bore a mark none of them noticed yet. A symbol. Carved by heat and force into the glassed sand. Ancient. Forgotten.

The wind shifted, carrying ash and the promise of storms yet to come.

⸻

Far away.

In the depths of Zenithar’s shadows, where neon flickered over rusted steel, the Night Covenant fortress loomed.

Inside, silence ruled until the doors burst open.

Vex Crawler and Sven Gunnar entered, their faces hard.

Barren stood behind his massive desk, his back to them, staring out at the city’s poisoned glow.

He hadn’t blinked since he saw the sky split apart hours ago.

Barren: “What the hell happened?”

Vex spoke first.

Vex: “There was a shards fight. The kind you don’t come back from. People are saying that never saw something like that….”

Sven’s arms stayed crossed. His jaw tight.

Sven: “One of the Church’s Prophets. Dead. That Inquisitor too—the one who was hunting the boy. Both gone.”

The room seemed smaller now.

Barren turned, his face dark with something deeper than rage.

Barren: “The boy? The girl?”

Vex met his eyes.

Vex: “Gone. No trace we can find.”

Barren didn’t speak. The weight of it all hung heavy.

Then—he snapped.

The desk flipped. Maps, gear, screens crashed to the floor.

Barren: “Find them! I don’t care what it takes—find them before anyone else does!”

Vex and Sven didn’t argue.

Sven: “We’ll move. Fast.”

Vex: “And us?”

Barren’s voice dropped low.

Barren: “Get ready to disappear. The storm’s here. We don’t let it take us with it.”

They nodded, grim.

Out the shattered window, Zenithar’s lights flickered.

And the storm waited.