POV: AlexAlex didn’t sit down when the line connected. He stood in the narrow office with the lights dimmed low, one hand resting on the edge of the desk, the other hanging loose at his side, because sitting made conversations feel negotiable and this one wasn’t. The secure channel hummed softly, a clean sound meant to reassure, meant to imply control, and Alex let it run for a moment longer than necessary before speaking, giving the system time to register his presence, to flag his ID, to pull every file it thought might matter.“Sir,” he said finally, voice steady, respectful without being deferential.The president’s aide didn’t answer right away. Alex could picture him clearly anyway, the way he always leaned back during calls like this, fingers steepled, eyes half-lidded, listening more to what wasn’t said than what was. When he did speak, his tone was smooth, practiced, carrying the faint irritation of someone whose day had already gone wrong.“You’re calling late,” the aide sa

POV: NoelThe first bullet cracked the night open like a bad promise kept too late, sharp, loud, final, and then the sky simply gave up and started raining metal. Noel barely had time to inhale before the air around him screamed, tracer lines ripping through darkness, sparks jumping off concrete, bodies reacting before minds could catch up. He dropped instinctively, shadows surging forward like they had been waiting for permission, thickening, spreading, swallowing corridors and sightlines in a single breath.So this is it, he thought, heart hammering so hard it felt like it might punch through his ribs, this is what real scale feels like.Not skirmishes, not hit and run, not small teams clashing in controlled chaos, this was thousands of people colliding at once, violence layered on violence, noise stacking until it lost meaning. Orders were shouted and immediately drowned out, alarms wailed and then cut off as power nodes vanished into shadow. The revolutionary army had built this p

POV: SethThe moment Seth stepped fully into the inner corridors of the castle, something inside him clicked into alignment, not rage, not excitement, just a clean internal silence, the kind that came when decisions were already made and consequences no longer mattered. His breathing slowed, his heart rate evened out, and the world narrowed to movement, angles, trajectories, threat vectors stacking and resolving in his mind faster than language could keep up.Metal answered him first.His skin hardened in layers, not armor in the traditional sense but a living lattice, shifting plates folding over muscle and bone, redistributing force before it could land, every impact softened, redirected, absorbed. Bullets struck him and flattened, dropped uselessly to the floor with dull sounds, heavier rounds dented him for a fraction of a second before the surface smoothed again, adapting, recalibrating.He walked forward.Guards fired because that was what they were trained to do, some screaming

POV: SethThe first captain found him in a vaulted chamber lined with banners that meant nothing anymore, fabric scorched, insignia torn, smoke hanging low enough to taste. Seth stepped through the threshold without slowing, metal shifting under his skin in quiet readiness, his senses already mapping exits, angles, the weight of the man waiting for him.“You’re late,” the captain said, voice carrying a practiced calm that rang hollow now, a tall figure in reinforced armor, power humming faintly around him, “and you picked the wrong side.”Seth did not answer. He had learned that words only delayed endings.The captain laughed once, sharp and dismissive, lifting a hand as energy flared, “You really think walking back in here changes anything, you were always disposable, Seth, always a tool.”The attack came fast, compressed force aimed at Seth’s chest, a strike that would have crushed a tank hatch. Seth took it without bracing, his body adapting before the impact fully registered, dens

The castle had stopped feeling like a fortress long ago. From Noel’s perspective, the corridors were rivers of smoke and chaos, walls buckling under the relentless push of Seth and the forces he commanded. Shadows moved at his command, swallowing enemy squads before they could react, and even with his control, the sheer scale of destruction was exhausting. Each step he took through the corridors left bodies in his wake, the echoes of dying orders bouncing off twisted metal and shattered stone. Fear was palpable now, not only from the surviving enemies but from his own ranks, realizing just how absolute Seth had become.Alex felt it differently. Lying on the floor near a collapsed turret, half-conscious from injuries, he could feel the residual energy of his null zones fading. Limbs burned, chest heaving, but even in the haze of pain he could perceive the pattern unfolding, the methodical end of a war that had been raging for too long. Every evolved unit they had once feared was gone,