The sky tore open as if someone had taken a blade to the horizon. Not a slit Not a crack A wound. Black. Ragged. Bleeding shadow.The sound pouring from it wasn’t a scream it was a thousand screams braided into one, layered until it became a terrible, rising hymn.Lio clung to Jenna so tightly their nails bit into her skin. Jenna didn’t flinch; she pressed one hand over their ear and held them against her chest. Denilson stepped forward. Not running. Not charging.Claiming. Golden light unfurled from the new mark burned across his spine like molten scripture.Every pulse from the rift made it flare brighter. The Judge’s voice resonated like a war drum. “THE SECOND WAVE APPROACHES.”The stranger backed up slowly, eyes wide with horror. “Second ? There wasn’t supposed to BE a second. A world this young shouldn’t”The Judge cut him off. “TESTING WAS INTERRUPTED.”“EVALUATION PROTOCOLS SHIFT.”“THEY COME TO FORCE COLLAPSE.”Jenna turned sharply. “Who’s they?”But she didn’t need the answ

The world held its breath. Still trembling from battle, still streaked with cracks of gold and shadow, still raw and new yet waiting. Waiting for one small family to speak its purpose into existence.Denilson knelt with one arm around Lio, his chest still heaving from the fight. Jenna crouched beside them, her forehead touching his temple, grounding him, trembling with exhaustion and relief.Around them the clearing glowed faintly, golden dust rising from the soil as the world’s core listened. The Judge hovered in silence like an eclipse suspended in midair. The Architects stood in rigid stillness.Even the stranger dared not breathe too loudly.Because this next choice wasn’t a trial. It was creation. “CHOOSE WHERE YOUR WORLD’S HEART WILL BE BUILT.”The Judge’s voice wasn’t cold this time. It echoed more like a proclamation. Lio’s fingers clung to their parents’ hands. Their eyes, still shimmering faintly gold, flicked between Jenna and Denilson with the anxious curiosity of someone

The climb back to the surface felt longer than the descent. Not because the path stretched but because the air changed.Every step up the glowing roots made the air thicker, warmer, charged with some rising current that Jenna felt first against her skin, prickling her arms like static. Denilson sensed it next the Guardian mantle tightening across his shoulders, reacting to the world above.Lio, small and quiet in Jenna’s arms, lifted their head. “Something’s waiting I can feel it.”Denilson’s grip around Jenna’s waist tightened protectively. “We face it together,” he murmured.But even he could hear the hum behind the world now a vibration like a chorus rising to greet something divine. They emerged from the roots, and the sky was no longer the sky they’d left.Golden light streaked across the heavens, spiraling in patterns that hadn’t existed moments ago. The clouds now fully formed shone with iridescent hues. Wind swirled gently around them as if bowing, and directly above the gold

The air shifted. Not violently Not with the ripping ferocity of the Throne’s collapse. But with a slow, inevitable pressure like the sky inhaling in preparation for something ancient.Denilson’s grip on Lio tightened instinctively. Jenna felt it too, prickling down her spine like cold fingers. Lio, still trembling in their parents’ arms, lifted their head. “There’s something out there.”The Judge and the Architect moved in unison their forms brightening with defensive geometry, glyphs spinning faster around their bodies, The stranger stared at the horizon, voice cracking.“No no please, not now”Denilson spun toward him. “What the hell is a Herald?”The stranger swallowed. “They’re not Architects. They’re not scouts. They’re older. Older than correction. Older than order.”Jenna’s breath faltered. “Older than the Architects?”The stranger nodded shakily. “The Heralds awaken only when a world becomes powerful enough to rival the Architect Order. They don’t come to destroy. They come t

The world held its breath. Not a metaphor everything stopped. Grass froze mid sway. Dust halted mid air. The golden tree’s falling leaves paused between branches and earth, suspended by an invisible hand.Even sound folded inward. The only movement came from the widening rift above them a vertical wound splitting the sky into trembling halves.The Collectors stood before it, unmoving, waiting like statues carved from darkness and purpose. The Herald floated opposite them, arms extended, robes stirring in a wind that wasn’t there.Jenna pressed Lio against her chest. Denilson stepped in front of them, the full breadth of his Guardian mantle flaring in jagged arcs of black gold.“What is that?” Jenna whispered, staring upward in horror.The thing emerging from the rift was too large to grasp all at once. At first it looked like a shadow.Then a tower Then something like a person, but every time Jenna blinked, the shape shifted refused definition refused understanding.The stranger fell