The combat was set for dawn.Marcus spent the night with Elena and Hope. His last night, probably. He held his daughter, feeling her tiny heartbeat."You don't have to do this," Elena said."I do.""You'll die.""Probably.""Then don't go.""If I don't, Phobos wins. The siege continues. At least this way, there's a chance.""What chance? You're mortal. He's a god. You have no power.""I have something better. A reason to win.""That's not enough.""It's all I have."They held each other until dawn.Then Marcus kissed them both and walked to the eastern edge.The entire city had gathered. Twenty-three thousand people watching.Phobos stood in the desert. Alone. Confident. Wearing battle armor that gleamed."Ready to die, mortal?""Ready to try."Marcus walked out. Simple clothes. No armor. Just a knife."That's all you're bringing?" Phobos asked, amused."I don't need more.""Brave or stupid?""Both."Phobos laughed. "I almost respect you. You're clever. But cleverness doesn't beat pow

One month remained.Marcus stared at the numbers.Current population: 230,000.Target: 1,000,000.Days remaining: 30.They needed 770,000 more people. 25,000 new residents every single day."It's impossible," Devon said. "We've been growing at 2,000 per day. We'd need to increase that by twelve times.""So we increase it.""How? We're at capacity. Housing is full. Infrastructure is strained.""Then we build faster.""We're building as fast as we can," Kenji said."The Radiant," Rachel suggested. "Can they create buildings like they create food?"They asked."We can," a Radiant said. "But buildings are complex. We would need days to study existing structures.""We have hours. Can you do it?""We will try."By evening, the first Radiant-made building appeared. Pure white. Glowing. Made of converted light-matter."Is it safe?" Mia asked."Structurally sound," Kenji said. "Temperature controlled. Functional. It's... perfect.""Too perfect," Athena said. "It looks alien."She was right. Bu

Marcus stood in front of the three thousand people who'd lost their homes.They looked at him with anger. Fear. Desperation."I know you're scared. I know you're angry. You came here for safety. And we failed you.""You think?" someone yelled. "We lost everything!""I know. And I'm sorry. But we're going to rebuild. Better. Stronger. So this never happens again.""Empty promises," another shouted."Maybe. But they're the only promises I can make. I can't change what happened. I can only fix what comes next."He looked at the crowd. "I need volunteers. Engineers. Electricians. Anyone with infrastructure knowledge."Silence. Then a hand raised."I'm an electrical engineer. From Reality Sigma-3. I can help."Another hand. "Structural engineer. Earth. I'll help."Then more. Ten. Twenty. Fifty."Thank you. We start today."The electrical engineer from Sigma-3 was named Yuki. Brilliant. Organized. Precise."Your power grid is a disaster," she said. "It's pieced together from eight different

Daphne woke up three hours later.She had no memory of the possession. No idea what had happened. One moment she was walking through The Wilds. The next, she was waking up in the medical tent surrounded by worried faces.“What happened?” she asked.“You were possessed,” Marcus said. “Something called The Forgotten used your body to deliver a message.”“Possessed?” Daphne looked terrified. “How is that possible? I’m a nymph. We have protections against such things.”“Not against this, apparently,” Athena said. She’d been examining Daphne with divine sight. “Whatever possessed you bypassed every defense you had. Like they didn’t exist.”“What did they want?” Daphne asked.“They want back in,” Marcus said. “Back into existence. And they think our city can help them do it.”“How?” Daphne asked.“We don’t know yet,” Marcus said. “But we need to find out. Fast.”He called an emergency council meeting. All twenty-five members. Plus the Radiant. Plus Artemis. Plus anyone who might know someth

The fused beings called themselves the Unified.Marcus met with their representatives three days after the mass fusion. Five Unified. Each one different. Each one whole.“We understand our purpose,” one said. Their voice harmonious. Multiple tones. “We exist to seal holes. To fill the spaces where The Forgotten were erased.”“How many holes are there?”“Thousands. Maybe tens of thousands. The Forgotten were everywhere before the Primordials erased them.”“And you can seal them?”“We are sealing them. Constantly. Just by existing. We are new reality. We fill gaps naturally. But it’s slow. We need more of us.”“How many more?” Rachel asked.“All of us. Everyone in the city should fuse. Become Unified. That would create enough new reality to seal all the holes.”The room went silent.“You want a million people to fuse?” Athena asked.“Yes. That would solve the problem.”“That would also erase the city,” Marcus said. “Integration isn’t about erasing differences. It’s about celebrating the