The first tremor began at dawn.
At first, it felt like nothing more than a distant quake beneath the earth. But then the sky split open, and the sound of breaking glass rolled across the horizon. A Gate—one of the main ones holding the Balance together—shuddered in its frame, its surface fracturing like ice under a heavy weight.
And then it fell.
The collapse was not silent. Memory energy poured out in a torrent of blinding light, streaming into the air like rivers set free from a dam. Shapes flickered inside the light—faces, whispers, fragments of voices from centuries long gone. The wind carried screams that belonged to no one living, as if the Gate itself had been holding back entire lifetimes until now.
Every Custodian on the walls froze. Even the Betrayal Faction, locked in their secret war, faltered at the sight. For this was no ordinary Gate. This one had anchored the Singularity’s limits. Its fall meant the barrier between worlds had begun to tear.
More Gates began to crack across the horizon, their lights trembling like dying stars. The energy spilling from them twisted the air, bending sound and space until the entire battlefield felt wrong, as if reality itself were folding in on its own edges.
Amid the chaos, the Hidden Faction moved with new strength. Their gray-cloaked figures emerged through collapsing Gates, collecting shards of memory energy as if none of the madness touched them. Wherever they walked, Custodian forces fell back, blinded by the storm of light and ash.
But still, their leader did not appear.
Rumors had whispered for months about the one who commanded the Betrayal Faction. Some called them a ghost, others a shadow given form. Watching the devastation now, I wondered if the truth was far worse—that they were waiting for the right moment, letting the world break itself apart before stepping into the open.
The ground split beneath another Gate as it crumbled, its frame twisting before shattering into a million shards of light. The storm of memories rose higher, a wall of voices and visions flooding the skies until the sun itself dimmed.
The Singularity was shaking.
And for the first time, I feared it would not stop.
