Two months had passed since we initiated Protocol Exodus. Sixty days since the Black Pyramid cracked the sky over Noren. Since we stepped through the ancient, stabilizing rings of the Precursor Gate into the Spire’s network and walked onto the soil of a new world — our Sanctuary.

  I stood on the precipice of the Northern Ridge, a jagged spine of crystalline rock that offered a panoramic view of the settlement valley. Above me, the sky was a bruised tapestry of twilight violet and deep indigo, dominated by two pale, rapid-orbit moons. This wasn’t a pocket dimension or a dungeon layer; it was a physical exoplanet, sitting silently in a forgotten corner of the cosmos, connected to Earth only by the slender thread of the Spire’s portals.

  It was alien, wild, and aggressively peaceful.

  There were no Kyorian drones here. No warnings of imminent ambush. No ambient Essence tainted by the injections of the Empire.

  Just the hum of the wind through the vast forests of bio-luminescent fungi and the distant sound of hammers ringing against stone.

  “Flux stabilizers are green,” I muttered, activating my [Void Perception] to inspect the invisible web that blanketed the valley.

  Leoric had outdone himself.

  We hadn’t just camped here; we had Terraformed.

  Massive hexagonal pylons, crafted from a mixture of salvaged alloy and materials I had taken from the Cradle, stood sentinel around the valley’s perimeter. They pulsed with a gentle rhythm, regulating the local atmospheric density to match Earth standard, warming the naturally chilly air, and acting as aggressive mana-siphons. They drank the raw, wild essence of this planet and refined it into a clean, dense fuel for our cultivation.

  Below, the settlement of New Bastion was no longer a refugees’ scatter of small shelters.

  It was a city in bloom. White stone, quarried from the southern expanses, formed the skeleton of sturdy, single-story homes. The heavy timber architecture of the Noren clans merged with the sleek, reinforced designs of Bastion’s engineers. Streets were paved with a porous, self-heating stone we developed using Fire-Essence shards. A central reservoir shimmered with purified water, fed by an aqueduct system that Eliza had designed to double as a hydro-electric generator.

  I saw the people moving below.

  When we first arrived, the mood had been brittle. Panic was a contagion. The people of Noren missed their storms; the citizens of Bastion missed the illusion of their walls. They looked at the violet sky with terror, convinced the dome would shatter or the alien air would choke them.

  But resilience is a muscle, and these people had been flexing it for almost two years.

  Now? I saw Mrs. Gable, the baker, arguing good-naturedly with a Noren storm-shaman about the proper humidity for yeast in a low-gravity environment. I saw groups of children playing Tag in the fields of glowing lavender grass, completely unafraid of the horizon. I saw craftsmen using Mana-Forges built by Leoric that burned with an efficiency impossible on Earth, smelting Legendary materials without fear of Imperial sensors detecting the thermal spike or Essence signatures.

  They felt safe.

  “It really is quiet,” Lucas said, his heavy boots crunching softly on the crystal-gravel as he joined me.

  He leaned on his shield, looking out over the valley. He had grown a beard, thick and dark, which softened the hard angles of his jaw.

  “Too quiet?” I asked, checking a data-slate Jeeves had prepared.

  “Just enough,” Lucas smiled, a genuine expression that reached his eyes. “Silas and Anna got back from their run an hour ago. The portal transition is stable. Still no tracking signatures.”

  “Good,” I nodded.

  Our peace was a luxury purchased with secrecy. We treated Sanctuary not as a retirement home, but as a hidden fortress.

  While the civilians built a life, the combatants built power.

  Lucas, Silas, Anna, and the others with the elites of the Noren clans were utilizing the Spire portal network to commute. They would step out of Sanctuary, traverse the network, and emerge in hidden portal nodes on Earth — deep inside our Sanctums. They maintained their grind, pushing their levels in the shadows, hoarding Essence and loot from their Dungeons before occasionally slipping back to the safety of our alien home to rest.

  As for me?

  I was splitting my existence. By day, I was here, the guy hauling pallets of Trentium Alloy in my Storage from the Cradle to reinforce the walls. I utilized the resources of my drafting rooms in ways I never could on the Confluenced Earth. Here, outside the Kyorian gaze, I could experiment. We integrated Null-Steel into the housing foundations. We used water Mana as a coolant for our generators. We were building a civilization armed to the teeth, using materials we wouldn’t even think of showing back home.

  But by night... I was hunting.

  I thought about the last two months. My excursions to the Cradle and my Sanctum’s dungeon had been brutal, punishing sessions where I sharpened my control over Entropy. But it was the Kyorian-side recon that weighed on me.

  Using the Veiled Path on Earth as my anchor, Nyx and I had been watching.

  The Empire hadn’t left. My suicide feint with the Mana-Clone seemed to have worked for now — Vayne’s official reports listed the ‘Ghost’ as “Atomized via Catastrophic Cascade Failure.” They weren’t actively looking for me anymore, opting to focus on recruiting other assets.

  They had replaced the Ship with another.

  A new Black Pyramid. More massive. Angular. It hung in the stratosphere, a monolith of authority, threatening any non compliant settlement.

  “Eren?” Lucas prompted, sensing my shift in mood. “You’re doing the ‘Stare’. You analyzing the grass?”

  “I’m analyzing our progress,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “It’s been almost two years since the Confluence started. Two years on the dot in about ten days.”

  “We’ve survived,” Lucas pointed out. “We’re thriving here.”

  “We’re hiding,” I corrected, though I didn’t say it with venom. It was just a fact. “And while we hide... the Empire keeps breaking the rules. They are being a lot more aggressive with the natives. I watched the feeds from Delta-7 this morning.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Lucas stiffened. “Bad?”

  “They aren’t just strip-mining anymore,” I said quietly. “Vayne learned. She realized that Earth isn’t just a resource node; it’s a breeding ground for special abilities. They are investing a lot of resources to somehow bypass Edicts, although they are still physically confined to their cities, it does not matter. The weapon they designed is using the natives as batteries so it’s not registering as Kyorian operated. How could the Prime System have such a flaw in its ruleset? They’re also becoming a lot more brutal, burning any opposition and enforcing their rule. The new facility they built... it’s huge. They’re bringing people in by the thousands. ‘Volunteers’ who prefer servitude to starvation.”

  It gnawed at me. We had saved thousands. But billions were walking into collars because they didn’t think they had a choice.

  “We need to disrupt it,” I said, the plan forming in my mind. “Me and Nyx. We’ve been skirting the edges. It’s time to go deep.”

  “You want to go into Akkadia,” Lucas concluded.

  “I want to scout,” I clarified. “I want to see this ‘Incubator.’ I want to know if their recruitment holds water or if it’s just a meat grinder. If we’re going to liberate our planet eventually... I need to know more about our enemy.”

  A ripple in the shadow of a nearby fungal-tree detached itself. Nyx stepped out, her armor matte-black against the violet backdrop.

  “I packed everything,” she deadpanned, tossing a dagger into the air and catching it. “Akkadia? Are we going?”

  “We leave in ten,” I said. “We skirt the perimeter outside the city. Zero contact. We will use the Glimpse for all infiltration until we are sure we can slip by without being detected, no matter how long it takes.”

  I looked back at the settlement. At the people who were finally learning to love this alien world. Maybe this can be their new home, but I was not going to abandon the rest of our people. We had to take back our planet.

  We were plotting the portal coordinates when the world suddenly shuddered.

  It wasn’t an earthquake. The ground didn’t move.

  The air itself vibrated.

  The sound hit us like a slap. It bypassed the ears and resonated in the liquid of our eyes, in the marrow of our bones.

  It was the Omniscient Ring of the Prime System.

  “What…” Lucas grabbed his shield, his eyes darting to the sky.

  Below, the settlement went silent. Thousands of people stopped moving.

  Superimposed against the alien moons, a massive, cerulean interface unfurled. It was vast, a universal projection that must have been burning across the retinas of every sentient being connected to the Confluence.

  [SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT]

  [Anniversary Event - The Turning of the Cycle]

  [The Native Population has successfully navigated the 24-Month Integration Survival Period.]

  [External Interference during this period has been detected]

  [Counter-Weight Protocol Initiated.]

  [An Annual Essence Flood will begin in 10 days.]

  [Global Essence Injection: Ambient Essence Density will increase significantly.]

  [Awakening: Dungeons, Rifts, and Ruins will be scattered across the Local Confluence.]

  [Spontaneous generation of Monster Tides near areas of High Order. Fauna Evolution accelerated.]

  [Prime System settlements will be designated Safe Zones with Absolute Shields, accessible by the Settlement Administrator. Necessities for survival and basic equipment will be provided through a System Shop.]

  [System Shop will also have an option to remove Kyorian Integrated Modules without a cost.]

  [The Prime is Law. Further Edict Defiance will not be tolerated.]

  The blue letters dissolved into particles of light that rained down through the violet atmosphere of Sanctuary.

  For ten seconds, nobody breathed.

  “Significantly increased Essence levels, no more Kyorian Modules hindering people’s growth or limiting their System access,” Lucas whispered, the soldier in him doing the tactical math instantly. “Think it’s a trap by the Empire?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said, a slow, predatory grin stretching across my face. “The Prime System is intervening.”

  Nyx walked up to the edge, looking at the spot where the text had vanished. “Did the System really just... punish the Empire directly?”

  “Seems like it’s angry,” I agreed. “I don’t think the System appreciates being bypassed like that. Our recent scouting showed the Kyorians did expect backlash, but this seems extreme. Nothing from Aethelgard’s history hinted the System would get so involved, although the Kyorians did not openly bypass Edicts like this then. Regardless, this reduces a lot of the Empire’s power. With the Settlements being provided food and shielding, as long as it holds against their Pyramid — or whatever else they come up with if they want to risk it — they really lost their biggest threat. And I have a good guess at what areas of ‘High Order’ are.”

  I laughed, a harsh sound.

  “Their cities will even be less safe than the settlements,” Lucas said, his eyes widening with realization. “Their supply lines. They’ll be besieged by the tides and the evolved dangers. Whereas the people living in the settlements won’t have these issues, being in designated safe zones. All of this while also having access to System Shops…”

  I turned to them, the recon mission to Akkadia put on the afterburner.

  “This is better than recon,” I said. “This is a massive, turning point event.”

  Anna flickered into existence on the ridge, sprinting the way from the training range in seconds. “Did you notice it? The scaling? When I focused on the Essence increase I felt it. I was over a factor of four Eren.”

  “I did,” I nodded.

  “We need to discuss this,” Lucas said, looking torn. “It’s dangerous. A three hundred percent spike makes Earth extremely dangerous. If the people there don’t understand the risks…”

  “If we go down there,” I cut in, “we are walking into the highest density of mana and resources the planet has ever seen. It’s going to be an Essence gold rush. We can scout for other Prime Settlements and offer help while the Empire is distracted. While doing our own hunting, of course.”

  “It’s risky,” Lucas argued, though his hand was already checking his gear straps. “The beasts will be frenzied.”

  “Nothing we can’t handle,” Nyx countered, her shadow flickering. “While Vayne is busy reestablishing... we can be raiding the Awakened Dungeons and exploring the ruins.”

  “I agree,” I said. “But it’s strange.”

  I looked up at the sky.

  “Why is the Prime System doing this? Usually, it does not care if civilizations get conquered. For it to step in and essentially declare war on the Kyorians? Is it really just punishment for the Edict they defied?”

  “Does it matter why?” Anna asked, clutching her bow. “We need to use this opportunity.”

  “It matters,” I said. “But you’re right. We can’t ignore this.”

  I paced the ridge. The pieces were falling into place. Sanctuary was secure; the mana injection wouldn’t affect this planet, keeping our civilians safe from the chaos. But our Confluenced home? It was about to become a pressure cooker.

  “We put the Akkadia mission on hold,” I decided. “We first see how they react to this event before going to their capital. Meanwhile, we explore and take advantage of the Flood.”

  “A raiding party?” Lucas asked.

  “An extraction team,” I clarified. “We have ten days. I’ll talk to Leoric. We will craft equipment for anyone who is interested in taking advantage of this. We stock up on consumables, giving everyone going enough of a supply. We’ll operate from within our Sanctums, until we figure out how strong this Settlement shielding is. If it’s powerful enough, we can use it to build a fortress in Old Bastion. We recruit anyone who is willing to fight. We’ll help them grow their strength and offer aid to anyone who needs it, and provide a refuge for those who wish to escape. The System Edicts were bypassed, but now we are compensated, by being given a better chance.”

  I looked at the portal arch in the valley below.

  “The Kyorians want open war, so we’re going to give them open war. And if the shields are powerful enough, we’ll build an army right in front of their eyes.” I laughed.

  Nyx spun her dagger. “Sounds fun.”

  “Get the others,” I ordered. “Briefing in the Command Room in twenty. The Quiet Years are officially over.”

  “The Tide is coming.”