The Rift did not close.
It tore wider.
Netoshka was thrown out of the distortion like a discarded fragment of data, slamming into broken terrain as gravity violently reasserted itself. She rolled, coughed, tasted blood—and then she looked up.
And understood fear on a cosmic scale.
Malithra no longer had a boundary.
Her luminous form expanded outward, ripping free of any remaining limitation. Wings became arcs of stellar light, stretching beyond atmosphere, beyond sky. Her body elongated, fractured, reassembled—until she was no longer standing in the universe, but through it.
She was gigantic.
Not metaphorically.
Her silhouette eclipsed constellations. Her presence bent spacetime into spirals. Each movement caused continents to groan, oceans to recoil, and the very laws of reality to stutter like a failing machine.
Malithra screamed.
Not in rage alone—but in release.
A scream that crossed dimensions, that rattled gods and mortals alike.
The Eldritch Gods reacted instantly.
The Gods in the sky multiplied, opening into a cathedral of impossible geometry. Tendrils of void-light lashed outward, striking Malithra's form, carving chunks of radiant flesh that evaporated into raw energy.
She laughed.
A sound like collapsing stars.
"Now.. Do You fear me now?" Malithra roared, her voice echoing across timelines.
"You made me to observe. To learn. To endure your little experiments."
She turned—not just toward the gods—but toward Erythia itself.
Cities burned beneath her shadow. Shockwaves rolled across continents. The BlightMist-9 spread uncontrollably, reacting violently to her energy, mutating into crimson storms that swallowed districts whole.
Inferius Squad saw it from afar.
From rooftops. From evacuation routes. From shattered highways and deserts turning to glass.
Ron froze mid-run.
"…That's not a weapon," he whispered.
"That's the end, like an Apocalyptic Nightmare."
Taran clenched his jaw, Wire corruption flaring as he struggled to stay upright under the pressure. Lyra stared skyward, sword trembling in her grip.
Rue's comms crackled violently.
"All units—ALL UNITS—energy spike is global. No safe zones. No defensive countermeasures."
Netoshka forced herself to stand.
Her legs shook.
Not from exhaustion—but from responsibility.
She activated the comms, forcing her voice through layers of interference.
"Lucretia," she said.
"Do you see it?"
Static.
Then—clarity.
"Yes," Lucretia replied from DomiTech HQ, her voice unusually quiet.
"All of Erythia are screaming. We're losing satellites by the second."
Netoshka swallowed.
"We can't stop her."
Silence.
Lucretia did not deny it.
"The probability models agree," Lucretia finally said.
"Erythia has entered an extinction-level divergence."
Netoshka looked back at Malithra—now grappling with god-forms that wrapped around her like chains of void, only to be shattered by her raw hatred.
Humanity was irrelevant to this fight.
Collateral at best.
"We're moving to the submarine," Netoshka said.
"The one at Cerevra docks."
Lucretia inhaled slowly.
"Sigh… Well Then, I guess Inferius now carries the future."
Netoshka felt the weight of that sentence crush her chest.
Around her, people were screaming. Running. Praying. Dying.
Civilians trapped in collapsing streets. Soldiers firing uselessly into the sky. Children clinging to ruins that no longer mattered.
She could save some.
But not all.
Netoshka turned toward the docks, her squad rallying instinctively behind her.
And that's when the question finally broke her.
If she opens the submarine to civilians—
Inferius risks being hunted, overwhelmed, erased before they ever escape.
If she doesn't—
She becomes the thing Malithra accused her of being.
An anomaly who decides who deserves to live.
Her hands trembled.
Yevgeny's voice echoed in her memory.
Krovka squad.
Sarka.
That island with the Boy.
Lyra stepped beside her, eyes fixed on the burning horizon.
"Whatever you choose," Lyra said softly,
"We'll follow you forever."
Netoshka closed her eyes.
Above them, Malithra tore free of an Eldritch god's grasp, ripping its essence apart like wet paper. The universe itself screamed as another layer of reality collapsed.
Time was gone.
Choices were all that remained.
Netoshka opened her eyes.
"Tsk damn it…Let's Move out," she said.