The dawn did not bring hope. It brought visibility to the carnage.
The Industrial District, usually a grey wasteland of concrete and rust, had been transformed into a landscape of blackened craters and burning wreckage. The air tasted of sulfur. Copper. And the distinct, oily stench of burning aviation fuel from the helicopters Sebastian had downed moments ago. But amidst the ruin one thing stood pristine. Alien. And terrifyingly absolute: Sanctuary.
The Obsidian Fortress loomed over the shattered streets. A brutalist nightmare of black stone and mana-infused steel. Its walls rose fifty feet into the smog-choked sky. Topped with jagged battlements where the twin-barrel Mana Turret hummed with a low, menacing vibration. A pillar of golden light erupted from the central keep. Piercing the clouds like a spear thrown at God. Declaring to the entire city that the laws of physics here had been rewritten.
Sebastian stood on the ramparts. His chest heaving slightly. His shirt was gone. Shredded during the transformation. Revealing a torso that looked less like flesh and more like a roadmap of the apocalypse. Glowing blue runes pulsed beneath his skin. Syncing with the heartbeat of the City Core buried deep within the fortress. He didn't feel the cold wind. He felt the hunger of the Void scratching at the edges of his territory.
"They're not retreating," Valerie said. Her voice tight. She stood beside him. Clutching her real-world pistol as if it could stop what was coming. She swapped it for the [Staff of the Dead] she had pulled from her inventory. The wood feeling unnervingly warm in the chill morning air.
"Of course not," Sebastian replied. His eyes locked on the southern horizon. "The government doesn't retreat when it finds a foreign power on its soil. They escalate."
The ground began to tremble. It wasn't an earthquake. It was the rhythmic, heavy thud of mechanized armor.
From the smoke of the city center the National Guard emerged. It was a column of destruction. Three M1 Abrams tanks leading the wedge. Followed by a dozen Stryker armored fighting vehicles and trucks loaded with infantry. They crushed the abandoned cars in their path. The sound of flattening metal echoing like gunshots. Overhead two Apache helicopters circled at a safe distance. Wary of the turret that had just swatted their Vanguard counterparts out of the sky.
Leading the ground force was a humvee flying the flag of the United States. Though it was tattered and stained with black ichor.
"This isn't a rescue mission," Sebastian noted. His [Eye of the Void God] analyzing the heat signatures. "Their weapons are hot. Safeties off. They're here to sterilize."
The convoy halted five hundred meters from the fortress gate. The lead tank traversed its turret. The massive 120mm cannon locking directly onto Sebastian.
A man stepped out of the lead humvee. He was older. His face a mask of granite and scars. Wearing the uniform of a full-bird Colonel. He didn't use a megaphone. He used a high-grade military loudspeaker system mounted on the vehicle.
"ATTENTION, UNIDENTIFIED COMBATANTS," the Colonel's voice boomed. Rattling the windows of the fortress keep. "THIS IS COLONEL VANCE OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY. YOU ARE IN POSSESSION OF UNAUTHORIZED WMDs AND ARE OCCUPYING FEDERAL PROPERTY. POWER DOWN YOUR DEFENSES, EXIT THE STRUCTURE WITH YOUR HANDS VISIBLE, AND SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY."
Valerie looked at Sebastian. "What do we do? We can't fight the US Army. That's treason. That's... suicide."
"The US Army fights for a country that ceased to exist six hours ago," Sebastian said coldly. "Laws are just threats made by the dominant power. Right now? I am the dominant power."
He stepped up onto the parapet. He didn't need a loudspeaker. He channeled mana into his throat. Using a basic [Voice Amplification] cantrip he had picked up in the game.
"This is not federal property," Sebastian's voice projected outward. Rolling over the convoy like a thunderclap. "This is Sanctuary. It is sovereign territory. Turn your tanks around, Colonel. There is nothing for you here but death."
Colonel Vance didn't flinch. He signaled to the tank commander. "You have ten seconds to comply. Ten. Nine..."
"He's going to fire," Valerie gasped. Raising a mana shield that looked pitifully thin against a tank shell.
"Let him," Sebastian said.
"Five... Four..."
Sebastian stood motionless. He didn't raise a shield. He didn't prepare a counter-spell. He simply placed his hand on the cold stone of the rampart. Connecting his mind to the City Core. The fortress wasn't just a building. It was an extension of his will. The City Core had overwritten the reality within a five-kilometer radius. Inside this circle Game Logic superseded Physics.
"One. Fire."
BOOM.
The muzzle flash of the Abrams tank was blinding. The sabot round, a depleted uranium dart designed to punch through reactive armor like wet tissue paper, screamed across the gap at three thousand miles per hour. It was a kinetic kill vehicle. Carrying enough energy to vaporize a concrete bunker.
It hit the Sanctuary Barrier ten meters from the wall.
There was no explosion. There was no shrapnel.
The moment the shell crossed the threshold of the barrier the City Core recognized it as a hostile projectile with insufficient mana density to penetrate a Tier 3 Magical Ward. The laws of the Sanctuary asserted dominance.
The shell dissolved.
It didn't melt. It simply unraveled. The uranium turned into blue data pixels. Scattering into the wind like confetti. The kinetic energy was absorbed by the barrier. Causing the blue dome to ripple slightly. Converting the force of the impact into ambient mana that fed back into the Core.
Silence fell over the battlefield. It was a heavy, stunned silence. The soldiers stared at the space where the shell had been. The physics they had spent their lives learning had just been violated.
"Target... unaffected," a radio operator stammered over the loudspeaker frequency. His voice trembling.
Sebastian looked down at Colonel Vance. The Colonel's face had gone pale but his jaw was set in a line of grim determination.
"You are out of your depth, Colonel," Sebastian called out. "Your weapons rely on chemistry and kinetic force. My walls are built on the fundamental laws of magic. You cannot breach me."
"We'll see about that," Vance growled. Raising his radio. "All units, free fire! Level that place!"
The convoy erupted. Machine guns. Auto-cannons. And tank rounds unleashed a storm of lead and steel against the fortress. Thousands of rounds per minute hammered the barrier.
Valerie flinched with every impact but Sebastian just watched the light show. The bullets sparked and vanished into pixels against the blue field. It was a mesmerizing display of futility.
"My turn," Sebastian whispered.
He didn't want to kill them. Not yet. Soldiers were a resource. They were disciplined. Trained. And armed. If he slaughtered them all he lost a potential recruitment pool. But he needed to break their spirit. He needed to show them the difference between a gun and a god.
He accessed the [Engineering] interface of the fortress.
"Activate Defense Matrix. Non-Lethal suppression. Target: Weaponry."
On the walls the gargoyles—stone statues carved with menacing grins—eyes flared red. They opened their mouths. They didn't breathe fire. They emitted a high-frequency [Mana Pulse].
THRUM.
A wave of invisible distortion washed over the convoy. It passed through the soldiers. Causing their teeth to ache and their vision to swim but leaving them unharmed.
But their equipment?
The gunpowder in every bullet casing within the radius suddenly went inert. The electronic firing mechanisms of the tanks shorted out. The engines of the Strykers seized as the fuel refused to combust. The [Mana Pulse] essentially rewrote the local laws of combustion for ten seconds.
The gunfire stopped instantly. The roar of engines died.
The battlefield fell silent again. Save for the confused shouting of soldiers pulling triggers that clicked uselessly.
"Your guns don't work here," Sebastian declared. His voice cold and final. "Your tanks are paperweights. I could have detonated your ammunition in the chambers. I could have boiled the blood in your veins. I chose not to."
He leaned over the edge. His eyes glowing with the golden light of the [Eye of the Void God].
"Leave. Or the next spell won't be a warning."
Colonel Vance looked at his dead tank. He looked at his men who were staring at the floating wizard on the wall with the terror of men facing the divine. He was a soldier but he wasn't stupid. He recognized a losing battle.
"Pull back," Vance ordered. His voice hoarse. "Tow the vehicles. We're leaving."
Sebastian watched them retreat. Dragging their useless war machines back into the smoke of the city. He didn't smile. He felt no triumph. He only felt the crushing weight of the clock ticking down.
"They'll be back," Valerie said. Lowering her staff.
"Yes," Sebastian agreed. "And when they return they won't be enemies. They'll be refugees."