THE DAY OF DESTINY
July 7, 3111 BCE
Resurgence Nigh
The doors didn't creak.
They screamed.
A sound like the death of stars tore through Shambala as the gateway split open, revealing not the glittering paradise Kai had envisioned—but a bleeding world. The twin suns hung broken in the sky, their light fracturing through Seraphina's cracked wings. The rivers ran backward. The air itself tasted of burnt time.
And the diamonds?
They were waiting.
The Thieves Unleashed
The five scattered like sparks from a wildfire, each drawn to a different nightmare:
Kaisprinted toward the Chamber of Echoes, where the Blue Diamond pulsed—but his reflection in the walls wasn't his own. Something smiled back with too many teeth. Veyra's phantom limbsconvulsed, dragging her toward the Adamant Diamond embedded in Drakthar's chest. The dragon didn't move. He couldn't. His shadow was stitched to the ground by invisible threads. The Silent Apostlepressed his ear to the Eclipse Diamond—and for the first time, heard. What came out of his mouth wasn't a word. It was a key. Rook's dagger, now a shard of the same black rock as the mountain, hummed in tune with the Zenith Diamond. The visions it showed him weren't of the future. They were all the ways he'd already failed. The Empty Prophetstood before the Heart Diamond's plinth—and for the first time, his mirror reflected. What stared back was Himanchu, but older. Bleeding. Crowned.
The True Countdown
Every diamond they touched rewrote a law of reality:
The Mirage Diamond turned the sky inside out, revealing a second Shambala beneath their feet.The Soul Diamond inverted its purpose—now it expelled spirits in wailing gusts.The Abyss Diamond began singing in a voice that made the stars blink.
And through it all, the Blue Diamond in Seraphina's chest dimmed.
Himanchu, forgotten in the chaos, felt the real truth:
This wasn't a heist.
It was a sacrifice.
The diamonds wanted to be taken.