Date: June 20, 541 years since the Fall of Zanra the Dishonored.
The assault on the Iron Gullet reached its apex. The crimson sky above the fortress had finally turned black—this wasn't night, it was space scorched bare by the clash of two Adepts. Divilla and Valtorn no longer exchanged occasional strikes. Now their duel had become a continuous roar of destruction. The General's gravity wells tore the earth, and Divilla's spatial cuts stitched the sky, tearing the clouds into ragged shreds.
In the breach of the western wall, Dur felt the new power pulsing in his veins. His new power flowed through his channels in a dense, confident stream. He no longer gasped from the gravity—his body, having become even more massive and filled, now perceived Valtorn's pressure as a natural environment. His regeneration worked in the background, keeping his shattered shoulder in relative stability. The bones hadn't yet healed, but the energy created an invisible cocoon around them, allowing Dur to use both arms, albeit with burning pain.
"Hold the breach!" an officer's voice turned into a shriek and was cut off.
Alvost's Pillars stormed the wall. It was a wall of black steel and gravity hammers. Dur and Maël found themselves trapped between the rubble of a tower and the advancing enemy. Maël, still at the Initiate level, barely held on. His Spirit worked at its limit, the Agrim heir's eyes bloodshot from bursting vessels.
Dur stepped forward, shielding his friend. He understood that as a Warrior, he could last a little longer, but against Pillars, his energy was still too meager. He was merely a splinter carried by the current.
At that moment, something terrible happened in the heavens. General Valtorn, tired of the prolonged siege, decided to put an end to it. He raised both arms, and above the Iron Gullet materialized the "Great Gravity Anchor"—a black sphere the size of an entire square.
Divilla responded instantly. She didn't attempt to castling the projectile. She directed all her power into a single point, creating a "Spatial Rift." She decided not to deflect the blow, but to annihilate it.
The collision of two forces in close proximity to the citadel walls produced an effect not even Divilla herself was prepared for. Space and Gravity, collapsing together, gave birth to a wave of absolute annihilation.
Dur saw a blinding flash, in which sounds, colors, and fear itself disappeared. The next second, a shockwave, sweeping everything in its path, struck the western wall. Multi-ton blocks of black stone, which had stood for centuries, scattered like eggshells.
"Dur!" Maël's voice drowned in the roar of the collapsing tower.
Dur felt the ground vanish under his feet. The reflexes of a Warrior kicked in instantly. He didn't try to run—there was nowhere to run. He lunged towards Maël, wrapped his right arm around him, and, using his technique of densifying Energy, pressed himself into a small niche under the foundation he had noticed a second earlier.
A huge piece of the wall crashed down from above, sealing them off from the outside world. Then another impact followed, and another. Darkness enveloped them, heavy and suffocating. Dur felt his Vessel groan under the weight of hundreds of tons of stone piled on top. His regeneration desperately tried to cope with new damage: crushed fingers, broken ribs, internal ruptures. But there wasn't enough energy. In the confined space, cut off from the outside world, his reservoir was rapidly emptying.
The last thing he heard was the fading roar of battle somewhere far above and the heavy, labored breathing of Maël under his arm.
Then came total, absolute silence.
Somewhere deep in the fortress, Commander Somn opened his eyes. His luxurious "Moon Frost" pillow was drenched in blood dripping from his ear—the price for holding the citadel together at the moment of the Adepts' collision. On the other side of the battlefield, Arch-Consul Moros slowly swept his crystal figurines off the table. All were broken.
The Iron Gullet had held, but the price was such that there was no one to rejoice.
The darkness under the rubble became absolute. Dur closed his eyes. His life faded to a tiny spark, sustaining only the beating of his heart.