Sanctum was alive in silence.
Builders moved with muted discipline. Scouts swept in tight arcs, their eyes to the sky and ears pressed to the roots. Even the air itself seemed to hold its breath.
War loomed, and all knew it.
Iden stood on the wall, wiping grease from his gauntlet as the newly embedded missile launcher slid into its rune-casing with a soft pulse.
It was smaller than Titan's Fang, but sleeker—adaptable. A skeletal Builder bowed low beside him, its chassis humming with mana relay plates.
"Link stabilized. Heat detection runes synced to sector arrays A through D," Kael's voice echoed through the comm glyph.
"Activate thermal tracking grid," Iden ordered.
A soft hum rang out. The sensors lit up in overlapping blue and red, rendering a blurred heatmap of the surrounding terrain.
"If anything breathes within five hundred meters," Kael said, "this thing will know."
"Then we can sleep—one eye open instead of two."
Rael approached, wind curling her cloak. She didn't speak for a while, just stood beside her brother, staring at the dusky landscape.
"You always stared at the horizon, even as a kid," she finally said. "Did you know you'd be doing this someday?"
Iden chuckled lightly. "No. I thought I'd be an engineer… maybe a strategist. Not a warlord defending a skeleton city in another world."
"You're not a warlord."
"No?" He tilted his head. "Then what am I?"
She looked at him—not the commander, not the summoner, but Iden.
"You're someone who builds. Not just weapons. Not just walls. You build reasons for others to believe again."
He looked down at his gloved hand, the same one that summoned his first skeletal servant. Back then, he only wanted to survive.
Now… he commanded a village, allies, people who trusted him.
"And what about you?" he asked, voice softer. "You didn't choose this. This life. This war."
Rael smiled faintly. "I chose to stay by you. And I always will. Besides… I've never felt more needed."
Nyra stood sharpening her enchanted dagger when Iden approached.
She didn't turn around, just asked, "Do you think we win?"
"I don't think," Iden said. "I plan to."
She smirked, looking over her shoulder. "Careful. You're starting to sound like someone with a dream."
"Maybe I am."
A beat.
"I never trusted people," she admitted. "But when I saw you stand against those Candidates… when I saw what Sanctum became… I wanted to believe again. Not in the world. In someone."
Iden looked at her and said nothing—but something unspoken passed between them. Not a promise. But the potential for one.
[System Alert – Hostile Presence Detected]
[Heat Signature Identified – 4 targets | Location: Sector Delta Ridge]
→ Classification: Tier D Stealth Scouts
→ Engaging: Auto-Launch Protocol
Back at the southern launcher, the relay rune flared to life.
Missile tubes spun. The locking glyph glowed.
"We have movement. Confirmed hostiles," Kael's voice snapped. "Heat detection caught them trying to flank Delta Ridge."
"Let it fire," Iden said, his tone cold. "We earned this one."
The scouts moved silently—too silent. They thought they had bypassed Sanctum's defenses.
Then the ground split with a roar, and a missile screamed overhead.
There was no time to dodge. Only fire.
Boom.
No bodies remained. Only scorched dirt and shattered ambition.
[Back at Sanctum]
[Auto-Defense Successful – Intercept Confirmed]
→ Enemy Forces: 4 Neutralized
→ Morale Penalty Inflicted: -5% Across Enemy Army
Bonus Trait Acquired: [Guardian's Domain] – Enhanced early warning range within Sanctum borders
Iden exhaled slowly and looked over the parapet again.
The calm had broken—but not in panic.
In preparedness.
The siege hadn't begun.
But Sanctum?
It was ready.