The Dome was never supposed to fall.
Xenon knew that with a certainty carved into his bones long before the System ever branded him a Terminator. The Dome was humanity's last constant—an unbreakable shell of light and force that had stood through years of infestation, mutation, and extinction-level events.
Yet now it was fractured.
Above him, the sky burned through a lattice of shattered barrier segments, jagged holes glowing blue-white as energy bled away into smoke and ash. Entire sections of the Dome lay collapsed across the city, their once-smooth surfaces buried beneath rubble, corpses, and twisted metal.
A translucent panel hovered in the corner of Xenon's vision, flickering as if struggling to stay coherent.
[DOME INTEGRITY: 19%]
Xenon didn't blink it away.
He stared through it, jaw clenched, as the city died.
Zombies flooded the streets.
Not the early-stage infected. Not the shambling husks that could be culled by the dozens without thought. These moved with intent. With coordination. With rank.
Everywhere he looked, Terminators were falling.
A Blaze-ranked fighter was dragged screaming into a swarm, his armor torn apart as claws and teeth found flesh. An Inferno detonated the core of a zombie in close proximity killing himself in the process, the explosion tearing a hole through three buildings and leaving nothing but smoke and silence behind.
Civilians ran.
Most didn't make it.
Xenon stood at the center of it all, his boots planted in cracked concrete slick with blood, his spear resting against his shoulder.
Gravepoint.
The black composite shaft was scarred and chipped from years of combat. At its tip, the narrow spearhead glowed with a restrained blue light, nanites shifting beneath the surface as it responded to threat density.
It should have felt like an extension of him by now.
It didn't.
A new panel unfolded across his lower vision, lines of data stacking with brutal efficiency.
[STATUS CHECK]
ASSET: XN-017
RANK: OBLIVION
VITALITY: 43%
CONTROL: DEGRADED
INTEGRITY: UNSTABLE
THREAT DENSITY: EXTREME
Xenon exhaled slowly through his mask.
"Still alive," he muttered. "That'll have to do."
Behind him, a group of Terminators huddled near the remains of a collapsed transit tower—Blaze and Inferno ranks, battered and bleeding. Their weapons shook in their hands. Some of them were barely old enough to have memories of the world before the Dome.
All of them were looking at him.
At the red-coated Oblivion who wasn't retreating.
Xenon slammed the butt of his spear into the ground.
The metallic impact rang out, sharp and unmistakable, cutting through the chaos like a blade.
"I want you all to fight to the latter!" he shouted, voice raw but unyielding. "Today is not the day it ends!"
The words weren't magic.
But they mattered.
Spines straightened. Weapons lifted. Fear didn't disappear—but it hardened into something usable.
Then the ground shook.
Hard.
Xenon felt it through his boots, through his bones. His HUD reacted before his eyes did.
A massive warning panel exploded into the center of his vision, forcibly overriding everything else
[THREAT ESCALATION DETECTED]
ENTITY CLASSIFICATION: BOSS
DESIGNATION: CROWNED DEVOURER
CORE SIGNATURE: SS-TIER
ENGAGEMENT RECOMMENDED: NO
SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 6%
The panel lingered for half a second too long.
When it collapsed, the Devourer landed.
Its mass obliterated a reinforced transport vehicle on impact, metal screaming as it flattened beneath corrupted flesh. The creature rose to its full height—easily four stories tall—its body a grotesque fusion of muscle, bone, and exposed nanite veins.
At the center of its chest, something pulsed.
A core.
Bright. Dense. Valuable.
Xenon's HUD outlined it instantly, a glowing SS-tier icon forming over the creature's torso.
[CORE DETECTED — SS-TIER]
ENERGY OUTPUT: 94%
EXTRACTION WINDOW: VARIABLE
WARNING: HIGH VOLATILITY
If they lost that core…
Xenon didn't finish the thought.
The Devourer roared, and the swarm surged forward.
Xenon moved.
He didn't charge blindly. He flowed. His Cognition sharpened the world into angles and vectors, every movement calculated even as explosions ripped through the streets around him.
He thrust.
Gravepoint's core flared.
The spear pierced three zombies in a perfect line, nanite edges phasing cleanly through bone and flesh before detonating inward. Bodies ruptured, cores collapsing as confirmation markers flickered along Xenon's peripheral vision.
[CORE HARVEST AVAILABLE — C-TIER x2]
He ignored them.
There was no time.
He spun, sweeping the spear in a controlled arc aimed at a leaping mutant—
The spear hesitated.
A synchronization ring appeared beside his vision, spinning rapidly before stuttering.
37%.
The mutant's claws tore into his side.
Pain detonated through his body. Armor shredded. Flesh burned.
A warning panel slammed into the center of his vision, blinding him mid-step.
[CRITICAL INJURY]
VITALITY REDUCED
BLOOD LOSS: SEVERE
Xenon staggered, barely rolling clear as the creature struck again. He forced himself upright, muscles screaming, and drove the spear forward, willing it to activate.
The ring fractured.
[ABILITY FAILURE]
CAUSE: CONTROL DEVIATION
OUTPUT LOST: 41%
"Not now," Xenon growled.
Gravepoint vibrated violently in his grip, nanites shifting, recalibrating—as if questioning his authority.
Then the Devourer moved.
It crossed the distance in a single bound, its massive arm reshaping mid-swing into a blade of hardened bone and corrupted energy.
Xenon braced.
Too slow.
The impact sent him flying.
He crashed through a wall and into the remains of a building, concrete collapsing around him. His vision flooded with overlapping panels, warnings stacking on top of each other.
[ASSET CONDITION: CRITICAL]
RIB FRACTURES DETECTED
INTEGRITY FLUCTUATION
The Devourer advanced, every step shaking the ruins.
Xenon dragged himself to his feet, blood dripping from beneath his armor. His HUD locked onto the boss's core again, the SS-tier icon pulsing insistently.
That core could stabilize the Dome.
It could save thousands.
If he lived long enough to extract it.
Xenon made a decision.
He overrode the safety threshold.
Every panel on his HUD ignited at once.
[WARNING: OPERATIONAL DEVIATION]
OVERRIDE DETECTED
INTEGRITY LOSS IMMINENT
Pain like fire tore through his nervous system as nanites surged where they were never meant to go. Xenon screamed—but he didn't stop.
He lunged.
Gravepoint surged forward with him, correcting his trajectory without consent. The spear punched through the Devourer's chest, driving straight toward the core.
For a heartbeat, the world held still.
Then the spear rejected him.
The nanites detonated outward, annihilating the core—but the backlash surged straight through the shaft and into Xenon's body.
His muscles locked.
His vision washed white.
The Devourer collapsed.
So did Xenon.
A flickering panel tried to form before his eyes, text fragmenting as it struggled to stabilize.
[EVALUATION INITIATED…]
RESULT: INCOMP—ERROR—
CORE STATUS: DESTROYED
Gravepoint slipped from his hands and embedded itself in the ground beside him, its blue light dimming to a faint pulse.
Xenon lay on his back, staring up through the shattered Dome as darkness crept in from the edges of his vision.
One final panel burned weakly in his HUD.
[ASSET FAILURE PROBABILITY: 93%]
Zombies continued to pour through the breach.
It was as if he not made any impact at all. His memory began to drift.
And Xenon closed his eyes.