The Vanguard's sensors were overwhelmed the moment they arrived. Data streams flickered and failed as the sheer gravitational distortion of The Nexus clashed with the presence of the Forgotten Sovereign.
Elias barely had time to react before the fleet's comms erupted with frantic voices.
"Multiple contacts—confirming hostile signatures!"
"Energy readings are off the charts—some of those ships aren't even fully here in our dimension!"
"Orders, Admiral?"
Roarke stood firm on the bridge, his expression stone-cold. "All ships, hold formation. We do not fire unless fired upon."
Elias swallowed. That order wouldn't hold for long.
The Forgotten fleet was shifting, bleeding into reality like ink spreading through water. Their forms were unstable, unfinished, as if they were still merging with this existence—but the Sovereign, the towering figure at the heart of it all, was fully here.
And it was watching them.
The bridge fell silent.
Then, the Sovereign moved.
Not physically—but reality itself bent around it, shifting forward like a skipped frame. It went from a distant silhouette to looming just beyond the fleet in an instant.
The air on the bridge grew thick. Cold.
And then—
It spoke.
"You are too late."
Elias's mind snapped backward. Images—visions—memories that were not his own flooded through him. A civilization standing at the height of its power. A war against something far greater. The Nexus being built—not to conquer, but to hide.
Then—obliteration.
Everything erased.
The Nexus was not just a prison.
It was the last thing standing between existence and erasure.
And now, the Forgotten had returned to finish what they started.
Elias's breath came in ragged gasps as the visions faded.
The Sovereign's voice echoed again.
"The cycle ends."
And with a single motion—
It attacked.
---
The Nexus exploded with light.
Golden arcs of energy lashed out, colliding with the Forgotten warships. Some were instantly vaporized. Others shifted—displaced in time, flickering between centuries, never fully stabilizing before they collapsed in on themselves.
But the Sovereign did not move.
Instead, it raised an impossible arm, black as the void itself, and pulled.
The golden energy bent, twisted, snapped.
And in that instant—
The seal cracked open.
Roarke's voice cut through the chaos. "ALL SHIPS, FIRE EVERYTHING!"
The fleet erupted in a storm of light.
Rail cannons, pulse disruptors, energy torpedoes—everything humanity had was unleashed in a single, desperate barrage. The void shook under the sheer force of the assault.
But the Sovereign did not fall.
It simply absorbed the attacks.
The Forgotten fleet retaliated.
Black lances of energy carved through the first line of human ships, ripping through shields as if they were nothing. Entire vessels were pulled apart, their matter unraveling at a fundamental level.
Sienna's voice was sharp with panic. "We're losing ships fast—Elias, what do we do?"
Elias's mind raced. The Nexus was failing, the seal breaking. If the Sovereign fully emerged, then nothing—nothing—would stop it.
And then—a new voice.
Not Forgotten.
Not human.
Something else.
Something inside The Nexus.
"Elias Voss. Do you wish to see the truth?"
The world fractured around him.
And then—he fell.