The people of Solmaria woke to a silent dawn.

  No morning bells rang from the temples.No prayers echoed through the streets.No divine blessings whispered upon the wind.

  And yet, the world did not feel empty.

  It felt wrong.

  The merchants opened their stalls. The nobles rode through the city. The guards patrolled the walls.

  Everything moved as it should.

  But deep in their bones, in the marrow of their very souls—they felt the absence.

  Something had left them.

  Something they could not remember.

  And yet, they mourned.

  Without knowing why.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The First Unraveling

  Darius stood atop the pace battlements, staring at the sky.

  It was clear.

  A perfect expanse of blue, without storm nor cloud. Yet every instinct in his body screamed that it was broken. He exhaled sharply. The night before... The Thanatarchy had come.

  The thing called IX'ZYRETH had spoken to him. Had tried to unmake him. Had nearly succeeded. And yet, he was still here. His mind still his own. His existence still intact. But the gods...

  He turned his gaze toward the great temples of Solmaria.

  For centuries, their divine symbols had burned with sacred fme.

  The mark of Sorion had always shone the brightest—an eternal sun suspended above the Grand Cathedral, its golden light visible from any corner of the city. But now—

  It was gone.

  Not extinguished. Not stolen. Just... gone.

  Darius clenched his fists. He had witnessed impossible things.

  People vanishing.The past rewriting itself.The Thanatarchy stepping into the world as if it had always belonged.

  And now, as he stood upon the pace walls, he felt something shift.

  Something above.

  A weight pressed against his chest. A pressure that was not air, not gravity—

  Something was coming.

  And it was not of this world.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The Sun Breaks

  In the marketpce, a child pointed toward the sky.

  "Look."

  His mother turned, shielding her eyes. Her lips parted. She frowned. There—high above—the sun flickered. Not like a fme in the wind. Not like an eclipse. But like a memory struggling to remain.

  The light pulsed—then dimmed.

  For a moment, no shadow existed anywhere in the city.

  Then— The sun split.

  A soundless shatter, like gss breaking without a sound.

  And where the sun had been, where golden radiance had once bathed the world—

  There was nothing.

  No bckness. No void.

  Just absence.

  And then, the screaming began.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The City in Panic

  Darius was already moving before the first screams reached his ears.

  The people below had fallen into chaos.

  Some ran, their voices hoarse with fear they did not understand.Some dropped to their knees, hands clutched in desperate prayer—

  Prayers that would never be answered.

  Darius reached the temple steps, knights behind him, his breath uneven.

  The High Bishop stood at the entrance, his face pale, his hands trembling.

  Darius grabbed him by the robes. "What happened?"

  The bishop's eyes were wide. Unfocused.

  "I—" His voice cracked. "I tried to call upon Him."

  Darius' pulse pounded.

  The bishop never spoke His name aloud.

  Sorion.

  The Supreme God of Light.

  Even now, the bishop tried to form the name, his lips moving, his throat tightening—

  But the word would not come.

  And as Darius watched, the bishop's expression changed. The panic faded. The fear vanished. And he blinked in confusion. "...Why am I here?" Darius' grip tightened. "What?" The bishop tilted his head. "Why... am I standing outside?" Darius felt his heart stop. The High Bishop did not remember.

  He did not remember the vanished sun.He did not remember the god he had served his entire life.He did not remember that he had ever been afraid.

  He simply turned, his voice calm. "I must prepare for morning prayer." And he walked into the temple. As if nothing had changed. As if he had never known otherwise. Darius staggered backward.

  His mind screamed.

  The world was rewriting itself.

  And only a few could still see it.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The Rift Opens

  The air shattered.

  Darius turned sharply, eyes darting to the heavens.

  The sun was gone. The sky was wrong.

  And something was pressing through.

  Not falling. Not descending.

  Just... arriving.

  A ripple spread through the sky, a wound where the light should have been.

  A presence seeped through it.

  Cold. Endless.

  A silence so deep that it erased the sound around it.

  Darius' knees nearly buckled beneath its weight.

  It was here.

  The Thanatarchy had stepped further into Celestara.

  And now, the world could not stop it.