Chapter 86: COUNTERATTACK
The dimensional rupture tore through Reed’s consciousness like a serrated blade. He collapsed to his knees, blood streaming from his nostrils and ears, staining the crystalline floor beneath him. Every cell in his body recognized the catastrophic event that had just occurred countless realities away.
"The Ninth Tower..." he gasped, his voice a hoarse whisper. "It’s gone."
Shia rushed to his side, her silver-etched skin glowing with anxiety. "Gone? What do you mean gone?"
Reed’s eyes rolled back, revealing bloodshot whites as his consciousness stretched across the dimensional void. "Not destroyed. Erased. Lania activated Protocol Starfall." He coughed, flecks of crimson spattering the front of his tattered robes. "The Anchor Stone’s collapse created a perfect nullspace—a wound in reality that cannot be healed or traversed."
Commander Vex slammed his metallic fist against the war table, shattering its surface. The holographic battle plans flickered and distorted. "Damn it! That means we’ve lost our diversion. The Watchers will redirect their attention here immediately."
Reed struggled to his feet, steadied by Shia’s firm grip. The laboratory chamber hummed with unstable energy as reality fluctuations intensified. Through the vast observation windows, the sky above their hidden sanctuary had begun to fracture—hairline cracks revealing glimpses of impossible geometries beyond.
"We can’t wait any longer," Reed declared, blood still trickling from his eyes. "The calculations aren’t perfect. The weapons aren’t calibrated. But if we delay—" he gestured toward the increasingly unstable dimensional tears above "—there won’t be enough reality left to save."
The gathered survivors—a mere hundred souls salvaged from collapsed domains—watched him with haunted eyes. These last fragments of humanity had endured horrors beyond comprehension, their bodies augmented with forbidden technologies just to survive in this corrupted reality.
"Deploy the Consciousness Weapons," Reed commanded, his voice finding new strength. "Prepare the dimensional crafts. We strike at the Observatory."
The Observatory hung suspended in a non-space between realities. Its impossible architecture defied natural laws—walls flowing like liquid while remaining solid, corridors that terminated in spaces larger than the structure containing them. This was the Watchers’ central nexus, where they observed and manipulated the dimensional collapse.
Reed’s fleet materialized in the void surrounding it—twelve crystalline vessels powered by consciousness engines. Their hulls were forged from the compressed memories of extinct civilizations, each pulsing with the dying thoughts of billions.