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Chapter 47 – Sunfall Protocol
> [Location: Orbiting Ascendant Sector – Sky of Shattered Suns]
[Environmental Warning: Stellar Collapse Imminent]
[System Update: Command of First Flame – Integrated]
[Status: Ascending... Sync Rate: 12%... 36%... 59%... 88%...]
The skies above the Tower were rupturing.
Ash clouds glowed with internal lightning. Celestial debris rained from broken stars. And amidst the burning heavens, an ancient mechanism began to stir—a forgotten weapon, sealed above the highest floor of the Tower.
The Solar Crucible.
An artificial sun forged during the first rebellion, powered by stolen fragments of divinity. Left to decay after Erevan's failed uprising... until now.
It flickered back to life.
But it was no longer under the Tower's control.
It was Erevan's.
From within the Crucible, Erevan stood at the edge of a viewing platform, flame-forged armor hissing with energy. Spiralbreaker now pulsed with both soul and solar heat. His eyes—reflections of collapsing universes—locked onto the growing threat below.
> [Transmission Intercepted: Signal from Tower Core - Security Protocol Theta: CHILDREN OF THE ASCENT ACTIVATED]
[Warning: Multiple High-Tier Hostiles Approaching]
[Combat Forecast: EXTREME RISK]
Erevan smiled.
Good.
Across the skyline, twelve beams of light descended—each birthing a figure cloaked in silken void, their eyes replaced by spinning glyphs. The Children of the Ascent. Beings the Tower had raised from stolen souls, engineered to be flawless defenders of order.
And they were beautiful in their perfection.
Until they spoke.
"Erevan of the Flame," one said, voice fracturing space. "You were supposed to kneel."
Another raised a crystalline blade, pointing at him.
"You bring ruin where you walk. We bring equilibrium. Return the Ember, and your deletion will be painless."
Erevan didn't answer.
Instead, he took one step off the Crucible's edge—
And fell.
Blazing.
Screaming.
Descending like a meteor.
> [Ability Activated – Sunfall Protocol: Solar Incineration Descent]
The ground screamed as he landed among them. The impact vaporized three Children instantly, their forms shattering into fragments of code and bone.
> [Enemy Units Destroyed – 3/12]
[Trait Activated – Ash Remnants: Consume Fragments to Restore Energy]
One Child lunged with a spear made of frozen time. Erevan caught it mid-air, spun, and drove Spiralbreaker through their heart. His flames roared inward, devouring the soul before the System could recycle it.
> [Devoured – Temporal Core]
[Bonus Effect Gained: Time-Skip Pulse (5s Cooldown)]
Another trio attacked in synchronized harmony, blades dancing like poetry.
Erevan matched them with brutality.
He tore one's jaw clean off, slammed the second through a crumbling satellite tower, and blinked behind the third—imploding their spine with a flame-forged kick.
> [Health – Moderate]
[Regeneration – Stable]
[Hostiles Remaining: 5]
The air trembled.
The remaining five Children ascended in formation, forming a halo of converging runes. They began to chant—an invocation to summon the Tower's Judgment. A weaponized fragment of the System's Prime Directive.
Erevan looked up.
The Crucible behind him answered.
> [Command Override: SUNFALL CANON ONLINE]
[Charging... 98%... 99%...]
The Children fired.
But so did he.
A lance of white-hot plasma obliterated the sky. It wasn't light. It was memory, pain, rebellion—compressed into a single spear that ruptured causality.
The chanting stopped.
The Children ceased to exist.
> [All Hostiles Eliminated]
[System Alert: You Have Violated Core Rule Set—Dimensional Collapse Risk Now 47%]
[New Title Gained: Flamebreaker of Heaven]
Ash drifted down like snow.
Erevan stood in the cratered battlefield, smoke curling off his body, Spiralbreaker embedded in the ground like a declaration. His breath was steady.
He turned toward the Tower—toward the pulsing heart that watched him even now.
"You sent your angels," he whispered. "Next time... send gods."
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