The Brink of Annihilation
Liam stood frozen, his heart pounding like a war drum.
Reinhold was gone.
Not dead.
Not injured.
Just… erased.
And the Voidborn, the entity that had just deleted a System Master with a single thought, loomed over them.
> SYSTEM WARNING!
THREAT LEVEL: BEYOND ALL MEASUREMENTS.
NO KNOWN COUNTERMEASURES.
Liam's fists clenched.
"Screw that. There has to be a way."
His mind raced.
The Hellstorm Core failed.
Zairoth, the Architect, was barely reacting.
And the Voidborn?
It was still watching them—as if they were nothing but an equation waiting to be erased.
There was only one option left.
Liam had to unlock Titan Ascension.
NOW.
Even if it killed him.
---
Forcing the Evolution: The Risk of Titan Ascension
Liam took a deep breath, his System pulsing wildly.
> WARNING: TITAN ASCENSION LOCKED (TIME LIMIT: 5 YEARS REMAINING).
ATTEMPTING FORCED OVERRIDE WILL RESULT IN SYSTEM DESTABILIZATION.
PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: 12%.
Liam's jaw tightened.
"Twelve percent? Better than zero."
He focused inward, reaching into the very foundation of the System.
His hands shook violently, veins glowing blinding gold as he pushed against the Architect's restrictions.
Xavier's voice snapped through the battlefield.
"Carter! You force this, and you might break yourself beyond repair!"
Liam gritted his teeth.
"If I don't do this, there won't be a 'myself' left to break."
> FORCING TITAN ASCENSION…
PROCESSING… 25%... 50%...
The Voidborn finally moved.
It turned toward Liam, tilting its hollow head.
And then, for the first time—it reacted.
It spoke.
"You are not meant to exist."
Liam felt reality distort around him.
The Voidborn was trying to erase him.
But Liam fought back.
> TITAN ASCENSION—75%... 90%...
His body screamed.
His very existence burned.
And then—
He broke through.
---
Titan Ascension: Awakening the Impossible
> TITAN ASCENSION UNLOCKED.
WARNING! SYSTEM STABILITY DROPPING BELOW SAFE THRESHOLD.
Liam's entire body ignited.
Not with fire.
Not with energy.
But with pure, raw existence.
He wasn't just a System User anymore.
He had become something else.
> NEW FORM ACHIEVED: TITAN ASCENDANT
PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL LIMITS REMOVED.
REALITY MANIPULATION ENABLED.
The Voidborn hesitated.
Its form flickered—as if for the first time, it had encountered something that wasn't supposed to be possible.
Liam's eyes snapped open.
They were no longer human.
They burned with something beyond the System itself.
The battlefield shook beneath his presence.
And then—he moved.
---
The First Strike: Titan vs. Voidborn
Liam blurred forward, faster than even Zairoth could track.
He appeared in front of the Voidborn, his fist glowing with reality-bending power.
And he struck.
BOOOOOM!
The Voidborn staggered back.
For the first time…
It felt pain.
---
The Impossible Battle
Zairoth, the Architect, observed in silent disbelief.
The Voidborn, an entity that defied existence itself, had just been harmed.
Liam didn't stop.
His foot slammed into the ground, warping reality as he unleashed a shockwave that distorted space itself.
The Voidborn lashed out, a tendril of pure non-existence ripping toward him.
But Liam raised a hand—
And he grabbed it.
The Voidborn trembled.
"This… is not permitted."
Liam smirked.
"Neither is erasing my people."
With a fierce roar, he tore the Voidborn's attack apart, bending its own energy against it.
The air fractured as he slammed a second punch into its core.
This time—
The Voidborn screamed.
Not a sound.
But a distortion of space itself.
The entity reeled back, its form collapsing in on itself.
Liam gritted his teeth.
"I can win this."
But before he could attack again—
The Voidborn vanished.
It didn't retreat.
It simply ceased to be.
And with it, the entire battlefield fell silent.
---
The Aftermath: A War That's Only Just Begun
Liam stood there, his Titan form still crackling with power.
The battle was over.
But not because he had won.
The Voidborn had simply… left.
Why?
Zairoth, the Architect, finally spoke.
"You have done the impossible."
Liam turned to face the Architect.
Zairoth's golden gaze was unreadable.
"You have forced the Voidborn to retreat. But do not mistake this as a victory."
Liam's brow furrowed.
"What do you mean?"
Zairoth's form flickered.
"The Voidborn do not retreat. They only delay. You have merely postponed the inevitable."
Liam felt a chill.
Elena stepped forward. "Then why did it leave?"
Zairoth's voice rumbled.
"Because it has found something more interesting."
Liam's fists clenched.
"What?"
Zairoth turned toward the sky.
"It has gone to call its kin."
The words hit like a hammer.
Liam's entire body tensed.
The Voidborn weren't acting alone.
This was just the beginning.
And now?
More of them were coming.
Liam exhaled, his Titan energy stabilizing.
If the war wasn't over—then they needed to prepare.
They had five years before the Architects returned.
But now?
They had an even greater threat arriving sooner.
Liam turned to his team, his gaze steeled.
"We need to build an army."
Dante grinned.
"Hell yeah."
Elena nodded.
"I hope you've got a plan, Carter."
Liam's Titan aura surged.
"Oh, I do."
Because next time, when the Voidborn arrived?
Humanity wouldn't just be defending.
They'd be hunting.
---