Roaring flames climbed shattered walls. Homes collapsed in showers of sparks.
Bodies lay across the broken streets, some still, some twitching, some crying for help only to be silenced moments later.
The air tasted of ash, melted metal, and grief.
At the ruined center of the district stood the four Elders of the Zeta Branch:
Fanok.
DOMAIN.
AVASTMA.
Zoners hiding in the shadows shivered, hands pressed over trembling mouths.
Children clung to their parents.
Wounded people lay in corners, praying no robot found them.
Sephiss spoke, his voice echoing through the burning streets:
SEPHISS
"Greetings, Zoners. Today marks the beginning of your end.
You will cooperate... or suffer the same fate as the knights you placed your hope in, yes, all of them dead.
Not by misfortune. Not by chance.
Simply because they were lesser.
Inferior.
As are you."
Zoners hiding in the shadows shivered, hands pressed over trembling mouths.
Children clung to their parents.
Wounded people lay in corners, praying no robot found them.
Sephiss continued, voice calm and cruel:
"You survivors will receive no food. No shelter. No mercy.
You will wait for the next Selection, and accept being thrown from this island as the weak should.
But... if you report anyone who dares resist the Royal Family, you shall earn a Selection Pass.
Betray your neighbors.
Earn your life.
Welcome to the new age."
Silence followed, thick, hopeless, suffocating.
Then a shadow fell over the district.
Delta robots looked up, scanners buzzing.
From high above, riding on Dragon Red, Braxill, Gravixor, and Gradix descended.
Braxill leaned over the dragon's back, eyes widening in horror.
"Why... why did they do this?"
Below, half the district smoldered in ruin.
Gravixor's face went pale.
"They destroyed nearly half the district... this is worse than I feared."
Gradix covered her mouth. "A-are those... dead bodies?"
"Yes," Gravixor whispered. "This... this is a massacre. Euly... Lanni..."
Dragon Red landed with a quake.
The three slid off its back; the dragon dissolved into crimson light.
The ground was painted in tragedy, crushed homes, burning rooftops, broken signs, and bodies in the street.
Some screamed for help.
Most didn't move at all.
Braxill scanned the destruction. "Where are Lanni and the knights?"
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"I don't know," Gravixor said, voice cracking. "But first... we help the injured."
She said that, but tears filled her eyes. Euly's face appeared in her mind over and over.
Braxill placed a hand on her arm. "Gravixor... go find Euly."
She blinked. "But—"
"It's okay," he said softly. "Joy's watching over me and Gradix.
And I know you really like him. Go.
Me and Gradix will handle the injured."
Gravixor stared at him, trembling... then nodded once and sprinted into the ruins.
Gradix looked nervous. "Do you think it's safe to let her go alone?"
"She'll be fine," Braxill said. "Gravixor is strong."
He took her hand gently.
Gradix blushed hard, cheeks pink.
"I need you to stay here and help the injured."
"W-wait! Don't leave me alone! What if someone comes? I, I can't fight!"
"It's okay."
A green glow flashed in Braxill's eyes.
A bulky armored frog knight appeared beside them, visor shining.
"Willard will protect you," Braxill said proudly.
Gradix stared at the creature, horrified. "...You couldn't imagine something cuter?"
Braxill laughed. "Willard is a very skilled knight."
Willard nodded seriously. "Indeed I am."
Gradix frowned. "Ugh... fine."
Braxill turned to leave.
"I'll be back for you Moco okay, I promise."
Braxill moved at the speed of sound, he stopped for a second, thought to himself "Wait, did I just call Gradix Moco, I must be thinking about moco a lot, I sure do miss her." Braxill blushes and conitnues his pursuit to rescue his friends.
Gradix smiled, Braxill was already out of sight.
"Teddy Bear Point," she whispered.
Willard "You have nothing to fear madam, I will protect your honor."
Moco "You better or I'll chew you like a lion"
The frigs body shivered.
Gravixor's Run
Gravixor sprinted through the burning district, heart pounding like thunder.
Every body she passed made her breath hitch.
Every collapsed home made her fear the worst.
"Euly!" she screamed, voice cracking.
"EULY!"
Turning a corner, she spotted several Delta robots scanning bodies.
The moment their sensors detected her, weapons lifted.
"TARGET ACQUIRED."
Gravixor dodged the first volley, axes flying from her hands.
She tore through the machines, ripping them apart as sparks lit the ground like fireflies.
She kept running.
"EULY!"
A faint shape lay in the road ahead.
At first, Gravixor thought it was debris, another body swallowed by ash and ruin. But as she stepped closer, her breath caught in her throat.
Gravixor saw him before she reached him.
A figure knelt alone in the road, half-shrouded by drifting ash, unmoving against the broken ground. At first she thought it was rubble shaped by fire and ruin. Then the wind shifted, and she saw the outline of a body.
Her breath caught.
It was Euly.
He was kneeling, one knee pressed into the cracked stone, the other bent beneath him. His head was bowed, dark hair falling across his face, his weight supported by the sword planted firmly in the ground before him. One hand rested weakly on the hilt, the other hung limp at his side.
He did not move.
Gravixor rushed to him and dropped to her knees beside his form. Up close, she could see it, the stillness that didn't belong to sleep. The dried blood at the corner of his mouth. The faint ash clinging to his skin.
"Euly..." Her voice broke.
She touched his shoulder. Cold. Too still.
Her hand slid to his cheek, brushing away soot, searching for breath that wasn't there. His eyes were half-lidded, unfocused, staring through the smoke as if fixed on something far beyond her reach.
"No... no, no..."
Her hands trembled as she steadied him, careful not to let him fall forward. He remained kneeling, held upright only by the sword embedded in the ground, a final act of will that kept him standing even after life had left him.
She pressed her forehead to his, her breath shaking. For a moment, the world vanished, no fire, no ruin, no war, only the unbearable weight of losing him.
Tears slid silently down her face and fell onto his armor.
She stayed like that, kneeling with him, until the wind shifted and the ash settled.
Then, slowly, she drew back.
Her hands curled into fists.
Her shoulders squared.
And when she finally stood, the grief in her eyes had hardened into something sharper, something burning.
She turned toward the smoking horizon.
Not to flee.
But to answer.