The Nullification Protocol had raged for three days before it simply... stopped.
Reed stood in the ruins of what had been the ceremonial grounds, his breath forming crystalline clouds in the unnaturally cold air. Where the void had touched, reality bore scars—not craters or burns, but absences where the very concept of existence had been stripped away. Trees that had never grown cast shadows that had never fallen. People mourned for loved ones whose names they couldn't remember because those names had never been spoken.
"It's not over," Lyralei whispered beside him, her hand instinctively moving to her abdomen. "This was just... reconnaissance."
Reed followed her gaze downward, and his breath caught. Beneath her ceremonial robes, barely visible but undeniably present, was the subtle curve of new life.
"That's impossible," he breathed. "The ceremony was only three days ago."
