The threads were already bleeding.
That's what Elian wanted.
The Ring's Eye was fractured — unstable, barely watched. Perfect. With the right push, it would fold in on itself… and trap anything inside.
He didn't need to beat the cleanse squad.
He needed to bury them.
He stood on a rise of memory-cracked stone, overlooking the incoming patrol. Five of them. Soul Echo signatures clean, sharp, system-synced. Each armed with stabilizer spears and cloaked in purging threads.
Not scouts.
Executors.
[Entities Detected: Crownshard Cleanse Squad – Tier: Strainbound (C+)]
[Mission Objective: Zone Purge, Anomaly Termination, Thread Containment]
[Zone Status: Collapse-Ready – Thread Stability: 12%]
[Collapse Trigger: 3 Stabilization Nodes Required]
Perfect.
Elian moved to the first relay spire — a broken column half-submerged in warped soil. It still pulsed. Weak, but alive.
He jammed a decay shard into its core.
[Stabilization Node #1 – Overload Initiated]
The patrol didn't even realize he was there.
Not yet.
He moved to the second node. Quicker. No hesitation. Slid behind memory-thin walls, cracked runes bleeding light. This one had a defender — an echo-formed beast snarling with rot.
Elian didn't fight it.
He let it bite him.
Then infected it.
It died convulsing — not from the wound.
From the mutation.
He dropped the second overload shard.
[Stabilization Node #2 – Overload Initiated]
The patrol noticed him now.
Three of them moved toward his position. Fast. Controlled. Thread weapons glowing.
He didn't run.
He smiled.
"You came to clean the infection."
"You should've checked the air."
He vanished between two collapsing walls.
The final node was behind a sealed door of memoryglass.
He didn't open it.
He cut through it.
The stabilizer inside tried to sync with the system — too slow.
Shard in.
Thread ignition.
[Stabilization Node #3 – Overload Initiated]
[Zone Status: COLLAPSE IMMINENT – Evacuation Locked]
[Estimated Time to Structural Failure: 02:44]
Elian stood at the heart of the Ring's Eye as the world began to convulse.
The cleanse squad panicked.
Not one of them understood what he'd done.
They screamed into system channels. Begged for zone lift
Too late.
He walked away.
[Threadbreaker Progress: 5.0% → 6.2%]
[Zone Collapse Executed – "Ring's Eye" Status: Archived Ruin]
[System Alert: Surveillance Layer Offline. No response pending.]
Elian didn't watch them die.
He didn't need to.
Their screams would echo in the threads long enough.
And the system?
It would have to rebuild from nothing.