Time Remaining: 0.500 seconds

On the terrace, the S rankers were beginning to move, just barely.

Vermont’s remaining hand had shifted perhaps half a millimeter.

Gregor’s eyes had moved a tiny fraction, tracking toward the incoming attack.

Vash’s muscles were tensing microscopically, his body attempting to react.

’Their minds are still processing at normal speed despite their bodies being slowed... They must have realized we’re under attack by now...’

Castor looked at his own blurred, bloody hands and at the thousands of children and staff now wrapped in protective barriers at the Domain’s edge.

And a flicker of relief passed through his thoughts.

’Thankfully Gregor didn’t try to counter with his own Domain... A Domain clash in this situation would cause exponential Willpower and Aura drain... I’d collapse before finishing the evacuation and everyone would die. He must have realized that...’

He’d moved two thousand two hundred sixty people in what would measure, to everyone else, as half a millisecond.

CRACK

His spine fractured in two places as the damage reached critical levels, his legs nearly gave out, but he locked them through sheer willpower, pushing through the agony.

’The table... Last ones.’

He moved back to the terrace and carried Damian, Elizabeth, Kuro, Vash and Vermont first.

Time Remaining: 0.400 seconds

And then Yara.

Castor paused for just a moment, looking at her frozen face.

Her hands were still glowing with Aura, still trying to save Elizabeth even in this frozen moment.

’She finally found happiness here... With these children. And I’ll be damned if I let anyone take that from her!’

He wrapped her in the strongest, most protective barrier he could create, using more Aura than he’d used on anyone else.

His hands were gentle as he lifted her, cradling her carefully.

For just a moment, in this frozen world, he let himself feel her presence.

He carried her to safety and placed her down with infinite care, making absolutely certain the barrier would hold.

Time Remaining: 0.300 seconds

The attack was right there now, meters above the terrace. He could see individual particles of concentrated Aura within the beam, see the way space itself was warping from the energy density.

’One left.’

Gregor.

Castor turned back toward the terrace, his body screaming in protest.

He reached for Gregor–

SNAP

His other femur broke completely and his legs gave out.

The terrace floor rushed up and he hit it hard, his broken ribs grinding against each other.

Pain exploded through every nerve ending in his body.

’Get up!’

His body didn’t respond.

’GET THE FUCK UP!’

He forced his arms to move, dragging himself forward across the terrace, inch by agonizing inch, toward Gregor’s frozen form.

His shattered glasses fell away, the pieces scattering.

Blood filled his mouth, poured from his ears, leaked from his eyes.

Time Remaining: 0.200 seconds

’Just a little more... Just a little more.’

His hand reached Gregor’s ankle and used the absolute last of his physical strength to drag Gregor backward, away from the impact zone.

His broken legs scraped uselessly behind him as he pulled with his arms alone, every movement sending fresh waves of agony through his shattered body.

Time Remaining: 0.100 seconds

’Not enough time... Can’t make it all the way.’

He dragged Gregor as far as he could from the impact point.

’It’ll have to be enough... Barriers... I need barriers.’

Castor’s Aura core felt scraped completely hollow, burning like acid.

He raised his one still-functioning arm, the other hanging useless at his side, bones protruding through torn flesh.

Every single drop of Aura he had left poured out in a desperate flood, forming a massive translucent shield between the attack and the people he’d saved.

The barrier spread wide, covering everyone, solidifying as he pushed the last dregs of his reserves into it.

’It won’t be enough... It’ll shatter on impact... But it’ll buy them the split-second they need to react.’

Time Remaining: 0.050 seconds

The barrier locked into place, drawing everything he had left.

Time Remaining: 0.030 seconds

His heart hammered against his broken ribs, each beat sending fresh spikes of agony through his chest, blood leaking from every pore as the strain reached lethal levels.

Time Remaining: 0.010 seconds

His vision tunneled to a pinpoint, darkness creeping in at the edges.

Time Remaining: 0.003 seconds

The barrier stabilized, complete.

’This is it... Any longer and the Domain will kill me...’

Time Remaining: 0.000 seconds

His body had reached its absolute limit.

And the Domain shattered like glass.

"–Council!"

Elizabeth’s warning finished, the second syllable exploding from her mouth in a spray of blood.

The world snapped back to normal speed.

The S rankers’ eyes widened as they suddenly reacted to the massive attack above them.

Castor’s barrier was already there, fully formed, glowing with the last of his Aura.

The lingering echo of his Domain’s activation whispered through the air like a ghost.

"Chronos... Overclock..."

And the attack hit.

For one instant, there was only light.

Blinding white light that burned away shadows, that seared through closed eyelids, that made the world disappear into absolute brightness.

CRACK

Castor’s barrier shattered instantly, breaking apart like glass hitting concrete.

But in that fraction of a second, the other S rankers moved.

Gregor’s hands came together, his own Domain erupting in a massive barrier that covered everyone Castor had saved.

Vash, Yara and Vermont also followed suit as the barriers formed just in time.

The beam of concentrated Aura slammed into the orphanage’s terrace where they’d been sitting less than a millisecond ago.

The building vaporized in an instant, turned to superheated plasma and ash.

The shockwave expanded outward at supersonic speed as buildings evaporated, thousands of houses turned to dust, their structures disintegrating before they could even burn.

The ground cratered, a massive depression forming where the orphanage had stood, the earth itself melting and flowing like water from the heat.

The air ignited. Oxygen combusted in a chain reaction, flames spreading in every direction in a perfect sphere of destruction.

And through it all, at a safe distance from the direct impact, Gregor’s massive barrier held.

It covered the thousands of orphanage children wrapped in their individual Aura cocoons and everyone else including Castor, lying broken in the center of it all.

The barrier shook violently, cracks spreading across its surface like a spiderweb, but it didn’t break.

The attack dissipated, its energy finally spent.

Then, half a second later, the sound arrived.

BOOOOOOOOOOM

The noise was apocalyptic as it rolled across the city like thunder from the end of the world, shattering windows kilometers away and triggering car alarms, waking every single person in Tranquil City.

The barriers fell one by one and Gregor’s barrier flickered and vanished last, having borne the brunt of everything.

But everyone inside the barriers was alive.

And in the center of it all, Castor lay on the ground, his body was broken, both legs shattered, bent at weird angles, both arms useless, bones visible through torn flesh and his spine fractured in multiple places.

Blood poured from every orifice, pooling beneath him in a growing lake.

His ribs had punctured his lungs, his organs were failing, his Aura core was completely empty and burned out from the strain.

But his eyes were open.

They were completely red now, the whites filled with burst blood vessels, but open, staring up at the smoke-filled sky.

’Everyone’s safe...’

His lips moved but no sound came out and his vision was fading.

’Stay awake... this was just the first attack.’

The darkness pressed in harder, but he held on.

’And that’s why I never use my fucking Domain... every second I steal, pushes me closer to death...’

Someone was running toward him now, probably Yara, her healing hands would help.