23 Hours Remain...
Across Earth's fractured governments, silence fell. Not the calm kind — but the breath before a scream.
Satellite feeds showed the aftermath in China, India, Italy, and Australia — craters where cities once stood, their skies still red from the pulse of the Second Lotus.
The rogue general who launched the nuke had vanished.
His name was already being erased from records, his command blacklisted.
But the damage had been done.
And the priests — they had evolved.
In military bunkers from Colorado to Cairo, top brass stared at flickering screens showing monstrous, growing silhouettes cloaked in black, their auras bleeding electricity.
General Rahim of the Egyptian command slammed his fist on the table.
"We handed them the sun... and they made a weapon out of it."
The American Joint Commander simply said:
"God help us. We armed the gods."
Panic gripped the streets.
People fled cities, only to find roads blocked by wreckage, checkpoints collapsed, or turned inward by fear.
In Berlin, thousands stormed the archives looking for ancient books, relics, and texts — anything that might explain what was happening.
In South Africa, a group of schoolchildren huddled in a cave, reading hieroglyphs out loud from a museum guidebook — their only hope.
In Russia, priests from the old faiths began ringing bells long thought abandoned, calling for divine intervention that would not come.
Everywhere, people looked to the sky. And saw the Lotus.
Above the clouds, glowing like a malignant god, it pulsed.
Not just as a threat — but as a countdown.
Back underground...
Mike paced the edge of the Scarab chamber.
Adam was twitching in his sleep, the Scarab flaring at his chest.
Sarah stared at the wall, watching the replay of destruction etched by glowing glyphs. Rome. Gone. Her knees felt weak.
"I don't know how to stop this," she whispered.
Mike turned to her.
"We don't stop it with weapons. That's what they want. We need... something else."
The Scarab pulsed louder. Brighter.
Then Adam gasped — his eyes snapping open.
"They're not done. They're building something... bigger."
Sarah knelt beside him.
"Where?"
"In the clouds. In orbit. A third lotus. But this one... it won't fire beams. It'll send a frequency. To... erase what's human."
They all stared at each other.
"Then we have less than a day to rewrite the ending," Mike said.
And above, across the ruined skies, the Red Lotus smiled — waiting to bloom.