274THE COMMANDS IN THE WELL
The Meta Blackout did not arrive like an explosion.
It arrived like silence.
"What's happening to my powers?"
"Are we under attack?"
"Who could have done this to us?!"
Across Silver City, powers and meta abilities failed one by one.
A pyrokinetic lost control of a simple cooking flame and burned his own hand—the fire refused to answer him anymore. A teleporter stepped forward and never arrived, leaving only an empty ripple in the air where he should have been….
The blackout was not limited to humans.
Energy constructs shattered like glass, dissolving into harmless motes of light before vanishing. Flight systems stalled midair; civilian planes lost lift and began dropping from the sky.
Even the city's great force field flickered and collapsed. The artificial climate regulator shut down, exposing Silver City to the brutal nuclear winds and temperature swings of the surrounding wilderness.
Panic spread like a living thing.
The major families felt the impact immediately.
The Nuralith and Trionix synth labs failed catastrophically— their containment fields collapsed, and experimental subjects escaped into the city. The Veyron family lost control of every machine and automated system they owned, their technological empire reduced to dead metal.
The once-feared Atheris, backed by legions of registered superheroes, became nothing more than a gathering of ordinary humans overnight.
The SIA's heroes fell just as hard.
Without powersthe government fractured in minutes.
Vice-Governor Yiltara Orleone called for an extraordinary emergency council, summoning every major family to convene at once.
Most of the family heads were dead—murdered earlier by the supervillain Black Halo. Only secondary leaders and surviving representatives answered the call.
"This is sabotage," Patrick Veyron snarled, slamming his fist onto the council table. "Someone has deployed a city-scale suppression field."
"This isn't temporary," Luna Trionix replied coldly. "And it isn't localized. The entire city is trapped under an anti-meta condition."
The others erupted into overlapping accusations and fury.
"There's no meta signature," one demanded.
"We have no residue of power, no source," another added.
Atheris's representative spoke last, voice low and shaken."It's as if the world itself has been reset."
That was when the sirens rang.
An assistant burst into the chamber, pale and gasping.
"Vice-Governor—you won't believe this. We're under attack. The alien monsters from the space rift… they're coming."
"Damn it," Patrick Veyron growled, slamming his hand down again. "This couldn't have come at a worse time. We are not prepared for this."
The meeting dissolved instantly.
No one waited for orders or solutions.
The representatives fled in different directions, each thinking of their own survival, their own assets, their own schemes.
There would be no unified response from the government, the major families or the SIA.
Silver City was on its own.
------
[Headquarters of GenSyn Building]
Damen and Liorea brought the rescued prisoners from the Syndic of Fracture back to their basement hideout beneath the GenSyn building.
The property had been officially impounded by the governor after Zairgid's arrest—but there were no guards or patrols. The blackout had emptied the city faster than any evacuation order ever could.
They stepped into the building's darkened lobby. Every system was dead. There were no lights nor hum of machines.
"It's too dark in here," Liorea muttered.
"Let me help," Kail said as his hologram flickered into existence beside them, remarkably stable despite the anti-meta field.
Kail had been cautious long ago.
He'd installed alternative power sources independent of meta energy. With a soft mechanical thrum, emergency lights surged to life, washing the corridor in pale white glow.
"This place is still operational," Kail said. "Probably the safest spot left in Silver City."
They moved quickly, taking the escalators down and descending into their hidden facility.
Liorea didn't waste time.
The prisoners were given medical attention, supplies, and temporary quarters. They chose to stay with her and were formally welcomed into her growing faction -
…. The Order of the Cockerel.
Once things settled, the questions came.
"I still don't understand what's happening," Kail said. "How did we lose all meta powers in the entire city?"
"It's Nullrose," Fearose answered quietly. "Her ability… it went out of control."
Mirrose shook her head. "That shouldn't be possible. Even at full strength, she couldn't have expanded an anti-meta field across the entire city."
"We don't understand it yet," Damen said. "But it has to be connected to the Death Note. When it failed to kill Nullrose, it did something to her—something that broke her power loose."
"Then it's simple," Kail said. "We just write a new command in the Death Note and reverse all the harm."
Liorea's expression darkened.
"That's not possible anymore," she said. "The Death Note is gone."
Everyone turned toward her.
"It merged with my space."
Fearose stared. "Are you saying… you control the Temple of Fracture now?"
Liorea nodded. "Yes. But it isn't the same."
"How different?" Damen asked.
"I managed to isolate the Temple into a sealed region of my space," Liorea explained. "But the laws inside it were already written—by the Death Note itself."
"Laws?" Damen asked.
"You remember the Priest's last commands," Liorea said. "'Block meta powers.' 'Blockpsychic powers.' 'Blockblood essence.'"
She paused.
"They're permanent now. Floating across the sky of the Temple like they were sacred commandments."
Silence followed.
"Can you bring me inside? I need to see the conditions by myself," Damen asked.
Liorea nodded. She raised her hand and twisted space itself.
The world folded.
And in the next instant, Damen stood inside the Temple of Fracture once more.
-----
Damen felt the transition instantly.
The world folded.
Cold stone replaced metal flooring beneath his feet. The air changed—becoming thicker, heavier, as if pressure itself had weight.
When his vision cleared, he stood once more inside the Temple of Fracture.
But it was not the same temple.
The altar in the middle was gone. All around him crimson stained stone walls rose into the sky. Above him, the ceiling no longer existed. Instead, the sky stretched infinitely upward—and so did the walls that surrounded it.
The words, the sacred commands of the realm floated like divine edicts.
BLOCK ALL DEFENSES
BLOCK META POWERS
BLOCKPSYCHIC POWERS
BLOCKBLOOD ESSENCE
UNLEASH GRAVITY
Each sentence burned with pale crimson light, slowly rotating as if orbiting an unseen axis.
"…So that's what you meant by laws," Damen muttered.
He clenched his fist and focused, reaching inward—searching for even the faintest echo of his abilities.
There was nothing.
Damen took a step forward.
The moment his foot touched the stone, weight pressed down on him. With every step, the pressure multiplied, as if the realm itself were tightening its grip.
Gravity thickened the closer he moved toward the center, invisible yet absolute.
By the time he reached the heart of the temple, his bones groaned. His legs trembled. One knee struck the stone floor.
The impact echoed across the realm and echoed upwards into the well above.
"This gravity isn't a joke," Damen said through clenched teeth. "If I didn't still have the physical strength of a Rank 4A and my Core of Blood active, I wouldn't even be kneeling. I'd be flattened."
"I never expected I could enter my own private space", Liorea said and wondered, "how is that even possible?"
Liorea walked up beside him, her arms folded, a crooked smile on her face. She was obviously unaffected by the conditions of the realm.
"Boss," she said lightly, "it's not every day something manages to make you kneel."
Damen let out a short breath and glanced around.
Then he noticed the crimson liquid pooling across the ground. He followed its trail upward—Stone walls rose and surroundsthe realm.
He was trapped…. Like at the bottom of a well, sealed from the sky.
"This place feels like a big Well," he said. "No… a prison."