Part III: The Gates of The Glyph [[1]]
The end was here.
Victivius has won. Whitemarch was destroyed. Oz had fallen. The Crucible had at last found its sacrifice in the Emerald Palace, and below, Conrad Wulf was razing the last of Oz's defenses, attempting to claim what the Crucible was after, but he was too late. Hound and Armata De'Sange had successfully distracted Conrad from his siege on the Palace long enough for Ibrahim, Cire, Ozma, Lucida, Praetor, Sebyl, Rhun and Kathra to make it into the Palace successfully, but the price was already high, and was climbing.
Hound, the miasma wracking his body, was slowly dying. Tack, already weakened from her seperation from Cire, was weakened further when the Crucible emerged. Cire left to help, and in his absence, she passed away, unbeknownst to him. Praetor, having been badly burned in an attack from a monstrous Adelaide, died from his injuries, despite Ibrahim's frantic efforts to save him.
And now, the Emerald Palace has been ripped from the very ground and drawn to the bottom of the Crucible. Slowly, it has turned over, where it is pulling into the Crucible itself, their undersides beginning to merge with Ibrahim and the remaining group still inside.
Little do they know, the true terror is yet to come.
But somewhere, in a place of eternal peace, Praetor has learned the Truth, and with it, the true end of all things will be brought to light...