From nothing ..
a long wooden staff appeared in his hand.
It looked ordinary.
Like nothing more than a simple walking stick.
Not a magical artifact.
Not a weapon.
And yet ..
Maskith performed something extraordinary with it.
He tapped the ground lightly.
A gentle touch with no force whatsoever.
And yet, from that touch, a massive sonic wave erupted ..
instantly engulfing the entire gathering of Ultras.
The sharp resonance forced them all into silence.
Their gazes liftedā¦ toward Maskith.
He offered no speech.
No explanation.
Instead, he slowly raised his staff as his body ignited with a dark, overwhelming aura.
Behind him, Wesker watched .
his eyes widening with every passing second.
Slowly, he raised his head, staring at the power taking shape.
Maskith's auraā¦ was becoming material.
"ā¦It looks likeā¦ a woman?"
A colossal female figure emerged.
Her hair was gray.
Her face concealed behind a round, white mask.
Her body appeared cracked and brokenālike an ancient stone doll.
And her size was so immense that she towered beyond the entire structure.
"Look upon her however you wish," Maskith said.
"Fear her. Admire her. Stand in aweā¦"
"It matters not."
"You are too insignificant to comprehendā¦ what kind of being she truly is."
He lifted his head slowly, staring up at herā
his eyes shining with a different light.
"I created her to resemble herā¦"
"But I failed."
"This pitiful manifestation does not reflect even a fraction of her true greatness."
A slow smile spread across his face.
"Are you watchingā¦ Agaroth?"
"I wager it has been so long that you've forgotten what she looks like."
His smile widened further.
"Our great motherā¦"
"Lady Clea."
At those words ... Wesker's expression shifted.
From within Vayne's body, he felt somethingā¦ unsettling.
A strange tremor ran through him.
A burning sensation stirred within his third eye.
"I don't understandā¦"
"Whoā¦ is she?"
He spoke aloud, confusion evident.
"This reactionā¦ is it the King's emotions?"
Wesker rarely felt such a violent response from Agaroth.
And yet even from this distance ..
through the King's Eye and shadow within him .
he could feel it.
That towering manifestation was no ordinary construct.
That much was undeniable.
Below .. the humans had frozen.
Their eyes were empty.
Their bodies still as if their souls had left them entirely.
They were entranced.
Hypnotized.
"Now, you insignificant humansā¦"
Maskith's voice rang out, filled with fervor.
"The time has come for all of you to ascendā
to evolveāand reach your true potential!"
Behind him, the massive woman raised her arms toward the sky.
She movedā¦ as if dancing.
Her right hand swayed then her left .
in a motion so perfect it captivated all who witnessed it.
The world itself darkened in response.
The very fabric of reality seemed to dim.
And within seconds .. a strange black mist spread outward.
Thick.
Heavy.
Like suffocating smoke.
It expanded rapidly engulfing every remaining Ultra.
All of them were swallowed by the mist.
Frozen where they stood.
Among them ... a mother holding her child's hand.
A woman leaning against her lover's shoulder.
A man standing before his familyā
instinctively trying to protect them.
There were all kinds of people presentā
yet the smoke made no distinction between any of them.
It was suffocating.
Dark.
Oppressive.
Silence lingered for a few long secondsā
seconds that drew Wesker's full attention.
Even he, accustomed to such atmospheres, found himselfā¦ uneasy.
Because what followed .. was nothing short of horrific.
From within the smoke, thorned, shadowy tendrils emerged as if they were living creatures.
They writhed like serpents, slithering through the crowd ...
injecting the humans one after another.
The Ultras only regained awareness after being pierced by those things ..
but by thenā¦
it was already far too late.
Graduallyā
screams began to tear through the air.
Caelid trembled as one of the most grotesque experiments unfolded in plain sight.
The moment the tendrils injected themā
they collapsed to the ground, writhing like worms.
Their bodies cracked open with dark, viscous lines .. as though they were on the verge of tearing apart.
The pain was immense.
Inhuman.
Yet Maskith did not so much as blink.
In less than a minute ..
he had injected his poison into every single human present.
"Iā¦ can't believe itā¦" Wesker murmured, awe filling his voice.
"You planted it in all of them?"
"So quickly?"
"The Demon Seedā¦!"
Wesker understood immediately the gravity of what had just occurred.
What Maskith had doneā
was implant a complete Demon Seed into every human before him.
In the past, even a single seedātwo at mostāwas considered rare.
But nowā¦
there were thousands.
"Feast your eyes," Maskith said, a terrifying, sadistic smile carving across his face.
"Thisā¦ is the culmination of the Demon Seed Project."
"Many of them will die."
"But those who surviveā¦"
"ā¦will become weapons of mass destruction."
"Each of them will wield power comparable to that of a Great High Demon."
"This is my final gift to Amonā
the gift that will tip the scales in the coming war."
Leaving the humans below drowning in their own blood ...
Maskith stepped back calmly.
"With thisā¦ the Ultras are ready for battle."
At that moment .
the demon faction had obtained a terrifying army.
One that would undoubtedly bring unimaginable devastation.
ā
ā
ā
Shadow Sect ā The Shadow Expanse
It was the very place where Frey had first awakened his power.
A vast, empty temple ...
devoid of all presenceā¦ except one.
The Saint Gehrman.
The blue-eyed engineer had secluded himself hereā¦ before the final battle.
Night had fallen outside.
The Shadow Sect was making its final preparations for the coming war.
Gehrman sat atop the structure, his eyes tightly shutā
his body trembling.
Something was wrong.
His head jerked violently from side to sideā
as though he were being struck over and over again.
His expression darkened with every passing second.
As if he were suffering under the weight of what he saw.
"ā¦It's changingā¦" he muttered, his voice weakā¦ trembling.
"The futureā¦ is changing?"
Every few momentsā
visions struck him like lightning.
Dark, fragmented scenes each more dreadful than the last.
He saw destruction.
Ruins.
Ash.
Blood and fireā
bodies and severed remains.
A catastrophic war ...
a clash that shook the very world.
He saw the warriors of the Shadow Sectā¦
the demonsā¦
Amonā¦ doing something.
"A battleā¦ beyond measureā¦"
Frey ...
The earth split in two.
The skyā¦ torn apart.
And in the endā
darkness descended.
Forcing Gehrman out of his visions.
He trembled.
His hand shook uncontrollablyā
as he struggled to process what he had seen.
"It's changedā¦"
"The futureā¦ has changedā¦"
He whispered it again ...
fully grasping the magnitude of it.
The coming battle would redefine the very standards of power.
The world before it and the world after it ..
would never be the same.
Days remaining until the Shattering: 1 day.