Skylance City hummed with tension, its glittering towers casting shadows over the tangled web of streets and hidden tunnels below. It was a city of the living, but it belonged to the dead. Every soul within its walls—whether mercenary, hacker, or criminal—knew the silent truth: the Pyramid controlled everything. Death was not an escape, and life was just a step toward another trial.

But now, for the first time in centuries, there was hope. Alastor was about to ignite a rebellion that could shatter the Pyramid’s control and free them all from the loop’s grip.

He stood in the heart of an abandoned industrial district buried deep beneath Skylance—an underground hall used by outcasts and revolutionaries in years long forgotten. Now, it belonged to him. The first steps toward an army began here.

The room buzzed with tension as groups of men and women filtered in through secret entrances—former assassins who had abandoned the Pyramid’s trials, rogue hackers who had been blacklisted from the Shadow Network, and spies who had seen too much and been left for dead by their employers. These were the discarded remnants of the Pyramid’s control, men and women who had been betrayed by the very system that claimed to give them purpose. And now, they waited to see if Alastor could convince them to fight again.

Selene and Aurora flanked him—silent sentinels, their sharp gazes scanning the growing crowd for potential threats. Selene’s hand rested lightly on the hilt of her blade, her posture relaxed but ready. Aurora’s neural interface flickered faintly, feeding her data on every face in the room, logging their histories, their skills, and—most importantly—their grudges.

Alastor stepped forward, his scarab buzzing beneath his sleeve, the ancient energy thrumming like a second heartbeat. This was it. The moment where words could either unite or doom them.

He looked out over the sea of faces—worn and tired, hardened by betrayal and violence. These were people who had nothing left to lose—and that made them dangerous. But it also made them exactly what he needed. If they wanted to burn down the Pyramid, they would need every weapon at their disposal—including the anger that simmered in every person gathered here.

Alastor’s voice was steady, sharp, and filled with purpose as he began to speak. "You know why you’re here," he said, his words cutting through the restless murmurs. "Every one of us has been used. Betrayed. Thrown away by the system we fought to serve."

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He let the words hang in the air for a moment, watching as the crowd’s faces darkened with old memories—memories of promises broken and lives destroyed.

"We were told the Pyramid gave us meaning," Alastor continued, his gaze sweeping the room. "That every death, every sacrifice, would make us stronger. That we were part of something greater." He paused, his jaw tightening. "But that was a lie. The only thing the Pyramid ever gave us was chains."

A ripple of agreement spread through the crowd—grunts of approval, bitter smiles, murmured curses. They had all lived that truth, and now someone was finally saying it out loud.

"The Pyramid doesn’t care about us," Alastor said, his voice rising. "It feeds on our pain. It uses our deaths to keep its leaders in power—and it’s been doing this for centuries. Every time we die, the loop drags us back in, forcing us to fight, to kill, to suffer—again and again." His eyes blazed with fury. "But no more."

Selene stepped forward, her sharp eyes flickering with approval as she scanned the faces in the crowd. "We’ve all played their game. And we know how it ends—with us broken and forgotten. But we don’t have to play by their rules anymore." Her voice was cold, edged with violence. "We take the game away from them."

Alastor nodded. This was more than just a call to arms. It was a declaration of war.

"The Pyramid thinks it owns us," he said, his voice low but filled with dangerous conviction. "It thinks we’ll keep running their trials, keep killing and dying for their amusement. They think we’ll crawl back to them, no matter how many times they throw us into the loop." He let the silence stretch, every word heavy with meaning. "But we won’t. Not this time."

He raised his hand, the scarab humming against his skin, its ancient energy pulsing through him. This was no longer just a rebellion. It was a reckoning.

"This is our chance," Alastor said, his voice sharp and clear. "Not just to fight. Not just to survive. But to tear the Pyramid from the sky and shatter the loop that binds us all." His gaze burned with intensity, daring them to believe. "Together, we will destroy the system that enslaved us. Together, we will be free."

Aurora’s interface hummed as she sent encrypted messages rippling through the Shadow Network—alerts to hidden factions, signals to dormant cells. The message was clear: The war had begun.

Selene smirked, her blade glinting in the dim light. "The Pyramid won’t know what hit them."

The crowd stirred, energy crackling in the air. **The outcasts, the forgotten, the discarded—**they had waited for this moment. Now, they had a leader who could bring them together, who could harness their anger, their grief, their hunger for revenge.

Alastor looked out over them, his voice sharp and resolute. This was his moment.

"Together," he declared, "we will tear the Pyramid from the sky."

The room erupted in cheers, a chaotic roar of rage and defiance that echoed through the underground halls. The forgotten factions of Skylance had found their cause. The war to end the Pyramid’s reign had begun.