At Urza's abandoned tower, a damaged coalition prepares to invade New Phyrexia while its enemies close around the Temporal Anchor
The Father in Pieces
Tezzeret escorts a dismembered Karn through New Phyrexia, discovers Realmbreaker's scale and realises Elesh Norn never intended to reward him.
Karn remains conscious while the Machine Orthodoxy dismantles him. Tezzeret watches because delivering the pieces is the final task supposedly standing between him and a darksteel body free of the Planar Bridge. Both are trapped by machines inside them: Karn by Phyrexian restraints and Tezzeret by a device that has made every master believe he can be owned.
Karn helps Tezzeret enter the restored Panopticon, hoping any information gained might matter. The Darksteel Eye reveals armies prepared on a scale the Planar Bridge could never transport. Realmbreaker is the missing structure, grown from the essence Vorinclex stole on Kaldheim. Tezzeret sees that his own portals helped make the invasion possible.
Elesh Norn accepts Karn as Phyrexia's symbolic father and orders Tezzeret back toward Dominaria instead of granting freedom. The betrayal ends his remaining calculation of loyal service. His turn toward Urabrask is self-preservation rather than redemption, but even a selfish fracture in Norn's coalition can become an opening for those she intends to conquer.
