The tremors of the collapsing universe seemed to echo in Arin's chest, his pulse quickening with every passing second. The world around them twisted and bent under the weight of his decisions, and the Loom, still alive within him, pulsed with an unrelenting power that made him feel both insignificant and infinite at the same time.
"Can you feel it?" Seraph asked, his voice calm but with an edge of urgency. "The very fabric of reality is coming apart. And it's because of us."
Arin didn't answer immediately. Instead, he focused, trying to center himself amidst the chaos, even as the Loom's power threatened to overwhelm him. His hands burned with the energy of a thousand fractured worlds, and yet he could still hear the Weaver's daughter's words echoing in his mind: The Loom's designs are already set in motion. He had to believe there was still a way to fix this. There had to be.
"What is it you want from us?" Arin finally asked, his voice steady despite the chaos. He turned to the Weaver's daughter, her presence still looming like a shadow over them all. "What's the price for putting everything back together?"
She didn't answer right away. Instead, her gaze flicked toward the rift in the air—a gaping hole that stretched into an abyss of endless timelines. It was as if all of reality was being drawn into that singular void, each timeline struggling to retain its form against the force pulling it inward.
"You misunderstand," she said, a cold smile playing at the corner of her lips. "It's not about fixing it. It's about accepting it. This is the price of your interference—the unraveling of the Loom. Your world, your timeline, all of them, will collapse, and in their place, something new will emerge."
Arin clenched his fists, feeling the threads within him shift violently. The Loom wasn't just a tool anymore—it was an entity, alive, breathing, pulling him further into the web of fate. "I refuse to let everything end like this."
Kaelen stepped forward, his eyes narrowed in determination. "We're not the ones who've let it all unravel. If there's a way to fix this, we'll find it. Together."
Seraph nodded, his expression hardening. "You said it yourself. We're not pawns. If we must accept this chaos, then we will reshape it with our own hands."
The Weaver's daughter's expression flickered briefly—a hint of something almost like respect, but it was gone before Arin could make sense of it. "You will find your answers in the rift," she said, her voice as cold as ever. "But understand this—once you enter, there is no going back. You will be lost in the timelines. And once you do, I will no longer be able to help you."
Without another word, she faded, her form dissolving into the void that surrounded them. Arin, Kaelen, and Seraph were left alone before the vast rift, the air thick with the weight of the decision they had to make.
Arin looked at his companions. "We have no choice. If we don't face the rift head-on, we'll be swallowed by it."
The three of them stepped toward the rift, their fates now irrevocably tied to the Loom's reckoning.