The bell's final chime reverberated through the battlefield, its resonance peeling back the Architect's void-like facade to expose a shriveled, cracking core. Kael staggered, the bell trembling in his bloodied hand as the Titan-Architect recoiled, its shadowy limbs dissolving into ash. Around him, Elysion's spires groaned, their obsidian surfaces fracturing under the weight of collapsing realities.
Selene lay motionless nearby, her silver hair fanned out like a halo, the violet scars on her skin fading to a faint glow. Kael crawled to her side, ignoring the searing pain in his ribs. "Lyra," he whispered, but her eyes remained closed, her breath shallow.
"She's gone," Aria said, her voice brittle. "Focus on the living."
"Not yet," Kael snapped, clutching the bell tighter. Its warmth pulsed in rhythm with Selene's fading heartbeat.
The clatter of armor broke the silence. Veyron emerged from the smoke, his scarred face twisted into a grin. "Sentiment again, Kael? How predictable."
Lira stepped forward, her cracked lute raised. "Stay back, traitor."
"Traitor?" Veyron laughed, his Dominions—newly enslaved alternates—materializing behind him. "I'm the only one here with a plan." He gestured to the Architect's crumbling form. "That thing's power is up for grabs. Why let it go to waste?"
Kael's Scholar-self calculated the odds—37.2% chance of survival if engaged—but the Pyromancer's rage drowned logic. Aria's blade ignited in his hand. "You're not touching her."
Veyron's grin widened. "Her? I'm after the Architect."
He lunged, his Dominions swarming.
Kael rang the bell.
The world fractured. Memories flooded the battlefield—Veyron's brother dying in the snow, Lira's first pact with an alternate, Selene's laughter echoing through a sunlit meadow. The Dominions froze, their hollow eyes flickering with recognition.
"What… is this?" Veyron snarled, clutching his head.
"The truth," Kael said, advancing. The bell's chime sharpened, each toll stripping Veyron's alternates of their chains. One by one, they turned on him, their stolen faces contorted with rage.
Veyron stumbled, his armor cracking under their blows. "You—you can't—!"
"I can," Kael said, ringing the bell a final time.
Veyron's scream echoed as his Dominions dragged him into a rift, their vengeance swallowing him whole.
The bell's light dimmed. Kael collapsed beside Selene, his vision blurring. Her hand found his, cold but steady. "Kael… let go."
"No," he choked. "Not again."
She smiled, her silver eyes meeting his. "The bell… it's not just a weapon. It's a bridge." Her form began to dissolve, merging with the bell's glow. "Find me… in the echoes."
"Wait—!"
But she was gone, her essence absorbed into the relic. The bell hummed, now warm with her presence.
The battlefield shuddered. The Architect's core pulsed weakly, its voice a fractured whisper. "You… will regret… this…"
Kael rose, the bell in one hand, Aria's blade in the other. The Ascendant Tier surged—Scholar, Pyromancer, Thief, Diplomat, Martyr, and now Selene's resolve—all harmonizing into a single, devastating strike.
He plunged the blade into the Architect's core.
Light exploded.
The multiverse reformed in jagged pieces. Elysion's ruins floated amidst newborn dimensions, their skies painted with auroras of fractured light. Kael stood at the edge of a meadow, the bell silent in his hand.
Lira approached, her lute repaired but her eyes weary. "What now?"
Kael gazed at the horizon, where shadows whispered of lingering rifts. "We rebuild. And we find her."
The bell chimed faintly, a silver laugh on the wind.