The Architect's voice slithered through Kael's mind, cold and honeyed. "You are my vessel now. Resistance is… amusing."
Kael clenched the fractured bell, its once-warm silver now leeching heat from his palm. Across the room, Selene lay motionless on a bed of woven starlight, her form flickering like a guttering candle. Lira hunched over her, fingers dancing across her lute's strings, weaving harmonies to stabilize her fading essence.
"The bell's cracks are spreading," Lira said, not looking up. "Her soul is tethered to it. If it shatters…"
"I know." Kael's voice was raw. The merger with the Balance leader had left his Prime Core unstable—alternates clawed at his thoughts, their voices overlapping with the Architect's taunts.
A rift tore open outside, its jagged maw vomiting acid-green light. The air reeked of decay.
"They're here," Aria warned, her blade materializing in Kael's grip.
The Balance soldiers emerged, their prismatic armor dulled to ash-gray. Their new leader—a woman with Selene's eyes and Veyron's scars—stepped forward. "The Architect's resurrection is inevitable. Surrender the Core, or we purge this reality to starve it."
Lira's music sharpened. "You'd kill billions?"
"Billions, or infinite." The leader's gaze pinned Kael. "Your death saves more than your pride."
Kael's hand trembled. The Architect's laughter swelled. "They fear us. Let me show them why."
"No." He forced the storm down, blood trickling from his nose. "There's another way."
"There isn't." The leader raised her blade. "Last chance, Prime Core."
Kael fought, but the Architect's whispers frayed his focus. Aria's strikes faltered. The Thief's instincts misfired. When a Balance soldier lunged at Lira, Kael moved too slow—
A discordant chord rang out.
Lira's lute flared, sonic waves hurling the soldier back. "Get to the rift! I'll hold them!"
"You'll die!"
"Then make it worth it!"
Kael hesitated, the Architect's voice a roar. "Run, little hero. Let her die for nothing."
He ran.
The rift's core pulsed with the Architect's essence—a grotesque heart of writhing shadows. Kael raised the bell, its cracks glowing violet.
"Strike, and she dies with me," the Architect hissed. "The girl's soul is mine now."
Selene's voice whispered through the cracks: "Do it."
He hesitated.
The Balance leader appeared, her blade bloodied. "Sentiment again?"
She struck the bell.
The world shattered.
Kael stood in a void, Selene before him, her hands cradling the Architect's pulsing shadow. "It's in me too," she said softly. "It always was."
He reached for her. "There's another way. I can—"
"You can't." She pressed the shadow into his chest. "But you can end it."
Pain erupted. The Architect's roar shook the void as Kael's Prime Core ignited, consuming the shadow—and Selene's essence with it.
Kael awoke to silence.
The rift was gone. The Balance, vanished. Lira knelt beside him, her lute silent, her face streaked with ash and tears.
"Where's Selene?"
Lira's silence was answer enough.
The bell lay in pieces, its final chime a whisper on the wind.
That night, Kael dreamt of a meadow. Selene stood amidst the flowers, her back to him. "The Architect's gone," she said. "But the rifts remain. And so do you."
He reached for her, but his hand passed through her form. "Stay."
She smiled, silver tears dissolving into starlight. "I never left."