The elevator plunged twenty seconds too long. When doors opened, Lynette faced a vaulted chamber where floating globes showed shifting constellations. A man in a Doctor Who scarf materialized between holographic bookshelves, his nametag reading: Zhang Wei, Chief Archivist (Appointed 1692).
"Ah, Project Spiritborn's finest failure." Zhang tossed her a Tesla coil ring that zapped her tattoo. Numbers materialized in her vision: [Soul Assimilation: 41%]. "Caelum finally grew a conscience? Or just tired of cleaning your corpses?"
Ancient Timeline - Obsidian Observatory
Elspeth adjusted the brass orrery, its planets dripping mercury. "The blood moon isn't celestial – it's a quantum echo." She pointed to Caelum's pulsating scar. "Isolde entangled your timelines. Kill her now, you erase us both."
He gripped her waist, fangs grazing the rune behind her ear. "Then let's get entangled properly."
Their kiss ignited the observatory's prismatic shields as timelines splintered outside.
Modern Timeline - Elemental Trials
Zhang forced Lynette into a plasma chamber. "Isolde's curse runs on five-dimensional alchemy. Master this," he threw her a vial of bubbling Schrödinger's Cat serum, "or become another paradox."
The trial began:
· Fire: Extinguish sentient Greek fire with her frost breath
· Water: Navigate a Klein bottle labyrinth
· Earth: Survive a shifting Mandelbrot terrain
When quantum vines strangled her, Caelum's voice echoed: "Focus on my heartbeat across the timelines."
Their synchronized pulse crystallized the vines. Zhang's brow arched. "Fascinating. You're harmonizing like paired electrons."
Ancient Timeline - Fractured Oath
Isolde's blade hovered over Elspeth's chest. "My son will wear your lover's face, his voice, even your wedding vows." She grafted Caelum's memories into a clone. "Which will you kill – the monster, or the man?"
Elspeth chose neither.
Her dagger pierced both versions, shattering the observatory into splintered realities.