Kael landed hard on cracked obsidian, the impact jarring his bones but clearing his thoughts. All around him stretched a vast plateau—dark, starless, and trembling beneath his feet like a living wound in the fabric of time.
Lightning danced silently across a sky torn open, revealing glimpses of other worlds: cities burning under violet suns, oceans falling upward, children laughing in ruins. Time was bleeding.
And at the center of it all stood Null.
He hovered above the plateau, cloak unfurling like ink in water. His mask glowed with symbols that shifted constantly—runes from forgotten languages, names never spoken, memories unmade.
Kael stood, the spark within him burning hot in his chest. He had reclaimed his truth, reforged his soul—but still, the weight of everything he had seen bore down on him.
Then, like a whisper in a storm, she appeared.
Aeris.
She stepped through a rip in the air behind him, her wings half-folded, her eyes blazing with raw determination. Her presence was no longer just celestial—it was elemental. The wind shifted at her breath. The stars aligned to her pulse.
"I found you," she said, her voice strained but resolute.
Kael turned, a breath catching in his throat—not just because she was here, but because of the unspoken truth between them. The quiet gravity that had always pulled them together was now impossible to ignore.
He didn't speak. He simply nodded. And together, they turned to face Null.
"You think this changes anything?" Null's voice rippled across the sky, deeper than thunder, older than truth. "Even united, you are fragments of broken timelines. The sum of your regrets."
"You're wrong," Aeris said, stepping forward. "We are the sum of our choices. And we've made ours."
Behind them, two more portals snapped open.
Dray emerged from swirling fire, his robes scorched, his staff reforged from the bones of his guilt. And Veyra walked out from a tide of shadows, her coat billowing, her mask cracked but her resolve unbroken.
The four of them stood together. A quartet forged from paradox and pain.
Null descended.
"Then you shall bear witness to oblivion."
He raised both arms, and the sky shattered.
Monsters poured forth—creatures formed from decayed possibilities. A wolf with seven heads, each a version of Kael that had died. A swarm of insects that spoke in Aeris's voice. A mountain that moved like flesh, echoing Dray's fears. The battlefield was born from their nightmares.
The ground trembled as Kael launched forward, blade gleaming. Aeris soared above, raining bolts of starlight. Dray chanted spells woven from languages that existed only between moments. Veyra fought like a storm restrained—unleashing what she once swore she never would.
Time cracked.
The battle raged.
Each blow echoed through timelines.
Kael struck down the wolf, each head vanishing with a painful gasp—until only one remained. His own. And it spoke.
"You'll fail her."
Kael roared, silencing it.
Aeris was surrounded—memories of herself clawing at her wings. She faltered.
Kael turned—just in time to catch her.
They hit the ground together. And in the silence between screams, they looked at each other.
"You saved me," she whispered.
"Not yet," he said. "But I will."
They rose, hands locked.
And something changed.
Their auras merged—Kael's fire and Aeris's light entwined. A new power surged between them: one not born of war or pain, but of faith.
The battlefield bent.
Null faltered.
Dray hurled the final incantation.
Veyra tore off her mask and screamed into the wind—releasing the last of her restraint.
And the four of them surged forward, a spear of defiance hurtling through entropy.
Kael leapt.
And struck Null's mask.
It shattered.
Underneath was not a face, but a mirror.
And in it—Kael saw himself.
A version of him that had chosen power over people, vengeance over love. A future that might still come.
Then it faded.
And so did Null.
The battlefield collapsed.
The torn sky mended.
And the silence that followed was not hollow—but full.
Of breath.
Of hope.
Of tomorrow.