The bridge did not lead to another zone.
It led upward.
The team emerged into open sky. Or something close. The clouds above flickered at the edges like worn film. The ground beneath them was smooth white stone, threaded with glowing cracks that resembled branching roots.
Jaden stepped forward cautiously. The light here didn't hurt, but it pulsed around him like something ancient had just noticed his presence.
> System Core Layer: Access Confirmed
Welcome, Variable.
Silas moved beside him, watching the horizon. Endless white stretched ahead. Still. Quiet. But not empty.
His expression darkened. "No. Not here."
---
The stillness rippled.
The field began to reshape itself. Buildings rose from the ground flickering and incomplete. Rowan's childhood library. Aya's old greenhouse. Kael's training pit. Niko's hiding place. All of them appeared like half-finished memories.
But at the center stood one figure that didn't flicker.
Tall. Solid. Cloaked in radiant light.
It wasn't Vaerin. It wasn't corrupted.
It was something else.
> Designation: GATEKEEPER INTERFACE
Purpose: System Stabilization Protocol
Threat Level: Absolute
The figure turned toward them. Its face was featureless. It did not walk. It simply stood, and the ground beneath it responded with symbols.
Rowan stared. "That's not a normal spawn."
Silas answered, voice low. "It's what the System sends when it doesn't want to reset. It wants to overwrite."
---
The Gatekeeper raised one hand.
A low vibration passed through the floor.
Pillars of glowing data erupted from the ground, sharp and fast, slicing between them like spears. Each was tipped with glyphs none of them could read.
Kael yanked Jaden back. "Move!"
Aya slammed her hand down, summoning a wall of vines. "They're trying to separate us!"
Rowan tossed a scramble marker to distort the next wave. "We need to move. Fast."
Silas stepped forward. His wings unfurled fully, glowing with divine light. No longer weightless. They were armor now. A radiant shield.
"I'll keep it busy. You get to the core."
---
Niko looked up. "And if you don't make it?"
Silas smirked. "Then make sure I do."
He shot upward, a burst of pure light behind him, colliding mid-air with the Gatekeeper. The sky cracked with impact as system tendrils and angelic power clashed like lightning against glass.
Below, Jaden turned toward the others. "We need to reach that pillar. That's the core."
Kael nodded. "Then let's clear a path."
---
The team moved with precision.
Aya used her roots to create corridors of cover, forcing the field to bend. Kael blasted open gaps with short bursts of flame. Rowan provided timing, reading enemy movements, while Niko blurred their forms with illusions, drawing fire away.
At the base of the pillar, another barrier awaited them. This one shimmered like memory, not metal.
Jaden approached it and raised his hand.
The moment he touched it, everything fell silent.
---
Inside the barrier was someone who looked like him.
Older. Fractured. A mirror image formed of stress and fatigue.
"You're not ready," the reflection said.
Jaden stood his ground. "I didn't come to be ready. I came to move forward."
"You're the error. If you go on, you will become something else."
Jaden looked past the reflection, toward the others still fighting, still holding their ground.
"I already did."
He reached through the mirror.
It shattered in light.
---
Back in the real world, the pillar pulsed. A shockwave spread from it, clearing the field.
> Core Signal: Recovered
Variable Status: Anchored
System Rewrite: Denied
Above them, Silas drove the Gatekeeper down like a meteor. They hit the ground in a crash of fractured stone and data static.
Silas stood, panting, wings scorched but intact.
"Is it done?" he asked.
Jaden looked toward the pillar.
"No. But it's our turn now."
---
Far beyond the field, in a place the System had buried, something else stirred.
A black interface lit up.
A single message flickered.
> OBSERVER: AWAKE
---
End of Chapter 26 : Echoes of Heaven
Author's Note : Chapter 26
me: "final chapter, keep it chill"
also me:
🌩️ angel sky fight
⚔️ system boss
🧍♂️ jaden: becomes godlight.exe
📢 system: "VARIABLE ANCHORED"
👁️ observer: 👀
ending Volume 2 like:
✨💥✨💥✨💥
Stay wet
-sky_xyn