The fissure yawned wider until Kaelen and Lyra were standing on the edge of an abyss. The Burning City below writhed with collapsing towers of radiant crystal, their spires cracking like bones under impossible pressure. Fire and shadow clashed in the streets, swallowing figures that screamed without faces.
The First Thread's voice rolled across the void, deep and merciless.
"This is what becomes of your path. Not the past. Not reflection. This is the future you are weaving."
Lyra's hand gripped Kaelen's, her knuckles pale. "He's lying. This can't be real."
Kaelen couldn't answer. His breath hitched as he saw flashes within the chaos: himself, standing atop one of those towers, relic in hand. His face was twisted in agony… and then in triumph. The city burned around him, but the blade shone brighter than the stars.
Lyra saw it too. Her voice broke. "Kaelen… no."
The relic in his hand pulsed violently, heat surging up his arm. It wanted the city. It wanted the destruction. And deep inside, some fractured part of him wanted it too.
"No," Kaelen growled through clenched teeth. He dropped to his knees, pressing the relic into the stone floor as if trying to bury it. "That's not me. That will never be me."
The First Thread's laugh rattled the shattered planets above.
"You already carry my shard. You are already mine. This city is not an illusion. It is a certainty. Unless…"
The voice grew darker, curling like smoke through their thoughts.
"…unless you surrender now. Embrace me, and the city will never fall. Refuse… and you will watch everything you love burn."
The fissure widened again, and the screams grew sharper. Lyra fell to her knees beside Kaelen, gripping his face, forcing him to look at her instead of the vision.
"Kaelen, listen to me. I don't care what it shows us. That's not who you are. The future isn't fixed. Do you hear me? We change it together."
Tears burned Kaelen's eyes as the relic seared his palm. For a heartbeat, he nearly let it consume him. But Lyra's words struck deeper than the First Thread's whispers.
Together.
With a roar, Kaelen lifted the relic and drove it into the fissure. The vision shattered like glass, fragments of burning towers scattering into the void. The screams cut off, leaving only silence and a fading glow.
The colossal eye of the First Thread blinked slowly.
"Defiance again. Fascinating. You reject destiny… and yet, destiny still clings."
The mist swirled, and the skeletal ash began to reform into something new—winged shapes, armored in light and shadow both. Their eyes burned with intelligence this time, not just memory.
"Very well. You deny my certainty. Then you will face those who tried before you… and failed."
Kaelen and Lyra staggered back as the winged figures stepped forward, their presence suffocating. These were not echoes. Not illusions. They were champions, warriors once chosen by the First Thread—and now twisted into its eternal guard.
Lyra raised her blaster with shaking hands. "Kaelen… we just made a very powerful enemy."
Kaelen gritted his teeth, relic blazing. "Then let's show him why he should be afraid of us."