The corridor stretched onward, its crystalline panels humming with an otherworldly energy. Each surface acted like a window into chaos—flashes of burning skies giving way to oceans of liquid code, towering cities crumbling under storms of digital rain. The team moved cautiously, the Core Fragment in Alex's hand casting a rhythmic glow that synced with the panels' pulses.
Aurora traced a finger along one wall, her light reflecting back in distorted waves. "These aren't just images. They're... real. Like portals, but fractured."
Lyra's eyes darted from panel to panel, bow at the ready. "Feels like we're walking through someone's broken dreams. Or nightmares."
Peter's shadow slithered ahead, probing the air. "Whatever they are, they're connected to the Spire. I can feel it pulling at me."
Alex nodded, the Crimson Core thrumming in response to the Fragment. "It's showing us something. Guiding us."
The corridor widened into a spherical chamber, its walls a mosaic of those same crystalline facets, now arranged in a vast, interlocking pattern. At the center floated a holographic orb, swirling with threads of light—red, gold, shadow-black, frost-blue, and electric azure. It rotated slowly, each thread weaving in and out like veins in a heart.
[Archive Access: Granted. Fragment Integration: Initiated.]
The Spire's voice echoed softly, not in their systems this time, but in the air itself, vibrating through the chamber.
Amanda stepped closer, her glitching code stabilizing as she interfaced with the orb. Her eyes widened, fingers dancing through holographic data streams. "It's a map. No—a memory. The Spire's core archive."
Jason kept his sword drawn, scanning the room. "What does it say?"
She frowned, piecing together the fragments. "Not much. It's encrypted, layered. But... the worlds we saw in the panels? They're not separate. They're fragments."
The orb pulsed, projecting hazy images: a single, vast world shattering like glass, pieces scattering into voids. Souls—ethereal wisps—tore apart in the process, splitting across the fragments.
"Split souls," Aurora whispered, her light dimming slightly. "That's what it means. The people in those worlds... they're parts of something whole. Broken, scattered."
Peter's shadow coiled tighter. "Like us? Our powers, our memories—could they be from these splits?"
Lyra shook her head, frustration etching her face. "It doesn't explain how or why. Just shows the shatter. No names, no causes. It's like the Spire's teasing us with half a puzzle."
Alex held up the Core Fragment, its runes glowing brighter as it interfaced with the orb. A surge of visions hit him—echoes of pain, of a cataclysm that ripped reality apart, souls divided to survive. But details blurred, slipping away like sand. "It's incomplete. The Spire's holding back. Why show us this now?"
The orb flickered, threads tightening. A new projection emerged: silhouettes of the team, their forms overlapping with figures from the fragmented worlds—mirrors of themselves, but altered, incomplete.
Amanda's voice trembled. "We're connected to it. Our souls... they might be splits too. Drawn here to... reunite?"
Jason's grip on his sword tightened. "Or to be used. This feels like a trap."
Before they could delve deeper, the chamber rumbled. The crystalline walls cracked, threads from the orb lashing out like whips. Shadows—not Peter's—emerged from the fractures, humanoid shapes with eyes like shattered glass.
[Query: Soul Integrity. Test: Commence.]
The Spire's voice turned sharp, the orb spinning faster. The shadow-figures lunged, their touches sending jolts of disorientation—flashes of other lives, other pains.
Alex swung a crimson arc, shattering one, but more poured in. "It's probing us! Using the fragments!"
Aurora's light flared, pushing back the tide. "We need more from the archive—fight through!"
Peter's shadows merged with the intruders, disrupting their forms. "Easier said than done!"
Lyra's arrows pierced the air, each hit revealing glimpses of the split worlds—souls crying out, fragments seeking wholeness. But the information remained scant, tantalizingly out of reach.
Amanda wove code barriers, her wound aching. "There's a pattern— the splits are weakening something. But what?"
Jason cleaved through a shadow, his blue light syncing with the orb. "Whatever it is, we're in the middle of it."
The assault intensified, the chamber's walls closing in, the orb's threads reaching for them. Alex felt the Core Fragment burn hotter, pulling at his essence, as if demanding a choice he didn't understand.
One shadow latched onto Aurora, its whisper echoing: Reunite... or shatter forever.
She blasted it away, but the words lingered, the team surrounded, the archive's secrets just beyond their grasp.
And then, from the orb's core, a new light emerged— not welcoming, but warning, as a massive fracture split the chamber floor.