Silence swallowed everything.
Not the kind of silence that comes after chaos.
But the kind that feels wrong.
Like the universe holding its breath because something vital had been ripped from its chest.
Kael stood frozen, his hand still stretched toward the empty air where Luna had been moments ago. His fingers trembled slowly, as if his body had not yet accepted the truth his mind was screaming.
She was gone.
The chains of silver light had vanished into the crack in the sky.
The colossal eye had closed.
The tear had sealed itself.
And the universe breathed again.
But it felt colder.
Emptier.
Wrong.
The other Luna remained.
She floated gently to the ground, her presence stabilizing the shattered reality around them. The power that had been tearing the chamber apart moments ago now calmed, bending to her will like a loyal servant recognizing its master.
The Watchers slowly regained their ability to move, pushing themselves up from where they'd been thrown.
None of them spoke.
None of them dared to.
Because the thing standing before them wearing Luna's face was no longer an anomaly to be sealed.
It was something that had won.
Kael turned toward the other Luna slowly, movements stiff, mechanical.
His eyes were no longer confused.
They were empty.
Hollowed out.
"Where is she?" he asked quietly.
The question hung in the air like a blade.
The other Luna looked at him for a long moment, expression unreadable.
Then she answered.
"Everywhere," she said softly. "And nowhere."
Kael's hands clenched into fists so tight his knuckles went white.
His aura erupted violently, not the controlled power of an Alpha, but something raw, desperate, breaking.
Dark and bright energy twisted together in a storm around him, cracking the already damaged floor.
"Bring her back," he said, and the words were not a request.
They were a command.
A threat.
A promise of violence if not obeyed.
The other Luna shook her head slowly.
"You don't understand," she said. "She didn't just leave this world. Her essence crossed into the Origin Realm."
Kael's heart skipped.
The Watchers stiffened as one.
One of them whispered in horror, "The realm before existence... no one has entered that place in millennia."
The other Luna nodded.
"No one returns from there," she continued calmly. "Not gods. Not monsters. Not queens. Once you cross that threshold, you cease to be part of any timeline. You become..."
She paused, searching for the word.
"A possibility. A potential. A maybe that never resolves into it."
Kael stepped forward, power still crackling around him.
His voice trembled, but not with fear.
With something far more dangerous.
Determination.
"Then I will go there."
The other Luna studied him, head tilted.
"For what?" she asked, genuinely curious.
"To bring her back."
A faint smile curved her lips, not cruel, but sad.
"You would risk destroying reality to save one girl?"
Kael did not hesitate.
"Yes."
The word echoed through the chamber with absolute certainty.
The other Luna walked closer to him, each step deliberate.
Her eyes, silver and void, pierced through his soul.
"Then listen carefully," she said. "If you enter the Origin Realm, you will awaken something that even the Primordial fears. Something that was sealed there before the first world was born."
She leaned closer.
"Something that hungers for a way back."
Kael met her gaze without flinching.
"Good," he said.
"Let it wake."
"Let it come."
His eyes blazed with something that made even the other Luna take a step back.
"As long as I bring her home."
The Watchers erupted into panic.
"This is madness!" one of them shouted, raising his staff. "If he crosses the boundary, the seal will break!"
"The Origin Realm was locked for a reason!" another cried.
"He'll damn us all!"
Kael turned toward them slowly.
The storm around him intensified.
"I don't care," he said simply.
And he meant it.
He turned back toward the sky.
Toward the place where the tear had closed.
Dark symbols began to appear on his skin, not on the surface, but beneath it, glowing through his flesh like brands burned into his very essence.
Not the Devourer's marks.
Not anything the council had ever documented.
Something older.
Something forbidden.
The marks spread across his arms, his chest, his neck—intricate patterns that seemed to move and shift even as they formed, as if they were alive and searching for something.
The other Luna watched as the symbols completed themselves.
Her expression changed for the first time since she'd stabilized.
Not calm.
Not confident.
Shocked.
"That mark..." she whispered. "You carry the Anchor's Brand."
Kael looked down at his hands, at the glowing symbols pulsing beneath his skin.
"I don't know what that is," he said.
"You shouldn't have it," the other Luna said, and there was fear in her voice now. Real fear. "That mark only appears on those chosen to hold reality together when it tries to tear itself apart."
She stared at him.
"How long have you carried it?"
Kael's jaw tightened.
"Since the night I met her," he said quietly.
The other Luna's eyes widened.
"Impossible," she breathed. "That would mean..."
She didn't finish.
Because Kael had already raised his hand toward the sealed sky.
The symbols on his skin blazed brighter than the sun.
And the sky began to crack again.
Not like before, not a tear or a wound.
A door.
Massive. Deliberate. Answering his call.
The Watchers screamed.
The Arbiter appeared in the doorway, mask gleaming.
"Stop him!" it commanded. "If that door fully opens—"
But it was too late.
The door opened.
And from beyond it, something looked through.
Something vast.
Something ancient.
Something that saw Kael standing there, demanding entry, and laughing.
"Finally," it said in a voice that had no sound but existed directly in every mind. "Someone desperate enough to pay the price."
"Come, little Anchor. Cross the threshold."
"Retrieve your Moon."
"And become what you were always meant to be."
The door widened.
Kael didn't hesitate.
He stepped forward
And Rhea grabbed his arm.
"Wait!" she shouted, blood still streaming from her injuries. "You don't know what's on the other side!"
Kael looked at her.
And she saw in his eyes that he didn't care.
He would walk through hell itself if it meant bringing Luna back.
"Tell her father I'm sorry," Kael said quietly.
Then he pulled free.
And stepped through the door.
The transition was instant.
One moment, Kael stood in the ruined chamber.
The next, he stood in nothing.
Not darkness.
Not void.
Nothing.
A space where existence itself had not yet decided to be.
And in that nothing, he saw her.
Luna.
Floating in the center of the emptiness, eyes closed, body still.
Relief flooded through him.
"Luna!" he shouted, running toward her.
But as he got closer, he realized something was wrong.
She wasn't alone.
There were others.
Dozens of figures surrounding her, all floating in the same suspended state.
All wearing her face.
All identical.
Kael skidded to a stop, heart hammering.
"What—"
"Welcome to the Origin Realm," a voice said behind him.
Kael spun.
And froze.
Because standing there, smiling at him with Luna's face but wearing a crown made of dying stars—
Was another Luna.
But this one was awake.
"You're looking for her," the crowned Luna said, gesturing at the floating figures. "But here's the problem, little wolf."
She stepped closer, and Kael felt power radiating from her that made the Primordial seem small.
"In this place, every version of Luna that could ever exist does exist. Simultaneously. Infinitely. All of them are equally real."
She smiled wider.
"So tell me—"
She gestured at the dozens of identical faces.
"Which one is yours?"
Kael stared at the floating figures, searching desperately for something—anything—that would tell him which one was the Luna he knew.
But they were all perfect copies.
Same face.
Same mark on their chest.
Same silver-streaked eyes.
The crowned Luna laughed softly.
"It's not so simple now, is it?" she said. "You can take one of them back. The door will allow it."
"But choose wrong..."
Her expression turned serious.
"And the Luna you love stays here forever, while an imposter wearing her face returns to your world in her place."
Kael's hands trembled.
"How do I know which is real?"
"You don't," the crowned Luna said simply. "That's the price."
She walked past him, trailing fingers across the floating figures.
"Every Luna here is real. Every one is her. Every one contains her memories, her love for you, her desperate wish to go home."
She stopped at one of them.
"But only one is the original. The one whose thread connects directly back to your timeline."
She looked at Kael.
"Choose the wrong one, and you'll create a paradox that could unravel your entire reality. But you'll never know until it's too late."
Kael felt panic rising.
"There has to be a way"
"There is," the crowned Luna interrupted.
She pointed at his chest, where the Anchor's Brand still glowed.
"Your mark connects you to her. To the real her. To the specific thread of fate that bound you together."
Hope flared.
"Then I just follow the connection."
"But," the crowned Luna said, and her smile turned cruel, "using the mark will burn it out. You'll lose it forever. And without it..."
She leaned close.
"The next time reality tries to tear itself apart, there will be no one to stop it. No anchor to hold the worlds together. Everything will collapse into this."
She gestured at the nothing surrounding them.
"So choose, little wolf."
"Save your Luna and doom every other world."
"Or walk away, keep the mark, and let her sleep here forever."
Kael stared at her.
At the impossible choice.
At the floating figures that were all Luna and none of them at once.
The crowned Luna's smile faded.
"I'll give you one minute," she said. "After that, the door closes."
"And you'll be trapped here with all the other almosts and maybes."
She vanished.
Leaving Kael alone in the nothing.
Surrounded by infinite versions of the woman he loved.
With fifty-nine seconds to decide which one was real.
And the knowledge that choosing wrong would destroy everything.
He closed his eyes.
Focused on the mark burning beneath his skin.
Felt for the connection, the thread, the bond that had formed the night they met.
And opened his eyes.
The mark pulsed once.
Pointing toward.
Two of the floating Lunas.
Not one.
Two.
Both glowing with the same connection.
Both claiming to be the original.
Kael's heart stopped.
Because he realized with crushing horror what this meant.
Luna had split.
The merge hadn't failed.
It had succeeded too well.
And now there were two versions of her, both real, both original, both equally connected to him.
One was the Luna who'd made the choice.
One was the Luna born from the consequence.
And he could only save one.
The crowned Luna's voice echoed through the nothing.
"Thirty seconds, wolf."
"Choose."
Kael looked between the two glowing figures.
And had absolutely no idea which one to save.