The ruins of the Capital Tombs had gone still—eerily still. Wind no longer howled, the sky no longer cracked, and the Gate that once screamed with otherworldly voices had sealed shut, leaving only scorched stone and echoing silence.
Valerian stood at the center of it all, chest rising and falling in labored breaths. His clothes were torn and soaked with blood—some of it his, some of it not. The blade he'd forged from the system's root code now hovered beside him, humming with residual energy. It didn't gleam like metal; it pulsed like a heart.
Kael leaned against a shattered pillar nearby, half-conscious, lips curled into a bitter grin.
"Tell me you killed him for real this time."
Valerian didn't answer. His eyes were locked on the place where Alex—his other self—had vanished. Ash still floated there like snow. And within the ash... a whisper remained.
> [Residual Code Detected: Fragment 0.02% — Instability Unknown.]
