The First Thread pulsed in the void like a living star, suspended between collapsing seconds. Its glow wasn't light—it was truth, unfiltered and absolute, stretching into every choice never made, every version of Aeris that had ever been.
And it was calling to her.
Aeris stood at the edge of the spiral nexus, her fingers trembling inches above its golden pulse. The others stood behind her—Kael's voice tight with warning.
"Aeris, we don't need to know everything. We've come far enough."
She didn't turn. Her eyes were locked on the thread, pupils dilated, breath shallow. Something ancient sang in her blood—a siren-song braided with grief and wonder.
"If I touch it… I'll finally understand why I exist."
Kael stepped closer, the soles of his boots grinding against temporal ash. "Or it'll take you away from me."
Aeris hesitated.
But the thread whispered again—images spilling into her mind like lightning across a midnight lake:
A world of fire where she obliterated Kael to prevent the rise of Null.
A sterile utopia where she ruled alone, having sacrificed love for universal peace.
A timeline where Kael chose power—and she was forced to become the weapon that stopped him.
Every choice. Every version. Every betrayal.
The truth hit her like an avalanche: She had always been the reset key. Not a savior. Not a hero.
A failsafe.
She touched the thread.
The moment her skin brushed its surface, a shockwave exploded across the chamber—blades of frozen time erupting like broken glass. Kael was thrown back, his scream lost in a spiral of collapsing light.
Aeris convulsed, suspended midair as golden veins crackled through her skin. Her pupils vanished, replaced by glowing rings. The chaos inside her no longer roared—it sang in perfect harmony. But it was cold. Absolute.
Her feet touched the ground.
And she was changed.
Hours Later
Kael awoke beneath a fractured dome of sky, the stars frozen like spilled ink.
Dray coughed nearby, his cloak scorched.
"Where's Aeris?" Kael asked, voice rasping.
Dray looked up, haunted. "Gone. But… not lost. Not yet."
Kael stood, swaying. In the distance, high above the Shard Canyons, a figure hovered—radiant, emotionless, draped in gold-and-white fire. Her wings weren't feathers, but shattered glyphs orbiting her body like a collapsing solar system.
Seraph Aeris.
She raised a hand, and the sky peeled open like paper, revealing hundreds of potential timelines writhing in pain.
She spoke, her voice a chord of harmony and grief:
"The multiverse is broken. I will unmake it."
Kael watches as one timeline screams before it vanishes—the world where they first kissed.
His knuckles whiten.
"Then I'll find her," he growls. "Even if I have to fight the woman I love."