The world beneath Kael's feet fractured like cracked glass—each step threatening to collapse the fragile reality around him. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and burning memories, a bitter reminder of what Aeris had become.
His heart pounded, each beat a thunderclap in the silence.
He couldn't lose her. Not like this.
Kael sprinted toward the shattered horizon, where Seraph Aeris hovered like a fallen star crowned in fractured light. The timelines she had unmade twisted and tore behind her like ribbons caught in a violent storm. Every erased possibility left a hollow ache in Kael's chest.
"Aeris!" he called, voice raw. "Come back. Please."
But her eyes, now orbs of radiant white, held nothing but cold certainty.
"I am the reset," she intoned, voice echoing like a chorus of forgotten futures. "Only through destruction can balance be restored."
Kael's hands clenched into fists. This wasn't her. The woman who had shown him stars, who had whispered fears and dreams in the quiet of broken worlds—she was still inside. He could feel it, buried beneath the golden armor of her new form.
He reached into the depths of his soul, searching for the thread of their past—the memories that had bound them. The laughter they shared in shattered realities, the touch of her hand that had anchored him in chaos.
The Paradox Guild stirred in the shadows, watching with cold eyes. Their masked leader, Vaelen, smiled beneath his veil.
"You chase a ghost, Kael," Vaelen said softly. "She has become something beyond love, beyond hope."
Kael growled. "She's still Aeris. And I will find her, even if I have to tear the timelines apart."
The chase had begun.
In the depths of the fractured multiverse, Aeris hovered alone, wrestling the storm inside her. But a flicker—just a flicker—of Kael's voice broke through the perfect silence.
And it was enough.