The pristine white expanse shattered like glass, shards of light spiraling away into an infinite abyss. Darkness poured in, thick and alive, wrapping around the group like chains.
The Architect's voice thundered through the void:
"You were never meant to touch Infinity. You are fractures in perfection."
Kaelen spun toward the others. "Stay together!"
But the ground—or whatever passed for it here—split beneath them. Lyra, Kaelen, Rhyss, and Ceyra were thrown in different directions, each landing on separate floating platforms adrift in the void.
Only Veylan remained standing at the center, their mask flaring violently against the encroaching dark.
The Architect Revealed
From the black rift above, a colossal figure descended—an amalgamation of machinery and void, shifting and rearranging itself with every moment. Faces formed in its surface and vanished, voices overlapping in maddening whispers.
"The Nexus belongs to me. You will feed it, as all things must."
Veylan raised a hand, and the Nexus rings around him blazed to life in defiance. "Not while I breathe."
Lyra's Fight
On her isolated platform, Lyra barely had time to recover before a creature clawed its way from the darkness—humanoid but eyeless, its limbs bending in impossible angles.
"Kaelen!" she called, but her voice didn't carry across the void. She drew her pulse-blade, the hum of its edge grounding her fear.
The creature lunged. She sidestepped, slashing it apart in a flash of light—but as soon as it fell, two more crawled from the shadows.
Kaelen's Desperation
Kaelen slammed his fist against his platform's surface. "There has to be a way to reach them!"
A glowing interface appeared beneath his hand—Nexus code responding to his will. He manipulated it instinctively, building a bridge of light toward Lyra's platform.
The Architect noticed. "Interference?" The darkness surged to destroy the bridge.
Kaelen roared and poured every ounce of his strength into keeping it stable. "Lyra! Run!"
Veylan's Gambit
At the center, Veylan confronted the Architect directly. "You want the Nexus? Come take it."
They activated the device on their arm—the Sovereign Key. A torrent of Nexus energy erupted outward, striking the Architect full force.
The entity shrieked, reality itself rippling. For a brief moment, platforms reconnected, bridges of light linking everyone.
"NOW!" Veylan shouted.
Lyra sprinted across the bridge to Kaelen. Rhyss and Ceyra followed suit.
The Trap
But as they reached Veylan's side, the Architect's form condensed, focusing all its fury into a single, enormous spear of shadow.
"If I cannot have Infinity, I will ERASE it!"
It hurled the spear straight at the Nexus core.
Veylan didn't hesitate. They leapt in front of it.
The impact was cataclysmic—light and darkness colliding in an explosion that consumed everything.
When the glare faded, Veylan was gone. The Nexus pulsed weakly, flickering on the edge of collapse.
Lyra fell to her knees. "No… no, not like this…"
And then, softly, a whisper echoed through the fading void:
"I am not finished."