The Aurora's Spear plunged deeper into the rift, every meter like swimming against a hurricane of warped reality. Panels sparked, metal groaned, and the crew fought to hold the ship together.
Then, without warning, everything went still.
"Engines just… stopped," Ceyra whispered, panic in her voice. "Not failed—stopped. Something's holding us."
A shadow unfurled ahead of them—vast, coiling through the prism-space like a serpent made of night. Its face formed from stars collapsing inward, and its voice was a low, resonant hum that shook their bones.
"So this is the one she clings to," the Architect said. "A fragile mortal in a stolen shell of metal. I expected more."
Kaelen rose from the command chair, phaseblade igniting in his hand even though he knew it was useless against something like this. "You'll regret underestimating me."
The Architect laughed—a sound like a dying universe.
Tendrils of void lashed out, piercing the ship. Lights flickered, atmosphere vented in bursts as systems failed one by one. Rhyss fought to reroute power, while Ceyra screamed, "It's draining us from the inside!"
Kaelen sprinted to the weapons console. "Then we fight from the inside, too." He jabbed a command, overloading the ship's reactor into a massive energy pulse.
The explosion of light threw the Architect back, just for a heartbeat.
That was when she appeared.
A rift tore open above the ship's deck, and Lyra stepped through—not physically, but as a luminous projection of herself, the Infinity Seed blazing in her hands. Her voice thundered through the ship:
"Get away from them!"
She unleashed a shockwave of pure radiance that ripped through the Architect's tendrils, freeing the ship.
Kaelen looked up at her image, awe and determination burning in his chest. "Lyra… you're alive."
"Not for long if we don't end this," she replied. "Follow my lead. We take the fight to its heart."
The rift screamed as the Architect recoiled, but even as it retreated, Kaelen could feel its malice intensify. This wasn't just a battle for survival anymore—it was war for the fate of existence itself.