The battlefield was no longer a battlefield. It was a crucible of collapsing realities, every fragment of space and time compressed into one arena where gods, monsters, and mortals clashed. The Architects' trial had been swallowed by chaos—yet the Architects themselves only watched, silent, their silhouettes burning in the infinite sky.
Kaelen vs Seris: The Breaking Tide
Kaelen's blade struck sparks against Seris Dhal's gravity-forged glaive, every impact detonating like collapsing stars. The ground beneath them had already dissolved into a storming whirlpool of seawater and stone.
"Every strike you waste brings her closer to ruin," Seris said, voice calm, as if the battle itself was beneath him. He stepped forward, swinging his glaive with the weight of planets, forcing Kaelen back.
Kaelen spat blood but grinned through it. "I don't waste strikes, Seris. Every one of them is aimed at you."
He launched upward, blade glowing like a shard of dawn, carving a rift through the gravity storm. Seris blocked—but Kaelen's will slammed through the guard, fracturing the glaive's edge. For the first time, Seris's composure cracked, his expression flickering with surprise.
Althira vs Kaelith: The Inferno
Above, Althira's silhouette darted through rivers of flame. Kaelith's hammer crashed down, every strike igniting fissures in reality. Whole slabs of molten sky broke apart, raining into the ocean below.
"You are fire without control," Althira called, voice sharp, every syllable a blade. "Unfocused. Desperate."
Kaelith roared, his molten body surging brighter, cracks glowing white-hot. "And you are shadow without substance! I will burn you until nothing remains!"
She leapt, blade spinning in a blur of black flame. Kaelith met her in midair, hammer colliding with her strike. The shockwave obliterated the platform, leaving only a jagged pillar where Lyra knelt—fighting not her enemies, but herself.
Lyra: The Seed's Trial
Lyra clutched her chest, light radiating through her veins. The Seed was no longer whispering. It was roaring, its voices layered in infinite tones.
Destroy them all, Lyra.
Take their power.
End the war before it begins.
She pressed her palms into the shattered stone, shaking, her hair floating as if she were underwater. Every heartbeat pulled her closer to losing herself. She saw Seris's cold precision, Kaelith's fury, Althira's ruthless control—and she realized the Seed was amplifying them inside her mind.
She screamed, trying to anchor herself in Kaelen's voice, the memory of his hand gripping hers. "I am not your weapon! I am not your vessel—I am Lyra Solenne!"
The Seed pulsed violently, the world bending around her declaration. For the first time, the whispers hesitated.
Convergence
Kaelen drove Seris back with a vicious strike. Althira cut across Kaelith's chest, molten blood spraying. Both battles crashed inward, converging toward Lyra's pillar.
Seris's glaive was raised. Kaelith's hammer burned like a falling sun. Althira's blade was poised to sever them both. And in the center, Lyra rose, her body glowing with unstable radiance, the Seed unfurling inside her like a star about to go supernova.
"ENOUGH!"
Her cry wasn't words—it was command. The battlefield obeyed. The oceans stilled. The flames froze mid-air. Time itself cracked as the Seed's energy burst outward. Seris, Kaelith, and Althira were all hurled back, crashing into the fragments of reality.
Kaelen staggered to her side, reaching for her hand—yet even he could feel it: the power was no longer hers alone. The Seed was awakening.
And the Architects, silent until now, finally spoke.
"The judgment has begun."