The void was breaking.
Fragments of mirrored platforms spiraled downward, shredded into infinite shards by gravity wells flickering inside the Rift. Two overlapping skies clashed — one blinding gold, one deep violet — as the Eidolon Divide continued tearing Branch-Zero apart.
Kai balanced on a drifting platform, Tier-Sigma Adaptive Luck pulsing violently just to keep him grounded. His OmniSpear burned faint gold in his grip, probability collapsing around every breath he took.
Catalyst stood upside-down relative to Kai, suspended on a mirrored shard in the opposite half of the Divide, Erevos Bloom spiraling in silver-black behind him.
Between them, golden glyphs twisted violently — Omni-God's lattice tightening, sealing one path while leaving the other wide open.
[Directive Update]
[Branch-Zero Instability: 72% → 86%.]
Divergent Kai Veyren: Termination Priority.
Catalyst Kai: Overflow Reroute Confirmed.
Deploying Primordial Ascendant Obelisk.
Kai's HUD screamed warnings.
Catalyst simply lifted his spear slightly, watching the Rift ceiling fracture with detached calm.
"…Primordial Ascendant," Catalyst muttered, silver-blue eyes narrowing faintly.
"That's new."
Kai exhaled slowly, forcing his heartbeat steady.
"New usually means bad."
The Rift folded in on itself — an inverted implosion. Every shard of reality bent toward a single point until space itself cracked open.
From the rupture, Obelisk descended.
Not a creature.
Not a machine.
A conceptual weapon given form.
Its body was obsidian fractal glass etched with golden runes older than the Omni-System itself. Six wings unfolded behind it, made of spiraling mirrors that reflected every possible version of Kai's death.
Its presence killed sound, erased light, and flattened probability into zero.
Kai's Adaptive Luck flatlined instantly.
[Warning:] Tier-Sigma Override Disabled.]
For the first time since awakening the Omni-System… Kai was truly unprotected.
Catalyst tilted his head slightly.
"…Beautiful."
Kai swallowed hard, lowering his spear.
"…You need therapy."
Twelve upgraded Executor-V2 Ascendants blurred forward in perfect formation, OmniSpears glowing crimson-hot.
Kai moved instinctively, Neural Overclock igniting to compensate for Adaptive Luck's shutdown. Each strike came faster than he could consciously process, but his body responded anyway — deflecting, pivoting, weaving between spear arcs like liquid.
Catalyst was a phantom, Erevos Bloom twisting mirrored platforms into spiraling footholds mid-air, OmniSpear movements so clean they left silver-black fractures behind.
An Executor's spear glanced Kai's shoulder, probability normally enough to phase-shift the strike away — but Tier-Sigma was offline. Blood spilled warm and fast.
Kai snarled, twisting low, counter-thrusting clean through its chestplate.
[Executor-V2 Integrity: 41%.]
The Ascendant hesitated — then Catalyst appeared behind it, Erevos Bloom spiraling violently, slicing it in half with surgical precision.
"…Sloppy," Catalyst said flatly.
Kai flicked blood from his OmniSpear.
"I was letting it warm up."
Golden threads erupted across Kai's HUD — chaotic, jagged, unstable.
[Anchor Ping Detected.]
Target: Lyra.Veyren.01
Branch Trace: Nova-Lock Detected.
Warning: Access forbidden without Branch Key.
Kai's chest seized instantly. He forced the data open manually — his HUD screamed errors back at him.
Catalyst glanced over.
"…You found her."
Kai's knuckles whitened around his spear.
"I found where Omni-God hid her."
Catalyst's gaze sharpened faintly.
"No… where it can't reach her."
Obelisk moved.
Not fast.
Not slow.
Inevitable.
Its six mirrored wings unfolded fully, refracting infinite versions of the battlefield. The air vibrated like a dying signal as Omni-God's glyphs spiraled violently, trying to stabilize the Rift around its weapon.
Kai's body froze before he realized he'd stopped moving. Neural Overclock screamed warnings, but Tier-Sigma Adaptive Luck remained dead.
"…Move," Catalyst said sharply, appearing beside him.
Kai forced his legs into motion, driving OmniSpear forward into Obelisk's core. The strike landed clean, perfect form, full weight.
The OmniSpear shattered instantly.
Kai stumbled back, shock stealing his breath.
Obelisk's mirror-face shifted, reflecting an alternate Kai where his skull was already crushed. That version collapsed soundlessly.
Kai swallowed hard, teeth grinding.
"…Alright."
"New plan."
Catalyst stepped forward, unbothered. Erevos Bloom flared violently, spiraling into a third fractal helix — smaller, faster, vibrating at impossible frequency.
Omni-God's glyphs glitched instantly, trying to process him.
[Warning:] Erevos Bloom Phase-3 Manifestation Detected.]
Catalyst Evolution Vectors Unlocked.
Reroute Failure: 100%.
Catalyst smirked faintly.
"Looks like Omni-God underestimated me again."
Kai snorted softly, rolling his neck.
"Or it expected you to burn out trying."
Catalyst's spear blurred mid-motion, carving three mirrored platforms into spiraling fragments. His strikes were now so fast Adaptive Luck couldn't calculate them — and Kai's HUD stopped trying.
The Rift's broken spire pulsed violently as Lyra's projection returned, unstable but clearer this time. Her voice layered softly, almost whispering through static:
"The Obelisk does not kill the Divergent…"
"…it opens him."
"…and through him, Omni-God feeds."
Kai's grip tightened instantly.
"…Opens me?"
Catalyst's gaze flicked briefly toward him.
"You're a gate."
Kai's jaw clenched.
"I'm not a damn key."
Lyra's image fractured into static — but one fragment burned into Kai's HUD:
[Branch-Nova Key Required.]
Obelisk raised one mirrored wing slowly, Omni-God's glyphs spiraling into it like collapsing galaxies. The battlefield trembled as probability died entirely.
Kai slammed his palm against his chest.
[Force Override Command: Tier-Sigma Adaptive Luck.]
Neural Integrity: 23%.
Survival Chance: 4%.
He forced the system past safety limits.
Time slowed to infinity. The world fractured into thousands of overlapping realities, every mirrored shard showing a different death. Adaptive Luck bent all of them into a single survival vector.
Kai roared, lunging forward — OmniSpear glowing faint gold, neural pathways burning, vision fracturing.
The strike landed. Obelisk's mirrored face cracked for the first time.
Just slightly.
But it was enough.
Omni-God's voice thundered through the Rift, layered like static lightning:
[Warning:] Primordial Obelisk Core Integrity Compromised.]
"Divergent Kai… unacceptable."
Obelisk tilted its head slightly, as though acknowledging Kai's strike. The shattered mirrors along its face rebuilt instantly, six wings refolding silently.
Kai dropped to one knee, gasping, vision flickering violently as Tier-Sigma threatened to burn his neural pathways clean through.
Catalyst caught him by the collar, hauling him upright.
"You'll die before Branch-Nova even opens," Catalyst said flatly.
Kai smirked faintly, wiping blood from his lip.
"…Then you better keep up."
Above them, Omni-God's glyphs flared like miniature suns, data streams cascading violently into the Obelisk's core.
[Directive Override:]
Branch-Nova access sealed.
Divergent Kai Veyren must not reach Target Lyra.Veyren.01.
The Rift trembled violently as reality inverted — the war for Branch-Nova had begun.