Chapter 32: The Broken Confession
The surge of chaotic despair from Nyx's influence was too powerful. It wasn't just attempting to break the tether; it was trying to exploit the emotional truth Rin had just revealed over the howling wind.
The Tether of Silence began to glow a sickly, destructive purple, signaling immediate, fatal feedback.
Rin, his vision swimming with pain, knew they had seconds. He looked down at Aiden's seizing, pale face. Aiden was about to die, and the Tower would fall.
He had to stabilize the Arbiter, and there was only one way: force a surge of absolute, undeniable stability back into the tether—a counter-shock of reality.
Rin ignored the blinding pain and reached out, focusing every shard of his remaining spiritual will. He projected one single, powerful thought directly into the tether, knowing the feedback would likely be terminal.
"I forgive you, Aiden. I love you. Live."
The transmission was instantaneous. The sheer emotional truth—the violation of the Tether of Silence's primary constraint—triggered a devastating Chronos/Gale Feedback Loop.
A blinding white light erupted from their fused cores. Rin was thrown backward, collapsing onto the cold marble, his spiritual essence momentarily shut down by the shock. The pain was absolute, tearing through his every nerve ending.
Aiden's body seized, his back arching in silent agony. The Chronos power, violently rejected by the emotional surge, began to tear his core apart—the final, self-sacrificial act he had always planned, now forced upon him by Rin's love.
[WARNING: TETHER OF SILENCE BREACHED. FATAL CORE DESTRUCTION IMMINENT.]
The Edict, shocked by the sheer defiance, reeled backward. The Temple of Judgment began to collapse, the white light flickering into chaos. Nyx's influence was winning, capitalizing on the near-fatal shock.
"You have chosen self-destruction!" the Edict roared. "The Nexus is broken! The Temple falls!"
But the nexus was not alone.