The air crackled with unnatural energy. Riven Solas felt it crawling over his skin like icy fingers as the translucent figure advanced. Every instinct screamed at him to run, but his legs refused to obey.
Lira tightened her grip on his arm. "Stay calm. You can't fight this with anger. Not yet."
Riven glared at her, his teeth gritted. "Calm? After everything? After forty-seven cycles, I'm supposed to stay calm while… that walks toward us?"
The entity stepped closer, each movement slicing the air like a blade. Its eyes—one crimson, one icy blue—pinned him in place. Then it spoke again, voice a distorted echo of his own:
"Riven Solas. Every cycle has brought you here. Every time, you rage, you fail, and you repeat. Yet you cannot see the truth. You created me. You—your own hubris—birthed the Architect of Ruin."
Riven staggered back. "I… I created you? That's impossible!"
"You did," the figure said. Its form shimmered, splitting into fragments that twisted and reformed around him. "Every attempt to fix the past, every act of desperation, built me. I am the sum of your failures, your obsession, your hatred. And now, I am free."
Lira's hand shook. "He isn't just a manifestation of time… he's more. Something—or someone—has been guiding your loops to shape him. And now he's complete."
Riven's mind raced. Every loop, every death, every moment of despair—he had thought it was punishment, fate, or error. But it had all been constructing this… thing. And with each cycle, the world had grown weaker.
The entity moved faster than thought, slamming a spectral hand into the ground. Buildings behind them bent and fractured under the shockwave. Dust and debris filled the air.
Riven felt the familiar surge of rage rising in his chest. "I've survived this before. I can fight it!"
Lira grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. "No! You can't! Not like this! Your rage feeds him!"
"What do you mean?" Riven yelled, his voice raw.
"You've been fighting your own creation," Lira said, her eyes burning. "Every act of violence, every attempt to 'fix' the past—it strengthens him. You've been building him for years, Riven. And now, he wants more than just your defeat… he wants your destruction."
The words hit harder than any punch. Riven stumbled, clutching his head. All at once, memories of past cycles flooded him—dozens of deaths, Lira's desperate warnings, his own uncontrollable fury. The truth he had ignored was undeniable: he had made this happen.
The entity raised its hands, and reality itself seemed to warp. Riven saw glimpses of other cycles—cities burning, versions of himself screaming in rage, and Lira's face twisted in sorrow and fear.
"You see now?" the entity hissed. "I am everything you have failed to protect, everything you have failed to understand. And this time, there is no reset."
Riven's chest burned with helplessness. But buried deep beneath the anger, a seed of clarity took root. He realized what he had to do: he couldn't keep running or fighting blindly. He had to understand the cycle, harness it, and use it against the very force he had created.
He turned to Lira. "I… I need you to trust me. One more time."
She hesitated, eyes wide. "After everything, Riven… how can I?"
"Because if we don't," he said, his voice cold and steady, "we're already dead."
Lira nodded slowly, the faintest spark of hope flickering in her gaze.
Riven closed his eyes and focused. The neural band on his wrist hummed, syncing with the fractured reality around them. He felt the timeline bend beneath his control for the first time—not perfectly, not completely, but enough.
The entity screeched, sensing the shift. Reality warped violently, light fracturing into shards of crimson and blue. For a heartbeat, Riven saw every possibility laid bare before him—every outcome, every death, every choice.
And then he smiled, a grim, determined smile.
"Let's see," he whispered, "who the Architect really is."
The second sun blazed above, the world trembling under the weight of a man who had finally begun to fight not with rage… but with understanding.