The jump to Kaleidos was violently nauseating. Reality itself seemed to flicker outside the ship's viewports—colors that didn't exist, geometries that hurt the mind.
They landed on a floating island of crystallized light, drifting in a sea of swirling gaseous potential. The air tasted of ozone and possibility.
"Architect's signature is two klicks east, at the Reality Nexus," Ryn reported, her scanner glitching but functional.
They moved through a landscape of wonder and terror. One moment, the ground was solid crystal; the next, it bubbled into a liquid that sang. Flowers made of coherent light bloomed and died in seconds.
They encountered the first defenders: Reality Weavers, Tier 7 Corrupted that could locally alter physics. One turned gravity sideways; another made the air as hard as steel.
Korvax and Leyla engaged, their agility and strength tested against shifting laws. Mira worked to stabilize small pockets of normal space. Ryn hacked at the Weavers' corrupted data-streams with counter-algorithms.
Echo faced a Weaver that was trying to turn his blood to stone inside his veins. He felt the foreign command, a vile pressure in his arteries. He roared, slamming his own Sovereign will against it. His blood blazed crimson, burning out the corruption. He retaliated, not by manipulating the Weaver's ichor directly, but by sending a wave of biological terror through its system—the primal fear of a body turning against itself.
The Weaver shuddered and fled.
They reached the Reality Nexus—a maelstrom of raw creation energy, held in a precarious balance by a web of Corrupted tendrils. At its center floated the Architect.
It was beautiful and horrible—a humanoid form woven from starlight and necrosis, its hands conducting the symphony of corruption. Its blood rhythm was a complex, multi-layered aria of arrogance and sorrow.
Beside it stood the Dawn-Class guard: Aegis, a being of living armor and piercing violet eyes.
"The Anomaly and its pets," the Architect's voice was the sound of breaking universes. "You are too late. The seed is planted. Kaleidos will be a masterpiece of glorious despair."
"Not on our watch," Korvax screeched, diving forward.
Aegis moved. It was faster than Vex'thal. It backhanded Korvax into a forming mountain of dark matter. The Zephyrian didn't get up.
The battle was joined.