The break spread.
Not outward.
Through.
Through Vael's arm. Through his chest. Through the space behind him. Thin, jagged lines cut across everything, glowing faint gold, like something inside reality had been scratched open.
For the first time since waking, Vael moved without control.
He slid back.
Not far.
But enough.
Rhyx saw it.
And smiled.
"There it is," he said.
Vael's feet found nothing, yet he stopped anyway. The fracture lines crawled across his marble skin, splitting the gold seams that ran through him. They didn't bleed.
They pulsed.
He raised his hand.
"Halt."
The word dropped heavy into existence.
Everything tried to obey.
The fractures slowed.
The drifting debris froze mid-fall.
Even the light leaking from the cracks dulled.
But the breaks did not disappear.
They resisted.
Rhyx stepped through them like they weren't even there.
His body burned brighter now, flames folding into his shape instead of spilling away. The scars across him had changed, sharper, deeper, like new paths carved into something that refused to stay the same twice.
"You feel it, don't you?" Rhyx said, voice lower now. Less playful. "It's not just me anymore."
Vael's eyes sharpened.
"I feel your damage."
Rhyx laughed once. Short.
"Call it whatever helps you sleep."
He moved again.
This time, Vael was ready.
They clashed mid-air, arms locking, pressure folding space inward again. But now the fractures reacted. Every impact made them twitch, stretch, widen just a little more.
Vael twisted, driving his elbow toward Rhyx's jaw.
Rhyx leaned into it instead.
The hit landed.
Hard.
His head snapped sideways.
Then snapped back.
Grinning.
He grabbed Vael's arm and pulled him forward.
"Stop trying to control it," Rhyx said. "You can't."
Vael's other hand came up instantly.
He pressed his palm against Rhyx's chest.
The air around them died again.
Sound vanished.
Movement collapsed.
Rhyx's flames dimmed.
Vael spoke softly.
"Then I will remove it."
The space around Rhyx began to seal.
Not freeze.
Erase.
The fractures nearest him started closing, forced shut by something deeper than stillness. The glow faded. The broken lines smoothed over like they had never been there.
For a moment, it worked.
Rhyx's grin faltered.
Then his chest expanded.
And something inside him pushed back.
Hard.
Cracks exploded outward again, wider than before, tearing through Vael's control like it was thin glass.
Rhyx's eyes burned brighter.
"Too late."
He slammed his forehead into Vael's.
The impact rang across the void.
Vael's halo flickered.
Rhyx followed with a punch.
Then another.
Each hit fed the fractures. Each strike made the space around them less stable, less real, less obedient.
Vael blocked the third.
Caught the fourth.
But the fifth slipped through.
It landed clean.
Vael's head snapped back.
A thin line split across his cheek.
Not gold.
Not light.
Something darker.
Rhyx froze for half a second.
Then his grin came back slower this time.
"…You're cracking."
Vael straightened.
Calm returned to his face.
But not perfectly.
The line remained.
So did the fractures around them.
He looked at Rhyx.
Then at the space breaking apart.
Then back at Rhyx.
"This ends now," Vael said.
Rhyx rolled his shoulders.
"Finally."
They moved at the same time.
And the void around them began to fall apart.