The air within the Source Core Chamber tasted of burnt ozone and dying stars. Eldrin's boots sank into the shifting floor, its surface rippling like liquid obsidian beneath his feet. Above him, the fractured sky of the Titan's realm pulsed with jagged streaks of gold and cobaltOphira's corruption bleeding into the very fabric of reality.
Liora's body floated at the chamber's center, her form translucent as Source Shard energy crystallized around her. The seventh shard, embedded in her chest, glowed like a dyingsun, its light warped by the shadowy tendrils of Ophira's consciousness.
*Kill her," Liora's voice echoed in Eldrin's mind, her spectral image flickering beside him in the shared Source Core space. *Before the shard consumes us both."
Eldrin's left arm burned, the Origin Circuitry beneath his skin writhing as if alive. The fused shards in his chest resonated with the chamber's energy, their whispers sharpening into a blade. *You were never human*,Ophira's voice slithered through his thoughts. *You are my shadow, my mirror, my perfect vessel.*
"Enough!"Eldrin snarled, clenching his fists.
Liquid shadow pooled in his palms, coalescing into twin blades of chaos-fire. Around him, the chamber's walls shifted, revealing memories etched into the Titan stone:
"A laboratory of bone and steel. Two childrentiora and Ophirastrapped to slabs, a split shard hovering above them.*
*tiora's scream as Ophira shoved her into the abyss, the shard's jagged edge piercing her heart.*
The Nightwatcher's cold verdict: You are experiments. Weapons."
Illusions,"Eldrin growled, slashing through the visions. You cant manipulate me anymore, Ophira."
*Cant I?' Ophira's laughter reverberated through the chamber. Her shadow materialized atop the central dais, her form flickering between corporeal and void. The sixth shard pulsed in her palm, its light threaded with black veins. *took at her, brother. Your precious scholar is already mine.*
In the physical realm, Liora's body convulsed. The seventh shard's energy surged, tearing fissures in her translucent skin. Nim and Jace stood frozen at the chamber's edge, their weapons raised but useless against the metaphysical storm.
*Eldrin!* Nims voice cut through the chaos, her spider-mech sparking as it shielded Jace from falling debris. *Whatever youre doing hurry!"
Eldrin lunged at Ophira's shadow, chaos-blades carving arcs of molten light. Their collision sent shockwaves rippling through the Source Core, reality itself groaning under the strain.
*书athetic,* Ophira sneered, dissolving into smoke and reforming behind him. Her shadow-whip lashed out, slicing through Eldrin's defenses. The blow seared his shoulder, the pain sharp and clarifying. *You cling to humanity like a crutch. Embrace what you are*my *creation."
Eldrin staggered, his breath ragged. The Circuitry on his arm flared, its blue veins branching toward his heart. *Control it. Or it controls you.*
Liora's spectral form reappeared, her emerald eyes blazing. "The shard's corestrike it now! She's using my body as an anchor!*
Ophira's shadow hissed, tendrils of darkness spearing toward Liora.
*Silence, traitor!"
Eldrin intercepted the attack, his blades severing the tendrils mid-strike. Yo u dont touch her."
*Sentiment," Ophira spat. *Your greatest weakness." She raised her hand, and the chamber *shifted*. The ground split, vomiting Titan
automatonsskel etal remnants fused with shard-corruption.
Their hollow eyes locked onto Eldrin as they advanced.
Distraction wont save you,"Eldrin muttered, channeling the Circuitry's power. Cobalt flames erupted from his blades, incinerating the first wave ofautomatons. But for each one destroyed, two more clawed from the abyss.
In the physical realm, Liora's body began to dissolve. The seventh shard's light dimmed, its energy draining into Ophira's shadow.*She's winning!" Jace roared, hurling a dagger at the dais. It passed harmlessly through Ophira's spectral form.
*Eldrin!* Liora's voice was fraying, her image flickering. *The bondyou must sever it!*
He knew what she meant. The blood pact they'd forged in the Sunken Spirea-tether between their souls. To break it would free her-or kill her.
*Do it,* Liora pleaded. *Before she consumes us all."
Ophira's shadow loomed, her laughter echoing. *You hesitate. How* human*of you."
Eldrin's gaze locked onto Liora's translucent form. Memories flooded him: her saving him as a child, her lies, her sacrifice. *Weapons. Experiments. But also*".
*Family," he whispered.
The Circuitry flared. Eldrin plunged his chaos-blade into his own chest.
Agony.
The chamber erupted in light as the blood pact shattered. Liora's spectral form dissolved, her final smile a ghostly farewell. In the physical realm, her body collapsed, the seventhshard clattering to the groundpurged of Ophira's shadow.
*NO!* Ophira's scream tore through the Source Core. Her form destabilized, the sixth shard slipping from her grasp. *You ruin* everything*!"
Eldrin seized the seventhshard, its purifiedenergy merging with his Circuitry. Gold and cobalt light fused, etching new runes across his skin. *The is ends now.*
He struck.
The blade pierced Ophira's shadow, not with chaos, but with the shard's primal energy. Her form unraveled, dissolving into ash and starlight. *You…cannot-kill"
*But I can bury you," Eldrin hissed.
The Source Core imploded.
---
Reality snapped back with a deafening *crack*. Eldrin knelt in theruins of the chamber, the seventhshard smoking in his palm. Liora lay motionless nearby, her chest rising faintly. The air stank of scorched metal and ozone, but the rift above had sealedreplaced by a sky streaked with dawn's first light.
Nim staggered forward, her mech's legs buckling. ts it over?"
Eldrin didnt answer. His Circuitry still hummed, the shard's whispers quieter but persistent. *You cannot outrun me.*
Jace crouched beside Liora, pressing a hand to her throat. She's alive, Barely."
Tira emerged from the shadows, her third shard flickering. The corruption·it' s gone. But the cost"-Her dual voices trembled.
Eldrin stood, the weight of the shard a lodestone in his chest. Across the chamber, Ophira's laughter echoeda-phantom taunt from the void.
*Well played, brother," the whisper slithered. *But the game has only just begun.*
As the dawn painted Tylania in hues of blood and gold, Eldrin clenched the seventh shard. Somewhere, in the fractures of reality, a shadow stirred.
The verdict was delivered.
But the sentence remained unfulfilled.