Whoooooosh…
The wind outside howled with unnatural force. It wasn't just wind—it was something older. Something sentient. As the rift above the Refractor Chamber split wider, crimson lightning danced through the edges like veins rupturing through flesh.
We stepped out from the ruined chamber onto the outer platform, and the sight before us made all three of us stop breathing.
There—descending through the rift—was a being that defied reason.
Wings like collapsed stars.
Eyes that burned with knowledge too vast for human comprehension.
And a crown of obsidian that hovered, never touching, as if the very sky feared to bear its weight.
"W-What the hell is that?" Rhys gasped, instinctively raising his shield as the wind whipped around us.
I stared, my legs frozen, but not by fear—by familiarity.
"…I've seen it before," I said quietly.
Elira's gaze darted to me. "In your memories?"
"No," I said, eyes locked on the creature.
"In my dreams."
CRAAAAK-KOOOOM!
A bolt of blood-red lightning slammed into the mountainside just behind us, shaking the entire plateau. Dust exploded into the air, and ancient ruins began to crumble.
The being spoke—but not aloud.
It spoke inside us.
"One timeline corrected. A thousand left broken."
"Echo of the Architect, you are now a variable."
Elira gritted her teeth. "A what?"
"A variable. A singularity born from an aborted merge."
"You are Kaito. But you are not The Kaito."
"And yet… you persist."
My chest tightened. It wasn't just speaking to me—it was weighing me.
Like a judge deciding if I was worth sparing.
"I am Veraxis, Sovereign of the Continuum."
"And your actions have attracted my gaze."
I couldn't breathe. Not because of the pressure in the air, but because my mind was being pulled apart—again. Not forcibly, but like pages of a book being flipped too fast.
I saw visions.
Endless timelines.
Some where I died.
Some where I ruled.
One where Aya and I grew old together.
Another where I… became Veraxis.
Rhys grabbed my shoulder, grounding me. "Stay here, man. With us. Don't drift."
I nodded weakly.
Veraxis continued:
"The balance is undone. The fracture widened."
"And now, the war must begin again."
"Because where variables bloom…"
"The Constants awaken."
Suddenly, the sky rippled—like a pond struck by a meteor.
Four new rifts split open across the horizon.
Through each, colossal figures emerged, each unique, each terrifying:
One bathed in golden chains, dragging suns behind it.
Another made of mirrored glass, reflecting infinite worlds.
A third, shifting shape every second—man, beast, child, god.
The fourth… was Aya.
My heart stopped.
"No…"
It wasn't her.
It couldn't be.
But it looked like her. Moved like her.
Smiled like her.
And spoke like her.
"Hello, Kaito."
Elira raised her spear again. "That's not her! That's a damn trick!"
I couldn't speak.
Couldn't think.
The Aya standing in the sky—her hair flowing in anti-gravity waves, eyes glowing like moons—smiled sadly.
"I'm a Constant," she said. "A version of Aya that was saved… by a different Kaito."
"We became one. And now… I am here to judge you."
"Not to hurt you."
"But to see if you deserve to be the last Kaito."
I dropped to my knees.
"I didn't want this," I said. "I never asked to be anyone's echo or architect or variable."
She descended gently, landing just a few meters away. Her steps made no sound, but the world bent with each movement—flowers blooming where her feet touched, stone softening like wax.
"But you are," she said, kneeling before me.
"You always were."
"Even before you chose to forget."
Tears burned behind my eyes. Real tears.
"…Why do you look like her?"
"Because somewhere, a version of you made a choice to save me… and failed."
"And I chose to remember, even when you did not."
"This face—this form—is meant to remind you of the stakes."
"Of what you lost."
Elira spoke up, furious. "So what now? You erase him? Absorb him? Merge again?"
Veraxis's voice thundered through the air like a symphony crashing.
"No."
"We test him."
"In the Crucible of Parallax."
The sky warped into a dome of shifting realities—forests, cities, voids, deserts, oceans, and skies all interlaced.
The entire world around us began to split into fragments, each rotating like pieces on a Rubik's Cube the size of a continent.
I stood, legs shaky but firm.
"If I pass…?"
Aya's Constant smiled again. "Then you become more than a variable."
"Then you become a Fixed Point."
Rhys looked at me, jaw tight. "Do you trust them?"
I shook my head.
"No."
"But I trust myself."
Elira nodded. "Then we're with you."
Veraxis's wings unfolded, stretching across the sky until they blotted out the sun.
"Then step forward, Echo."
"And show us your reality."
With a final breath, I took Elira and Rhys's hands.
The ground beneath us disintegrated.
Gravity folded.
And we fell—not down, but through—into the Crucible.
FWWWWWOOOOOOSHHH!
A vortex of timelines and possibilities wrapped around us, voices whispering in languages we never knew.
"Kaito, born of failure..."
"Kaito, creator of hope..."
"Kaito, betrayer of fate..."
"Kaito, final thread..."
And then—
BOOM!
We hit ground.
Solid.
Real.
The smell of wet soil and woodsmoke filled my nose.
I looked up…
We stood in a small village.
It was ours.
The one from years ago—before the Collapse. Before the Rift. Before all of it.
And standing there, alive, whole, and human—
Was Aya.
Not a Constant.
Not a memory.
Aya.
And she hadn't aged a day.
She turned to me, eyes wide.
"…Kaito?"