The world trembled in quiet.
Kairos stood among the cinders of the Forge of Beginnings, the fragments of the Eclipsed Crown dispersed to the breezes. Reality itself flexed, as though the just-created future was bending reality to its will. The weight of his decision lay in his bones—he had broken the cycle, and in doing so, had created a tear in the fabric of existence itself. A tear that would not go untested.
The distant rumble of a storm echoed through the shattered halls of the Forge. The ground beneath them tore apart, shards of light flashing and extinguished like the echoes of discarded timelines.
"We've done it," Veyra gasped, her words shaken but adamant. "The Crown is broken. The cycle is unbound."
Arius stared into the distance, his hand pressed against the brutal stone. "Is it free, really? Or have we simply awakened something horrid?"
Riven, shifting in and out of dream-state, went on with a sigh, "Nothing is ever as it seems."
Kairos regarded them all. The weight of his decision bore down on him, and the doubt of what was to come disturbed him. "I did not break the cycle—I allowed it to drift. What comes next is. uncertain."
The earth under their feet suddenly dissolved and a tremendous tear in the heavens above yawned open. From the depths of the chasm, a deafening and resonant voice boomed.
>"The Eclipsed Crown was never to be destroyed."
Kairos moved his eyes, the sight on his hack hair fading. The voice wasn't just echoing in the air—it was in his head. In his soul.
The gulf stretched wider, and a shape emerged from it. A dark creature, human-shaped but radiating a presence of raw darkness. Eyes burned with an unnatural, otherworldly cold light—a power unnatural and ancient that can belong only to something older by far than the very fabric of time itself.
"You," the shape breathed, its voice colder than death. "You risked defying the inevitable. You cannot unwile fate."
The darkened shadow stepped forward, and when it did, the space around it filled with energy. The ground near Kairos and his friends collapsed, and they were flung in mid-air as a mammoth amount of energy burst outward.
Veyra screamed, her magic warping as she tried to call up a shield. Arius hung back for an instant, but the power of the darkness cut through it like a knife. Riven crashed down, his body suspended on its axis.
Kairos burst up, his head reeling with the remaining traces of the Soulforger's power. The figure's presence resonated deep within his very being, a destructive energy that clung to the groundwork of his being.
"What are you?" Kairos spat, his dry throat but unrelenting in opposition.
The figure tilted her head, radiating eyes scrunched into a frown. "I am the Rebirth, silent will of the cycle. I am the severing of existence which was never intended to be free. The Eclipsed Crown was not an instrument—it was an imprisonment."
A torrent of memories ran through Kairos's brain—memories of forgotten chronologies, of universes in which the cycle was stuck in endless rotation. The Crown had been the key to keeping reality in balance, to ensure that no one would ever disturb the pattern. To prevent the cycle from self-destruction.
"But why—why keep it all inside?" Kairos demanded, his hold on sanity precarious as he struggled to cope with the figure's overwhelming presence.
The figure's mouth curled into a twisted smile. "For without shape, there is mere chaos. Without the cycle, it all comes apart. You are the one who will bring it all tumbling down, Kairos. You upset the delicate balance, and now you will be punished."
The ground below them creaked still further apart, and the sky seemed to warp. Kairos felt something stirring, deep within him—ancient power long asleep. The same power that had formed the cycle itself.
"No," Kairos gasped. "This isn't how it is supposed to end. I am not going to be a part of this."
The figure smiled kindly. "You already are. You always have."
In an instant, the black figure extended a hand to Kairos. Space and time were twisted around them, as though the air itself was becoming solid.
Kairos did not hesitate. He reached out his own hand—his fingers charged with the lingering power of the Soulforger. He put everything he had, every life, every fragment of himself into the strike.
When their energies collided, the world blew apart in a white-hot blaze.
---
When the light flickered out, Kairos stood alone in the center of a ruined city—ashes and dust stretched every direction. His friends were not there. The air above was sickening gray, with fissures spreading through the very fabric of the air.
He stumbled on, his flesh aching, his mind reeling. What had happened? Had he succeeded?
A voice, distant but clear, echoed in his head
>This is the cost of disobeyance.
Kairos clenched his fists. "I didn't break the cycle to have it destroy everything all over again."
The voice laughed, deep and vibrating.
> "Then you must rebuild. But be warned: not everything can be repaired.".