The Gateway
The threshold split reality apart.
Not a door — a wound.
A tearing of everything that should exist — and everything that should not.
Kaela stepped through first.
Behind her, Arin staggered forward, blood dripping from his split lip.
Elise followed, dragging a shattered plasma rifle.
There were no others.
This was it.
This was all humanity had left to throw at the abyss.
---
The Sleeper
It was not a creature.
Not a god.
Not even a mind.
It was a concept — a thing born from the very first nightmare Earth had ever dreamt.
It filled the endless chamber.
A writhing mountain of tendrils, mouths, broken memories, rotting stars.
Its form shifted every second — sometimes human, sometimes beast, sometimes pure darkness.
And its voice was a flood inside Kaela's mind:
> "LITTLE SPARK… YOU COME TO DIE…"
> "BLEED FOR ME…"
> "DREAM FOR ME…"
The Sleeper's gaze — all gazes — fell upon them.
And the world screamed.
---
The Last Battle
Kaela charged.
Not because she thought she could win.
Because there was no other choice.
The Genesis Core flared — its last strength burning through her veins.
Arin covered her with bursts of plasma fire — even as his arm shattered under the recoil.
Elise moved like a ghost, blades flashing, cutting through the Spawn that erupted from the Sleeper's shifting form.
They fought on broken ground, in a sky filled with falling stars, in a world that was already forgetting itself.
Every step closer, the Sleeper struck:
Nightmares clawed into Kaela's skin, tearing memory from bone.
Gravity twisted, pulling them in opposite directions, trying to rip them apart.
Voices of the dead screamed at them to stop.
Still —
they pressed forward.
One step.
One breath.
One heartbeat.
---
Arin's Last Stand
A tendril — faster than thought — struck from the side.
Arin saw it too late.
He shoved Kaela aside —
took the full force of the blow.
The impact shattered him.
Bones snapped audibly.
Blood fountained from his mouth.
He crashed into the ground, skidding like a broken doll.
Kaela screamed.
Tried to reach him.
But Arin lifted a hand — barely.
> "GO!" he rasped, blood bubbling on his lips.
"DON'T STOP."
The Sleeper laughed.
It enjoyed this.
Kaela bit down on her grief like a knife between her teeth.
And she ran.
Leaving Arin behind —
his body twitching —
his eyes dimming —
his last smile broken but defiant.
---
The Final Blow
Kaela reached the heart of the Sleeper:
A massive, rotting core — pulsating with nightmare energy.
It opened like a mouth, whispering promises:
> "I CAN BRING THEM BACK."
> "ONE WISH. JUST ONE."
Kaela stood there, trembling.
Every cell in her body screamed to say yes.
To undo the death.
Undo the pain.
But she knew the truth.
The Sleeper lied.
It always lied.
Kaela raised the Genesis Core —
now just a flickering ember in her hands —
and whispered:
> "This ends with me."
And plunged it into the heart.
---
The Death of the Sleeper
The Sleeper howled — a sound that cracked existence itself.
Its form convulsed.
Reality buckled — folding, tearing, healing.
Kaela was thrown backward — slammed into nothingness — burning alive in soul-fire.
The Sleeper writhed —
Collapsing —
Dissolving —
Screaming.
---
The Aftermath
When Kaela woke, she lay on a cold, gray plain.
Above her — a sky slowly stitching itself back together.
Real stars, not bleeding ones.
The Sleeper was gone.
She had won.
Earth had been saved.
But at what cost?
Kaela staggered to her feet.
Looked around.
No armies.
No friends.
Only Elise — lying nearby, her body still, her chest barely rising.
Kaela crawled to her.
Took Elise's hand.
> "Hey..." Kaela whispered.
"We made it."
Elise smiled weakly.
> "Told you... not dead yet..."
She coughed — blood.
> "But… not for long."
Kaela shook her head violently.
> "No. No, we're done. You can rest."
Elise's grip tightened — once — then faded.
Her eyes glazed over.
Gone.
Kaela sat there for a long, long time, holding her hand.
---
Alone
Days? Hours?
Time didn't matter.
Eventually, Kaela rose.
She was alone.
The world around her was silent.
No birds.
No wind.
Only the soft, aching hum of a world trying to remember how to live.
She walked.
One step after another.
She walked — because there was no one else left to.
---
The End
On a cracked hill, Kaela sat alone.
The Genesis Core — now a dead, black stone — rested in her lap.
In the distance, tiny lights flickered.
Maybe survivors.
Maybe not.
Did it matter?
Kaela closed her eyes.
Listened.
No screams.
No nightmares.
Just quiet.
Peaceful.
Brutal.
Empty.
And in that emptiness —
for the first time —
Kaela allowed herself to cry.
For Arin.
For Elise.
For all the nameless dead.
For the world she had saved —
but would never belong to again.