The Nexus.
A place outside time. A prison of gods and monsters. And now, Selena's cage.
She spun in the endless void, heart pounding. "Dante!"
Only silence answered.
Her knees hit the obsidian floor with a soft thud. Her chest tightened, breath coming in ragged gasps.
He was supposed to be here.
They had gone in together.
He promised.
But now… now he was gone.
And in his place—Lorenzo.
No longer a trembling boy. No longer a corrupted shadow.
He stood before her whole, tall, and cruelly calm, dressed in silver-threaded robes that shimmered like moonlight on blood. His blue eyes, once so innocent, now burned with knowledge that didn't belong to him.
"I warned you," he said, voice soft but edged with power. "The Core always lies. And so do you."
Selena rose slowly, fists clenched. "What have you done?"
Lorenzo tilted his head. "I embraced the truth. You never wanted to save me—you wanted to be the savior. There's a difference."
"That's not true!"
"Isn't it?" He stepped closer, the floor fracturing beneath each footfall. "You think you're a martyr, Selena. You think giving yourself up makes you noble. But all you've ever done is run—from grief, from guilt, from the truth of who you are."
She held his gaze. "Then tell me. Who am I?"
He grinned, cruel and cold. "You're the one who unlocked the gate."
The shadows behind him rippled.
Something stirred.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.
The Core.
No longer caged. No longer whispering.
Awake.
Selena braced herself as tendrils of black mist twisted around her ankles, tightening like chains.
She reached for her bond with Dante—only to find a void.
Gone.
No pulse. No warmth. Just silence.
"No…" she whispered.
Lorenzo watched her despair with hollow eyes. "It severed your link the moment you stepped through. The rite was flawed. Dante never crossed."
"You're lying."
"Am I?" he asked, his voice now laced with a cruel affection. "Or do you feel it, too? That emptiness inside you where he used to be?"
Selena fell to her knees again, breathless. Her bond with Dante had been her anchor, her tether to sanity. Without it, the Core's influence pressed in like a storm—whispers rising again, not as voices, but as truths she didn't want to hear.
You are alone.
You failed him.
You failed them all.
"No—no, I didn't," she rasped.
Lorenzo knelt before her, cupping her face. "I begged you to let me die. But you wouldn't. You dragged me back into a world that had no place for me."
Selena gritted her teeth. "Because you were my brother."
He smiled gently. "And now I'm your god."
The Nexus shuddered.
Walls that didn't exist closed in. Memories bled from her—scenes of her past projected in the void.
Her mother's death.
Lorenzo's screams.
The burning of their home.
Every failure. Every lie. Every death she couldn't stop.
The Core feasted on it.
"You can't win," Lorenzo whispered. "The seal was never meant to be reforged. It was meant to break. To release what was buried long ago."
Selena raised her head. "Then why am I still here?"
He blinked.
"If the Core's free, why does it need me?"
For the first time, uncertainty flickered in Lorenzo's expression.
Selena stood.
And smiled.
"You're lying. The seal didn't fail. It changed. I'm not just a vessel now… I'm the key."
A shockwave pulsed through the Nexus.
Lorenzo staggered back.
From within Selena, glyphs ignited—gold and crimson and midnight blue. A divine flame surged through her veins.
Dante's power.
Still alive.
Still inside her.
She felt it now—deep beneath the panic—the lingering spark of him. A promise that hadn't faded.
Their bond wasn't severed.
It had evolved.
He had sacrificed something. Hidden a part of himself within her before the final step.
She heard his voice now, distant but steady.
"I'm with you. Always."
Selena's eyes glowed as her aura flared. The Core shrieked, recoiling from her light.
Lorenzo raised his hand—and the shadows tried to consume her again—but this time, she didn't run.
She walked into them.
Glyphs erupted beneath her feet with every step. The darkness hissed and retreated.
"You think this changes anything?" Lorenzo shouted. "You're still trapped! The Nexus obeys me!"
"Then it's time I broke the rules," she said.
She reached the heart of the Nexus—the source of the Core's power.
A mirror.
A gate.
It reflected not her face—but her soul.
She touched it.
The glyphs flared.
The Core screamed.
"SELENA!"
Lorenzo lunged.
Too late.
She whispered, "Come back to me, Dante."
And drove her hand through the mirror.
It shattered.
The Nexus exploded.
---
In the real world—
Dante awoke with a gasp, the seal beneath him glowing red-hot.
"Selena," he breathed, clutching his chest. Her power—her soul—had just torn through the boundary.
He looked up—and saw the gate cracking.
Not from the outside—
But from within.
Golden light poured through.
Then—her voice.
Faint. But real.
"Dante… help me… I found him… I'm not alone anymore…"
Then silence.
The light vanished.
The gate sealed itself once more.
Dante rose, heart racing. Elias stumbled toward him. "What happened?"
"She's alive," Dante said. "She broke through."
"But the seal—"
"Didn't hold. It changed. She changed it."
Elias's face paled. "Then the war's just begun."
---
Back inside the Nexus, Selena knelt in the ruins of the shattered mirror, blood running from her hand.
Beside her—Lorenzo's true form, young and broken, stared blankly at her.
"Did I… hurt you?" he asked weakly.
"No," she whispered. "You saved me."
But behind them… the darkness was reforming.
And a new voice echoed—
"One seal breaks… another must rise."
She turned.
And saw a woman of fire and ash—eyes like dying stars.
"Your blood unlocked the gate. Now your soul will forge the throne."
---