London broke first.
One moment it stood—a city of neon towers and shadowed alleyways.
The next, it was burning under a medieval sky, its glass structures replaced by castles of black iron. The Timequake had begun.
> [Global Alert: Riftstorm Level Ω]
Warning: Temporal Collapse in Progress.
In the Vanguard's war room, alarms flashed. Maps glitched. Timelines bled into each other.
Lucien gripped the table, his voice strained. "Every city is phasing. We're slipping between versions of Earth. This is Vaelith's rewrite."
Kai stood silent, watching as London flickered in the distance—each second a new world.
> "How long until it's irreversible?"
"It already is," whispered Nyx, her three selves flickering beside her.
One was the scholar she once was—bright-eyed and calm.
Another, a priestess in chains, branded with Vaelith's sigil.
Only the third—the rogue warrior—remained stable.
Mina entered last.
Her eyes were gold now—echoes of dimensional bleed glimmering in her pupils.
> "The Rift is alive. Vaelith isn't rewriting the world... he's rewriting us."
---
Kai activated his new domain abilities. The Second Future split across his vision—two potential outcomes playing side-by-side:
One where London was devoured by Riftspawn.
Another where Mina lost control and destroyed the Vanguard from within.
He chose neither.
> [Ability Activated: Collapse Override]
You have negated a Class-Ω Outcome for 24 hours.
A shockwave pulsed from Kai. Reality trembled.
For one day, London would hold.
---
But the cost came swiftly.
A crack tore open in the center of the city. A figure emerged—burned, broken, eyes gleaming with impossible light.
> It was Elias.
And behind him stood Vaelith's first avatar.
> "You're too late, Kai," Elias whispered. "He's already rewritten the ending."
Kai stepped forward, unsheathing the Nullfang Blade, sigils glowing across his armor.
His system flared.
> [New Objective: Infiltrate the Spiral – Gather the Echo Keys – Challenge the Architect.]
You are now the Divergent Variable. Reality has noticed you.
And so began the final battle—not for the world as it was…
…but for the right to define what it would become.