The journey from the Chronovoid led Akuzai and Abhishek to a place few dared to enter: the Dimensional Divide—a rupture in the multiverse where dozens of realities overlapped, stitched together by collapsing logic and unstable time. It was chaos incarnate. Gravity shifted by the minute. Landscapes blinked in and out of existence. And through it all, the scent of Rivan's influence lingered.
Akuzai stared into the Divide. "This is where Rivan is binding the realms together—rewriting reality into one timeline he controls."
Abhishek pointed to a glowing fracture far ahead. "The Codex says the Temporal Keystone is there. If we retrieve it, we can sever his hold."
They pressed forward through warped terrain—fighting off fragments of corrupted memories and alternate versions of themselves. One moment, Akuzai faced a younger, unscarred version of himself who never picked up the Eternis Edge. The next, Abhishek stared down a twisted future self with eyes glowing red, warning him: "You will lose everything."
"Don't listen," Akuzai urged. "This place feeds on fear. Trust your path."
Reaching the Keystone Chamber, they found it guarded—not by Rivan, but by the Fused, a being formed from timelines Rivan had forcibly merged. Its body shifted constantly—part child, part elder, part soldier, part wraith. It spoke in voices layered atop one another.
"You seek to undo what must be done."
Akuzai stepped forward. "We seek to free what was stolen."
The battle was unlike any other. The Fused attacked with paradoxes—strikes that occurred before they were thrown, wounds that appeared after they were healed. Akuzai struggled to anchor his blade in linear time, while Abhishek's senses blurred across versions of himself. Reality bent, broke, and bent again.
Then Abhishek remembered something Seris had said—"Anchor your truth."
He focused inward. Remembered Anuj's sacrifice. Kaelra's warning. Tanishk's fall. He poured that pain into a surge of kinetic backlash that collapsed the chamber's unstable walls. The brief flash of clarity allowed Akuzai to drive the Eternis Edge into the Fused's core.
It screamed—and dissolved.
The Keystone floated down, pulsing like a heart. Akuzai touched it, and a vision seared into his mind: Rivan standing at the Crown Nexus, the convergence point of all timelines, preparing the final rewrite.
"We're running out of time," Akuzai said, panting.
Abhishek nodded. "Then we go to the Crown Nexus."
But the Divide began to collapse behind them, trying to seal itself—and trap them inside.
With the last charge in the Codex, Akuzai opened a new rift. They dove through just as the Divide folded in on itself, vanishing into a ripple of stardust.
They had the Keystone. But it was only one piece.
And the road to the final battle had just been revealed.