The Cradle of Rivan blazed with light and ruin.
The Ascended Chronomancer unleashed timelines like weapons, raining futures that never were upon the battlefield. Worlds cracked open in midair. Gravity reversed. Memory became fire.
But Akuzai didn't fall.
He stood firm, the Eternis Edge glowing with unified shards. Each swing wasn't just an attack—it was a declaration: We will not be rewritten.
Still, it wasn't enough.
Abhishek and Aditya were barely holding the edges of the reality storm together. Rivan lay against the shattered pedestal, breathing hard. Even united, they were being pulled apart—again.
Then Akuzai remembered the shard Ishara gave him.
The Essence of the Bloom.
It wasn't just light.
It was invitation.
He raised the Eternis Edge skyward and stabbed it into the Cradle's core. Light erupted from the blade and pulsed across the broken dimensions.
He called out—not to gods.
But to the lost.
To Tanishk.To Anuj.To Kaelra.To every soul torn away in the name of control.
And they came.
Not resurrected—but remembered.
Their echoes surged through the battlefield. Tanishk's fire circled Aditya's blade. Anuj's spirit shielded Abhishek. Kaelra's voice steadied the collapse of the storm.
Even Ishara's guidance echoed through the light.
"You are not alone," her voice whispered.
The Ascended Chronomancer snarled. "Memories do not make warriors."
Akuzai replied, "No. But they make us human."
And with that, the tide turned.
Abhishek launched a kinetic burst that shattered one of the Chronomancer's shields. Aditya followed with a blade arc that cut across space. And Akuzai leapt, the Eternis Edge roaring with unified memory.
The blade struck true—across reality and ego.
The Chronomancer staggered, flickering.
"Even if you defeat me," he hissed, "you'll never escape what I built. My systems. My roots—"
Akuzai's eyes burned. "Then I'll burn them too."
And he summoned every echo behind him.
The past did not hold him back.
It fueled him.
And for the first time—
The First Chronomancer stepped backward.