POV: Meher
The timer in the sky ticks down like the universe's personal doomsday clock.
02:58
02:57
Every second feels heavy enough to bend gravity.
Nivaan stands frozen, his face flickering with micro-glitches—like two versions of him are fighting for the right to exist.
Kiyan edges closer to me."Not to break the mood, but… how exactly do we un-godify him?"
I elbow him."Working on it."
Avni's eyes glow with that signature "I'm-solving-maths-that-will-save-us-all" intensity.
She circles Nivaan like she's scanning him with invisible radar.
"This world," she says, tapping the air. "His domain. His construct. His programming."
Kiyan mutters, "Yeah, we got that."
Avni ignores him because honestly? Same.
"I'm saying—if his mind is the system, then the system error is emotional."Her voice hardens."He's collapsing because he isn't sure if he deserves the power he was given."
My breath catches.
That's it.
He didn't break the universe.
The universe broke him.
POV: Nivaan
Voices blur.
The world flickers.
I feel every line of code that binds the walls, the floor, the air. They hum like trapped insects beneath my skin.
I am the architect.
The guardian.
The algorithm.
So why do I feel like I'm falling apart?
Meher steps in front of me, her presence warm enough to distort my perfect geometry.
"Hey," she whispers, touching my wrist. "Look at me."
I try.
The system resists.
ERROR RUNNING…
IDENTITY CLASH…
CONFLICT BETWEEN "ARCHITECT" AND "NIVAAN"…
She squeezes harder."Be the human, Nivaan. Not the function."
I choke on a breath because I don't know how to be both.
POV: Kiyan
The sky timer blinks aggressively.
02:01
Great. Two minutes to fix a glitching demigod with emotional damage.Peak corporate crisis vibes.
"We need something fast," I snap. "A shortcut."Smart work beats hard work, yeah?
Avni looks up sharply.
"There is one possibility."
Meher and I stare at her like students who know the teacher's about to assign trauma.
She lifts a hologram from the air—schematics of Nivaan's brain, swirling with threads of logic and memory.
"There's a root protocol," she says. "The original parameter he was built on."
"And that is?" I ask.
Her expression softens.
"He wanted to protect you."
I blink.
"What? Me?"
Meher gives me a small, sad smile."Kiyan… you were his anchor before he became the architect. His statistical constant."
Well damn.
Didn't expect to be the emotional lynchpin of a god today.
POV: Meher
"Okay," I breathe, "so Kiyan is the key. How do we unlock him?"
Avni points to a pulsing node on the hologram.
"That's the anchor. If Kiyan reconnects to it, the system stabilizes. But once it stabilizes—"
I swallow."—the Architect version of Nivaan might vanish."
Kiyan goes still.
I watch the realization punch him.
"You mean… the version of him that remembers everything? Everything he sacrificed?"
Avni nods.
"He'll revert to just Nivaan. Human. Mortal. Limited."
My chest tightens.
Saving him means… losing the god he became.
The timer pulses again.
01:14
Avni whispers, "We're out of time. Kiyan, it has to be you."
POV: Kiyan
I walk toward Nivaan.
He looks like he's splitting in two—one half of him glitching, the other dissolving into pixels.
My throat burns.
"Bro," I say quietly. "You always tried to hold up the sky alone."
His eyes flicker.
"Kiyan…"
"Yeah, I'm here."
I press my forehead to his.
Not dramatic. Not poetic.
Just two idiots who grew up together, trying to remember who they are.
The construct trembles violently.
00:42
I speak into the static.
"You were enough before the power. You're enough without it."
A crack echoes through the world.
Then—He whispers:
"I'm scared."
I grip his arms."Good. Humans are scared. Gods don't get to be. So pick one."
The anchor node glows.
I push my hand into it.
Light explodes.
POV: System
ANCHOR ENGAGED…ARCHITECT PROTOCOL OVERRIDDEN…IDENTITY RESET INITIATED…
00:19
POV: Meher
The world is burning with white light.
Avni shields her eyes.
I scream, "Kiyan, pull back!"
But he doesn't.
He holds onto Nivaan like he's anchoring himself too.
Everything collapses—
The sky.
The geometry.
The glitching towers.
All sucked inward like a black hole swallowing its reflection.
Then—
Silence.
A thud.
Two bodies on the ground.
POV: Meher
I drop to my knees beside them.
Kiyan coughing.
Nivaan unconscious.
Human.
Just human.
No glow.
No code.
No duplication in his voice.
I touch his chest.
His heart is beating.
Weak.
But real.
Avni looks up at the empty sky where the timer used to be.
"It worked."
Kiyan grins, breathless.
"That… sucked."
I laugh shakily.
Because yeah. It did.
But Nivaan is here.
Alive.
Mortal.
Free.
And for the first time since this whole nightmare started…
The universe isn't glitching anymore.