The Emissary moved without motion.
One moment it stood beyond the fracture—
the next it was inside Aiden's reach.
Reality folded inward.
Lyra shouted, "AIDEN—!"
Aiden reacted on instinct.
He did not summon fire.
He did not reach for raw power.
He anchored.
A pulse of white-gold light rippled from his chest, not explosive but settling—like roots driving into fractured soil.
The Emissary's claw struck—
—and halted inches from Aiden's face.
The air screamed.
The creature tilted its head.
"…Stability?" it hissed. "Impossible."
Aiden's voice was steady despite the tremor in his hands.
"Not stability," he corrected.
"Continuance."
---
THE NATURE OF THE MAW
The Emissary withdrew its hand and laughed—a sound like collapsing stars.
"You misunderstand," it said.
"The Maw does not destroy. It resets. Endings are mercy."
Aiden felt the Chorus stir—fear rippling through countless worlds.
"Mercy without consent is just violence," Aiden said.
Lyra moved to flank the creature.
Aidem raised one hand, sigils igniting.
"Do not let it speak longer than necessary—Emissaries infect thought."
The Emissary's gaze snapped to Aidem.
"You still cling to him," it said.
"After all the Kings you watched fail."
Aidem's eyes burned.
"Enough."
---
THE FIRST STRIKE
Lyra attacked first.
She blurred forward, blades crossing in a lethal arc.
The Emissary dissolved into shadow—
—and reformed behind her.
Aiden felt it before it struck.
"LYRA—DOWN!"
She dropped.
The Emissary's limb sliced through empty air where her head had been.
Aiden stepped forward, palm out.
"Stay."
The word held.
The space around the Emissary thickened, movement slowed as if reality itself resisted its presence.
The Emissary shrieked.
"You bind what cannot be bound!"
Aiden grimaced.
"I'm not binding you," he said.
"I'm binding the damage you cause."
---
THE CHORUS LENDS A HAND
Aiden closed his eyes for half a heartbeat.
I need help.
Not command.
A request.
The Chorus answered.
Fragments of worlds shimmered into existence around him—not fully formed, but remembered.
A shield patterned after a crystal city's last defense array.
A blade shaped from a fallen sun-forge's final design.
A web of gravity borrowed from a collapsed star system.
Aiden gasped as the weight of borrowed history pressed into him.
Serathiel's voice echoed softly:
Choose carefully. Borrow too much, and you will drown.
Aiden chose one.
The shield.
It formed around him—translucent, humming with layered memories.
The Emissary struck it.
Once.
Twice.
Cracks spread—but held.
The creature recoiled.
"That technology… that world was erased."
Aiden met its gaze.
"They're not finished."
---
AIDEM ENTERS THE FIELD
Aidem moved.
He appeared beside the Emissary in a flash of fractured light, blade already descending.
The strike cleaved through the creature's shoulder—shadow spilling like ink.
The Emissary screamed.
"You defy inevitability, Ancient—!"
Aidem twisted the blade.
"I defy laziness."
The creature lashed out, throwing Aidem back with a shockwave that shattered stone.
Aiden felt anger spike.
"No more."
---
THE WARDEN'S LAW
Aiden stepped forward, raising both hands.
The sigils on his chest reconfigured—no longer crowns or chains, but circles.
"I declare a Warden's Law," Aiden said, voice carrying with unnatural clarity.
Lyra's eyes widened.
"Aiden—what are you doing—?"
"I don't know," he admitted.
"But it feels right."
The light expanded, forming a defined zone around them.
Within it, the Emissary's form flickered erratically.
"What—what is this—?!"
Aiden spoke slowly.
"Within this boundary, no world may be ended without consent."
The Emissary convulsed.
"You have no authority—!"
The Chorus surged.
We consent.
The Emissary screamed as its form destabilized.
---
THE FINISH
Aiden didn't strike.
He reached out—and unwound the Emissary's connection to the Maw.
Threads of black light snapped one by one.
The creature collapsed, shrinking, screaming until—
—there was nothing left but a fragment of dark crystal.
Silence.
The boundary dissolved.
Aiden staggered.
Lyra caught him.
"You did it," she whispered. "You actually did it."
Aidem stared at the crystal, expression grim.
"You didn't destroy it," he said.
"You severed it."
Aiden nodded weakly.
"I don't think I can destroy the Maw's creations."
Aidem looked at him.
"That may be for the best."
---
THE AFTERMATH
The sky resumed moving.
Rain returned.
Lyra helped Aiden sit against a broken pillar.
"That thing called you Warden like it was a curse."
Aiden stared at his hands.
"…It might be."
Aidem approached.
"You've crossed a threshold," he said.
"The Maw will no longer test you lightly."
Aiden looked up.
"Then let it come."
Aidem hesitated.
"Next time," he said quietly,
"it won't send an Emissary."
Aiden swallowed.
"What will it send?"
Aidem met his gaze.
"A world-eater."