The world tried to decide.
That was the problem.
Axiom advanced, each step collapsing probabilities into certainty. Futures peeled away like dead skin, leaving only one path—straight, clean, merciless.
Erynd walked toward it.
Not because he could win.
Because exceptions must be demonstrated.
"You contradict without replacing," Axiom said. "This is invalid."
Erynd nodded. "That's what makes it real."
He raised his hand.
No spell formed.
No system responded.
Instead, the scars along his arm misaligned, each one representing a promise never fulfilled, a choice never justified.
The Devourer howled.
You are undoing me too!
"Good," Erynd whispered.
Axiom struck.
Not with force.
With finality.
Erynd felt himself begin to end.
Memories thinned. His name lost relevance. Even pain dulled—because it no longer mattered.
Then—
A thought surfaced.
Lyra's voice.
I chose.
Not for balance.
Not for outcome.
For meaning.
Erynd laughed.
A raw, broken sound.
"You can't predict that," he told Axiom. "Because it comes after."
The world shuddered.
For the first time, Axiom recoiled.
Regret appeared.
Not as emotion.
As data without resolution.
The Watcher screamed—not aloud, but across every layer of reality.
STATUS CHANGE:
Determinism — Compromised
Exception — Validated
Axiom fractured—not shattered.
Cracked.
A single line split its form.
"You will increase suffering," it said.
"Yes," Erynd replied. "But we'll own it."
The Devourer went silent.
Not sealed.
Redefined.
No longer hunger.
No longer chains.
It became weight with consent.
Erynd fell to his knees.
Blood touched the ground—and did not vanish.
Choice had returned fully.
Axiom stepped back.
Not defeated.
Limited.
It receded into the fabric of reality, no longer absolute—now one principle among many.
The sky straightened.
Time breathed again.
Caelis reached Erynd.
"You did it," he said, awed.
Erynd shook his head weakly.
"No," he whispered. "I made it possible for us to fail honestly."
Far above, the Watcher recorded its final transformation.
Not judge.
Not observer.
Archivist.
Erynd looked at the horizon.
He felt smaller.
And for the first time—
Free.