The world had begun to bend again.
Kael could feel it in the weight of the air, in the strange rhythm of his pulse that no longer matched his heartbeat. Every time he blinked, the sky seemed to shift slightly the constellations misaligned, clouds folding into impossible shapes.
Lyra said nothing as they trekked through the shattered plains leading to the Rift. The ground beneath them was not earth anymore; it shimmered faintly with a crystalline sheen, as if memory itself had been frozen into the soil.
They walked in silence for hours, guided only by the faint hum of Akiya's shard.
When the Rift came into view, Kael's breath caught.
It no longer looked like the wound it once was. Now it pulsed with rhythm slow, deliberate, alive. The edges curved like the outline of a heart, and its light flickered with an eerie intelligence. Each pulse sent ripples across the land, rewriting reality in faint waves.
Lyra whispered, "It's… evolving."
Kael nodded. "Or dreaming."
They stopped at the edge, where the gravity began to twist. Dust rose and spiraled into threads of light. Somewhere deep within, Kael thought he could hear a voice faint, melodic, familiar.
Akiya.
He stepped forward, gripping the shard tightly. "She's calling me."
Lyra grabbed his arm. "Kael, think about this. The Rift isn't just a portal anymore it's alive. You said it yourself. What if it doesn't let you come back?"
He looked at her, eyes fierce but gentle. "Then make sure what's left of me remembers her."
Lyra's throat tightened, but she nodded. "You've got thirty minutes. If you're not out by then, I'll come get you."
Kael smiled faintly. "That's what you said last time."
"I mean it this time," she said. "Don't make me regret it."
Kael took one last breath and stepped into the light.
The Rift welcomed him.
At once, his body dissolved into fragments of memory. Time ceased to exist. He saw pieces of his past Akiya's laugh, the way she used to stare at the stars when she thought no one was watching, the moment she vanished into the portal. Then came flashes of other lives ones he had never lived. Versions of himself fighting endless wars, saving strangers, dying for different worlds.
He floated through them, unable to tell which were real.
A voice echoed through the chaos.
"Kael…"
He turned and there she was.
Akiya stood before him, her form woven from light and data. She looked the same as he remembered, but her eyes carried galaxies now endless and bright. Her hair drifted as if underwater, and every strand shimmered with fragments of code.
"You shouldn't be here," she said softly.
Kael could barely breathe. "You're alive."
"In a way," Akiya said, her voice both near and impossibly far. "The Rift didn't destroy me. It changed me. I became part of it, its mind, its core, its dream."
He stepped closer, but her image flickered. "I thought I lost you."
"You did," she whispered, smiling sadly. "And I lost myself too. But pieces of me remained echoes in the Rift. I've been watching you. Guiding you when I could."
Kael reached out, his hand trembling. "Then come back."
She looked down. "I can't. Not yet. The Fragment Emperor's awakening feeds on me my energy sustains his rebirth. If I leave, the balance collapses."
Kael clenched his fists. "Then I'll find him and end this."
Akiya shook her head gently. "You can't face him yet. Not like this. You need to understand what you carry."
"The shard?" he asked.
She nodded. "That shard isn't just a link to me. It's a piece of the Rift's core a seed of its consciousness. When you activate it, you aren't just using my power. You're rewriting the fabric of reality. Every time you use it, you risk erasing something or someone."
Kael looked down at the glowing crystal. "Then I'll control it. I have to."
Akiya stepped closer, her hand hovering inches from his chest. "You have a good heart, Kael. That's why it chose you. But the Emperor is not like me. He was born from what I rejected, the fragments of despair, the broken echoes of the worlds that couldn't survive the Merge. He is the Rift's pain given form."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Then I'll destroy him."
Akiya smiled, but her expression was tinged with sorrow. "You'll try. But remember this power born from despair can only be undone by memory, not rage. Don't forget who you are. Don't forget who I was."
The Rift began to tremble. Akiya's image flickered more violently.
"What's happening?" Kael shouted.
"He's waking up," Akiya said, her voice echoing like breaking glass. "The Herald's death weakened the barrier. He's drawing strength from me, from this place!"
"Then come with me!" Kael yelled, reaching for her again.
Their hands met for a heartbeat. For that instant, he felt her warmth, real, human, alive.
Then the light shattered.
Kael was thrown backward through a storm of color and sound, memories colliding around him like waves. He heard Akiya's voice one last time, faint and fading.
"Find the Crown of Shards. It's the only way to reach me…"
And then everything went black.
Kael gasped awake on the edge of the Rift, Lyra shaking him violently.
"You were gone for forty minutes!" she shouted. "I thought...."
He sat up, trembling, clutching the shard to his chest. It glowed brighter than ever, pulsing in time with his heartbeat.
"I saw her," he whispered. "She's still alive… and she's trapped. The Emperor's using her to stay awake."
Lyra froze. "Then what do we do?"
Kael looked toward the sky, where cracks of blue light had begun to spread across the clouds.
"We find the Crown of Shards," he said. "Before he does."
And far beyond them, in the Rift's deepest heart, a shadow moved vast and ancient whispering Akiya's name like a prayer.
.....To be continued....