The creature slammed into the room with a sound like breaking mirrors—thousands of versions of Aether screaming over one another, their voices layered into a single monstrous roar.
Aether staggered backward as fragments of his own face clawed toward him.
Some younger.
Some older.
Some bearing scars he didn't remember earning.
Some crying.
Some smiling.
All broken.
All him.
C yanked Aether away just in time as a warped arm—thin as bone but covered in glitching fragments of his own reflections—swiped past, tearing through the wall as though it were smoke.
"MOVE!" C shouted, pulling him toward a staircase half-swallowed by darkness.
Aether's eyes stayed locked on the abomination.
"What—what IS that thing?!"
C answered without looking back, her cloak swirling with starlight as she sprinted.
"That is your punishment!"
The building quaked.
The creature screeched, a sound like reversed laughter and metal twisting.
AetherAetherAether—
Give—us—back—what—
you—stole—
REMEMBER—US—
Aether's stomach lurched.
He nearly tripped.
"They're… me."
C didn't soften her stride.
"They're the versions of you the loop erased. Every loop creates an Echo—but when the timeline collapses this much, they merge. Into that."
Aether glanced back once.
Mistake.
The creature surged, a mass of tangled limbs and mirrored eyes—each reflection of Aether screaming silently from every angle.
Its central torso resembled a shattered hourglass made of bone. Black sand leaked from its cracks, floating upward.
The sigil on Aether's arm burned in response.
C felt it and tightened her grip on him.
"Don't look at it! It's anchored to your Fragment!"
Aether tore his gaze away, heart pounding.
"But why is it attacking ME?!"
Another quake—more violent this time. The floor split, sending clocks crashing down in metallic screams.
C leaped over the gap, dragging him with her.
"Aether, listen! That thing isn't trying to kill you—"
The creature shrieked again, more desperate, arms reaching.
"—it's trying to DRAG you back into the script!"
Aether's breath caught cold.
"The… script?"
C nodded sharply as they climbed the stairs two at a time.
"The Astral Manuscript—the true record of reality. You erased yourself from it. And now everything that was YOU is collapsing into paradox."
Aether stumbled, grabbing the railing.
"Why would I erase myself?!"
C suddenly stopped at the top of the staircase.
Dead end.
Aether's blood froze.
A wall.
Solid stone.
No doors.
No windows.
C cursed under her breath—a soft, trembling sound too human for someone who could shatter time.
"Aether—hold my hand."
He grabbed her hand instantly.
And the moment their palms touched—
The sigil on his arm ignited.
The air around C shimmered—stars swirling under her skin as if her veins were constellations.
Reality bent.
The solid wall began to flicker into transparency.
Aether stared at her, stunned.
"You… you can override the loop?"
C smiled faintly.
Sad.
Lonely.
Resigned.
"I can't change fate. But I can break the walls fate writes."
But then—
CRASH—
The Amalgam burst through the floor below, rising like a tidal wave of distorted selves. Its central face—Aether's face—looked directly at him with hollow eyes.
"Join—us—
join—us—
JOIN—US—"
C grabbed Aether's face, forcing him to look at her.
"Aether. Listen to me."
Her forehead pressed against his.
Her breath trembling, warm.
"If the Amalgam touches you, the loop resets to zero."
Her voice cracked.
"And you forget everything. Including me."
Aether's chest tightened.
"I don't want to forget you."
C closed her eyes, whispering:
"You promised you wouldn't."
Aether's breath hitched.
"Promised…? When?"
Her eyes glistened.
"Before you erased yourself."
The wall behind them fully dissolved, revealing a corridor made of starlit glyphs—a passage that pulsed like a living artery of the universe.
C pushed him toward it.
"Go!"
But Aether grabbed her hand, refusing to let go.
"I'm not leaving you."
Her gaze faltered.
"You can't stay here. The Amalgam only wants you."
Aether clenched his teeth.
"Then I'll take you with me! We can outrun it together—"
"Aether."
She said his name with a weight that silenced him.
"I'm not allowed to cross into your corridor."
He froze.
"What?"
C smiled—the kind of smile people use when they're trying to hide unbearable sorrow.
"I'm not part of this loop."
The Amalgam rose behind her—towering, screaming, reaching.
C pushed Aether into the corridor with one final shove.
"Remember this much, Aether Caelum Noctis—"
Her cloak scattered into stars as the creature consumed the room in a tidal wave of broken selves.
"—I'm the reason you erased your name."
Aether's scream was swallowed by collapsing reality as the starlit corridor sealed behind him.
And Loop 4 ended—
Without resetting.