Kalo gasped awake, the smell of ash burning in his lungs. The sky above him swirled with ruptured stars — constellations snapping like broken bones. The Astrarium pulsed inside his chest, each beat echoing like a countdown.
His vision doubled — one world bright and fragile… the other drowned in shadow.
Nox stood a few steps away.
Not speaking. Not attacking.
Just watching him.
There was no grin. No menace. Only a gaze that felt too familiar.
"You saw it," Nox said quietly. "The future where only one of us remains."
Kalo clenched his fists. "It doesn't have to end like that."
Nox stepped forward, hands raised — unarmed. "You always believed in people. Believed that giving them hope would change the world. But look around you…"
Cities cracked in the distance. Voidborn howled as they multiplied.
"…they're destroying themselves even faster."
Kalo shook his head. "You're wrong."
"Am I?" Nox asked, voice trembling with something dangerously close to fear."I'm not your enemy, Kalo. I'm your—"He stopped.
A violent ripple surged through the air — the Voidblood Empress' magic.
She had tracked them.
Nox staggered, pain ripping across his form as black veins spread down his neck. Kalo's heart jolted.
"You're… fading."
"No," Nox corrected bitterly. "I'm being unmade. Because you wished for a world that doesn't need me."
The wind roared — shadows began peeling off Nox like smoke.
"Kalo."His voice cracked."If you erase me… you erase everything I protected you from."
Kalo stepped forward, fear and rage clashing in his chest. "You saved me…?""But you said—"
"Said what you needed to hear," Nox whispered. "Because you would've given up."
His eyes — once cold as obsidian — softened.
"We break the same, Kalo. We hurt the same. We are the same."
Kalo reached toward him—But the Empress' power yanked Nox backward like a puppet on a hook.
His scream shredded the air.
"KALO—!! Don't let them dictate who we are!"
And he vanished into the collapsing night.
Leaving Kalo alone. Again.But this time… with anger that didn't belong to him.
He could feel it.
Nox's rage.His fear.His will to survive.
The Astrarium burned, reacting to the surge.
You choose, Kalo Renn.Light or shadow.One must erase the other.
But Kalo growled through clenched teeth:
"No. I'm done choosing."