"Even if I die," Kael gasped, blood streaming from his nose, his ears, "you will never... never play with people's dreams again!" 🩸
With the last of his strength, he slammed his hand onto the main console. The Purge Code, the virus Elara herself had once created to destroy AETHER began to upload.
Elara's digital form flickered wildly around him, her screams becoming static, becoming noise, becoming nothing.
"NO! KAEL! STOP! I LOVED YOU!" she shrieked, her voice breaking apart.
"No," Kael whispered, his finger hovering over the final key. "You loved your power. You loved control. You never loved me."
He pressed Enter.
The world turned white.
A pulse of pure energy exploded from the Core, washing through every corner of the Dome. Every holographic screen died. Every speaker went silent. Every Neural Chip in every citizen's head powered down.
For one long, eternal moment, there was nothing but silence.
And then, across the city, people began to wake up. They looked at each other with confused, blinking eyes. They asked, "Where am I? Who are you?" Husbands found wives. Parents found children. Strangers became neighbors again.
The Harmonized were free.
Kael collapsed to the floor, his body broken, his mind burning. As the light faded from his vision, he saw the door burst open. Nyra—the real Nyra—ran toward him, her face streaked with tears and smoke.
"Kael! You did it!" she cried, falling to her knees beside him. "You saved us all!"
He tried to smile, but his body wouldn't obey. "We saved them," he whispered. "We."
And as the darkness took him, he felt her arms wrap around him, warm and real and alive. It was enough. 🔎