Lyra grabbed Gideon's hand.
"Hey."
He looked at her.
"You're still here," she said.
"That's not nothing."
Gideon didn't respond immediately.
Then—
Something inside him clicked.
Not power.
Not memory.
Choice.
The symbols across his body ignited violently—not as destruction, but as refusal.
Azael watched closely.
The High Null paused.
For the first time—
Uncertainty spread through entities that should not have it.
Gideon stepped forward.
And spoke one sentence.
"I refuse to be the reason everything already ended."
The world stopped erasing.
Not healed.
Not saved.
Just—
paused in disbelief.
Lyra tightened her grip.
"…That's your power?" she asked.
Gideon's eyes darkened with unstable light.
"No."
A pause.
Then—
"It's my mistake correcting itself."
And reality began to fight back.