The silver gateway remained open above the First World.
No one moved.
The enormous figure of living light stood within it, watching the world below.
Its body had no armor.
No weapons.
No visible face.
Yet somehow, every Guardian could feel its gaze.
Kael stepped forward.
"You're one of the Architects?"
The figure answered.
"We are the Architects."
Its voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
The entire planet heard it.
Arion tightened his grip on his sword.
"What do you want?"
The Architect looked toward the Harbinger.
Then toward the Last Core within Kael.
"We have come to collect what belongs to us."
Kael's expression hardened.
"The Last Core doesn't belong to anyone."
For the first time, the Architect paused.
"You misunderstand."
"The Core was never created for you."
Aetherion suddenly spoke.
"Kael..."
His voice was unusually tense.
"They're telling the truth."
Kael looked at him.
"You knew?"
"I knew the Architects existed."
"I didn't know they would return."
The Architect raised one hand.
A massive symbol appeared across the sky.
Seven circles surrounded a single empty space.
"The Seven Thrones were instruments."
"The Devourers were consequences."
"And the Last Core..."
The empty circle began glowing.
"...was the final key."
Kael stared upward.
"Key to what?"
The Architect didn't answer.
Instead, the sky changed.
A vision appeared above the capital.
Kael saw countless stars.
Then galaxies.
Then entire universes.
One after another, they appeared and disappeared.
His eyes widened.
"There are more universes?"
"Countless."
The Architect lowered its hand.
"And something is destroying them."
Silence.
Even Aetherion seemed stunned.
"The darkness you witnessed was not contained within this universe," the Architect continued.
"It exists beyond all creation."
Kael remembered the vision of Nox.
"So Nox was fighting it."
"Yes."
"And the Devourers?"
"His attempt to survive it."
Kael's fists tightened.
"Then why are you here?"
The Architect's light grew brighter.
"Because Nox failed."
A chill swept through the Hall.
"His prison is weakening."
"The darkness is approaching."
"And the Last Core is the only remaining key capable of sealing it."
Kael looked at the glowing Core within himself.
"So you want to take it."
"We want you to surrender it."
Kael shook his head.
"No."
The Guardians immediately raised their weapons.
The Azure Dominion ships powered their cannons.
Even the Harbinger stepped forward.
The Architect simply watched.
"You would challenge us?"
Kael looked around at everyone standing beside him.
"I'm not surrendering the future of the universe to strangers."
The Architect's voice became colder.
"Then you leave us no choice."
The silver gateway expanded.
Hundreds of figures appeared behind the first Architect.
An army made entirely of living light.
Caelum drew his sword.
Seraphine raised hers.
Arion's Harbinger awakened behind them.
Kael stepped forward.
Aetherion's power surged through his body.
For the first time since the Ancient War...
Three great forces stood against one another.
The Devourers.
The Alliance.
The Architects.
But far beyond them all...
Something watched.
Something that had been waiting since before the first star was born.
And deep within the darkness between universes...
A voice whispered.
"Let them fight."
"Every battle brings me closer."
A single crimson eye opened.
Then another.
Then millions.
The true enemy had been watching all along.