The Last Core screamed.
Kael clutched his chest as white light exploded through his body.
Pain unlike anything he had ever experienced tore through him.
He dropped to one knee.
"Kael!"
Lyra rushed toward him.
A shockwave erupted from his body, forcing everyone nearby backward.
Even Arion struggled to remain standing.
The Harbinger immediately moved in front of Kael, shielding him with its enormous body.
Aetherion's voice echoed through Kael's mind.
"Don't fight it!"
Kael gritted his teeth.
"Then what am I supposed to do?"
"Listen."
"Listen to what?"
Aetherion went silent.
Then Kael heard it.
A heartbeat.
Not his own.
Something deeper.
Older.
Coming from inside the Core.
Boom.
The battlefield fell silent.
Boom.
The crack across the Last Core grew larger.
Boom.
A tiny fragment broke away.
Kael stared at it.
Inside the fragment was something impossible.
A memory.
He saw a young boy standing beneath a night sky.
The boy looked exactly like him.
But he was not Kael.
He was older.
Much older.
The vision changed.
The same boy stood before the Seven Thrones.
Then before the Architects.
Then before Nox.
Everyone seemed to know him.
Everyone seemed to fear him.
Kael's eyes widened.
"Who is that?"
Aetherion finally answered.
"Your first life."
Kael froze.
"My... first life?"
"You were not chosen by the Last Core."
"You were created for it."
The words struck harder than the pain.
Kael looked at his hands.
"Created?"
Before Aetherion could explain—
The enormous eye beyond reality moved closer.
The universe shook.
The Architect leader raised both hands.
"All forces!"
"Fall back!"
For the first time, the Architects weren't attacking.
They were afraid.
Veyrath stared at the sky.
Nox's presence suddenly appeared across the battlefield.
His voice echoed through every mind.
"Do not let it open."
Kael looked upward.
"Nox?"
The First Devourer's voice carried urgency.
"You don't understand."
"If the Core fully cracks..."
A pause.
Then—
"...the door opens."
Kael looked at the fragment floating before him.
"What door?"
No answer came.
Instead, the strange being beyond reality spoke again.
"You have forgotten."
The eye focused on Kael.
"But I remember you."
The words sent a chill through him.
Kael's breathing stopped.
"You know me?"
The creature answered.
"I was there when you were born."
Silence.
Aetherion's voice suddenly became desperate.
"Kael!"
The white light around him exploded.
The crack widened.
And for a single moment...
Kael saw what was behind the door.
A world.
Not destroyed.
Not dead.
Waiting.
And standing within that impossible world...
Was another Kael.
He opened his eyes.
And smiled.
"You finally came back."
The vision vanished.
Kael stared into the darkness.
His heart was pounding.
The Last Core continued to crack.
And somewhere beyond reality...
His forgotten past had begun to wake.