The corridor whispered secrets no one wanted to hear.
Its walls pulsed like veins, glowing with truths buried too deep for memory to access. Time didn't flow here—it convulsed. Every breath felt like a heartbeat stolen from a future that hadn't happened yet.
And then he stepped forward.
The other Kael.
He looked older—maybe by a decade. But it wasn't the age that rattled Aeris. It was the wrongness. His stance was too precise. His smirk too calculated. His eyes… red, shimmering like a dying star.
"What sick game is this?" Kael growled, stepping in front of Aeris and Sol.
The doppelgänger chuckled. Not menacing—fond.
"Still the hero," he said. "That's what broke you, Kael. That's what broke me."
His coat fluttered like a shadow with a will of its own. Behind him, the corridor warped, the edges bleeding into impossible shapes. Mirrors appeared on the walls, each reflecting a twisted version of their journey: Kael leaving Aeris behind, Aeris turning into Null, Sol dying… again and again.
"This isn't a memory," Aeris whispered. "It's a trap."
"Close," the other Kael said, walking toward them. "It's a filter. To see if you're ready to remember what we had to forget."
Kael stepped forward.
"Who are you really?"
The figure smirked.
"I'm you, Kael. The version that said 'yes' when the Architect offered power. The Kael who chose control over chaos. The Kael who didn't just lose Aeris—he destroyed her."
Aeris flinched.
"You're lying."
"Am I?" he said, turning. One of the mirrors lit up. A memory twisted in real-time—Kael standing over Aeris, her body charred, a timeline collapsed behind them.
Sol covered his eyes.
Kael's fists clenched. Flames curled at his fingertips.
"Why show us this?"
"Because it's what's coming. You think you're fixing time?" the alternate Kael said, voice rising. "You're tearing it apart—and the Paradox Guild needs you to finish the job."
He raised his hand.
The corridor shattered like sugar glass.
They fell—
Spiraling through a kaleidoscope of failed futures, dying timelines, broken versions of themselves. Aeris screamed as a timeline wrapped around her throat—one where she was Null, one where she killed Kael to save Sol, one where she became the Architect.
Kael grabbed her hand mid-fall.
"Look at me," he said, his voice raw. "That's not who you are."
"And if it is?" she choked.
"Then we change it. Together."
The spiral burst into white light—
And they landed.
New Setting: The Edge of Time
A silent platform floating in space. Above them, galaxies folded like origami. Below—nothing. Not darkness. Not void. Just… absence.
In the center stood a throne made of clock hands, mirrors, and bleeding stars.
And sitting on it was…
Aeris.
But her eyes were pitch black.
Her voice echoed before her mouth moved.
"Welcome to the Final Loop," she said."You have until the last second to kill the version of you that breaks the world."