The world held its breath.
Jack's heart hammered in his chest, but it wasn't fear that gripped him. It was something else. Something older than any of them. It was as if his very soul had been struck by a chord that resonated across the fabric of reality.
He stared at the clawed hand emerging from the crack in the Blade, its fingers stretching toward the sky like they sought to claim it. It was dark—too dark for any shadow, too vast for any presence that had existed before.
And it was unmistakable.
Not a god.
Not a beast.
But something far worse.
The One Who Unmade.
"I didn't... I didn't think it was still alive," Jack whispered, his voice cracking as the realization set in. "I thought it was locked away... forgotten."
Lola took a hesitant step forward. "You remembered it. That's why it's here. Why it's inside you."
"I didn't mean to," Jack said, shaking his head. His body was trembling, not from fear, but from the raw, oppressive weight of the power that churned within him. "I thought... I thought I could end it. That I could stop the cycle. But this... this thing is the cycle."
"It's not your fault, Jack," Kael said, his voice grim but steady. He reached out, placing a hand on Jack's shoulder. "It's always been waiting. The Devourer, the Watcher—whatever we call it—it's never truly been gone. It's woven into the very bones of the world."
"Then what do we do?" Marek's voice was cold, edged with something darker—something that had been hidden inside him for a long time, just waiting for the right moment to surface. "How do we stop it?"
Lola's eyes were wide with the horror of it all. "We can't."
For a moment, everything was still. The wind howled. The stars trembled. But in that silence, the thing inside the Blade stirred—its clawed hand now fully formed, scraping across the fabric of the universe like a knife against skin.
Jack gasped. "I can feel it... it's inside me, it's... it's not just in the Blade. It was me. I am the One Who Unmade."
The world seemed to shudder.
"No." Kael's voice was forceful, a challenge to what Jack had just said. "You're still Jack. You're still the one who has the power to decide. This thing inside you—it's not who you are, Jack. It's what you've chosen to become, but you can still choose to end it."
"How?" Jack asked, his voice low. The weight in his chest was unbearable now, like a thousand lifetimes had been compressed into a single breath. "How do I stop something that's been inside me for so long?"
"You've already started," Lola said softly. "You've already chosen. You rejected it once before. You can do it again."
"But I can't defeat it alone." Jack turned to her, his face marked with raw desperation. "I've fought the Devourer. I've fought the Watcher. But this... this isn't something I can fight."
"You're not alone, Jack," Nyssa said from behind him. Her voice, usually so quiet, now carried a new weight. A certainty. "We fight together. We end it together."
The clawed hand from the Blade twisted violently, dragging the thing inside closer to the surface. The world was cracking open, the fabric of reality splitting like a seam being torn by an unseen hand. And Jack could feel it. The pressure. The force. The pull.
The One Who Unmade was rising.
But Jack wasn't the only one fighting.
He could feel them. His friends. His companions. The ones who had walked beside him since the beginning. Kael, Lola, Nyssa, Marek. They were not just standing behind him—they were inside him. Their thoughts, their will, their hope intertwined with his own.
Jack raised the Blade again, but this time it was different.
This time, the Blade wasn't just a weapon.
It was a symbol. A beacon.
And with it, Jack called.
A light burned through the sky, splitting the heavens in two. The crack in the Blade widened, and from within it, a voice boomed—an echo of the One Who Unmade.
"You cannot stop me, vessel. I was here before you. And I will be here long after you."
Jack's eyes blazed. "I don't have to stop you. I just have to end what you started."
The Blade vibrated, humming with the resonance of the universe itself. It was not just Jack's power anymore. It was the power of every life that had been touched by the Devourer. The Watcher. The One Who Unmade. Every being who had ever stood against it.
The stars themselves bent toward the light.
The ground beneath their feet trembled. And for the first time, the One Who Unmade flinched.
"No," it hissed. "You cannot do this. You are me."
"No," Jack said, voice filled with a quiet fury. "I am not. I never was."
He thrust the Blade forward, and as it cut through the air, the fabric of reality itself began to tear.
And with that tear—everything changed.
The world fractured. The storm from the Maw paused.
For a moment—everything paused.
And in the distance, a voice could be heard.
The voice of something old, something forgotten.
The First Flame spoke, her words carrying across the ruins.
"Let the Unmaking be undone."