The core chamber of Nexus Tower was nothing like Kael expected.
It wasn't a room—it was a dimension in itself. A spherical space, suspended between gravity wells, each wall alive with light and mathematical song. Floating cubes rotated in synchrony. Data streams—solid and translucent at once—flowed like rivers through the air.
Reeva's jaw dropped. "This shouldn't exist in a decaying reality."
"It's barely holding together," Elara muttered, scanning the chamber. "One false move and we could fall into computational entropy."
Kael stepped forward, eyes fixed on the glowing engine in the center: the Nexus Core. A pulsating orb of crystalline machinery floated inside a stabilizing gyroscope. Lines of ancient alien script swam across its surface like fish through water.
"This is it," he said. "The thing that can cut through the Drift."
"Maybe," Elara warned, "but it's not meant for human hands. The Core was designed by the Fracture Architects themselves—before the Architect turned against them."
Kael approached carefully, clutching the Keystone. As he drew near, the orb began to react. Its color shifted—blue, then violet, then gold. Then it pulsed in sync with the Keystone in his hand.
"It recognizes me," Kael whispered.
Reeva scanned the feedback. "It's syncing your multiversal signature. You can use it."
"But for what?" Kael asked.
"To jump," Elara said, "and not just to another universe. To one of the Six Anchor Worlds."
Kael turned. "Anchor Worlds?"
"Points in the multiverse that stabilize reality," she explained. "They hold the lattice together—if the Architect takes even one of them, the rest fall like dominos."
"And I'm guessing he's already taken some," Reeva said.
Elara nodded grimly. "Two, maybe three. We don't have much time."
Kael placed the Keystone into the Nexus Core's interface slot.
The room changed instantly.
Lights flared.
The gyroscope spun violently.
A holographic display projected six coordinates, each flickering with instability. But one glowed brighter than the others.
Earth-3149.
"An active Anchor World," Elara confirmed. "And it's under threat."
Kael's fingers danced over the interface, guided by instinct—or perhaps by the residual knowledge of his dead counterparts.
Suddenly, the floor trembled.
Reeva looked at the entrance. "Scouts. They found us."
Gunfire echoed above.
Machines descended—mechanical horrors shaped like spiders and wolves, fused with dimensional technology.
"They're trying to shut down the Core!" Elara shouted.
Kael activated the sequence. A portal began to form—unstable, flickering like a candle in a storm.
"Go!" he yelled.
Reeva leapt first, firing behind her. Elara followed, tossing a timed implosion charge to delay the machines.
Kael turned back one last time as the Core strained to hold the rift.
He thought of the other Kael—strapped to a machine, warning him from beyond death.
Then he jumped.
As the portal closed, the Core detonated in a silent flash of light, consuming Nexus Tower.
On the other side, Kael landed hard on concrete.
He looked up.
He was in a city bathed in red fog. Sirens howled in the distance. Above, a massive rift opened like a maw in the sky.
Earth-3149.
And the war had already begun.