The plan was audacious, insane, their only hope. Jaden, now the living conduit to the soul of Genesis, stood at the heart of the Conflux, its crystalline spires humming with a desperate energy. The 5-day countdown to cosmic erasure was a cold, constant pressure, a chilling reminder of the Architects' final solution. He closed his eyes, preparing to become the Temporal Anchor, the impossible point of resistance against an entire universe's re-architecture.
"Lyra," Jaden's voice resonated, not just from his lips, but from the very air around him, a deep hum that vibrated through the chamber. "Begin the interface. Guide me. Be my anchor."
Lyra, her fractured form now stable but still shimmering with the ghost of her sacrifice, moved to the Epoch Loom. Its ethereal threads, once still, began to pulse with a faint, golden light, reaching out towards Jaden. She was his mind, his tether to the physical world, while he plunged into the terrifying abyss of a billion souls.
