Kael had never trained a Myth before.
Not even in theory.
But the moment Rei stepped onto the central platform, surrounded by calibrated Weave-readers and Spark harmonizers, he realized something critical:
She wasn't waiting to be taught.
She was waiting to be unchained.
Her aura didn't pulse.
It compressed—drawing the ambient Weave inward like breath before a scream. The walls groaned. One of the outer pillars cracked. Three of the harmonizers shut down completely, unable to compute her signature.
Lyssa hit the emergency ward trigger. The dome flared with containment glyphs.
Kael didn't move.
Rei stood in the center, fists clenched, trembling.
She whispered, "I don't know how to hold it in."
Kael stepped forward.
"You don't."
Rei looked at him.
"You shape it."
And with that, he raised his hand—
—and altered the Spark chamber's resonance to match her dissonance.
Not fight it.
Absorb it.
Like a vessel meant for chaos.
And the moment he did—
She exploded.
---
No fire.
No destruction.
Just light.
Endless, roaring, mathematical light.
It flowed across the glyphs, burning equations into the floor. Not random. Not wild.
Language.
She was speaking in a structure older than words—pure form as thought.
Kael's mind reeled, but he saw it.
Her Myth-tier wasn't elemental. It wasn't weaponized.
It was Interpretation.
Rei could read and rewrite meaning at the deepest level of existence. Her gift was the decoding of power—and its recontextualization.
She could redefine what a law meant.
Kael whispered in awe, "She's not just using power…"
Lyssa finished, voice low:
> "She's editing reality."
---
Elsewhere, in the foundation level of Weavemind, something darker moved.
The Manifold had arrived.
He walked unseen, his presence erasing memories even as he passed.
Guards forgot him.
Stones refused to echo his steps.
A boy who saw his face forgot his own name.
He approached the core library—where the Spark designs, source records, and Kael's experimental codebase were stored.
He reached out with a black-gloved hand—
—and paused.
A spark model node blinked softly nearby, not defending, not resisting, just recording.
He frowned.
Then touched the core.
And the moment he did, Kael felt it.
---
Back in the chamber, Kael staggered.
Rei, still glowing, stepped forward. "What's wrong?"
"Someone… something… just accessed my code."
Lyssa ran diagnostics. "It's internal. No trace. No signature. Not even a footprint."
Kael's jaw clenched. "It's not a hacker. It's worse."
Then came the sound.
Silence.
Real, absolute silence.
The kind that blanketed thought and made skin crawl.
Kael turned toward the lower levels.
"He's here."
---
The Manifold emerged from the stairwell like a shadow made flesh.
People screamed without knowing why.
Their minds reacted to a thing their thoughts couldn't hold.
Kael stood between him and the Spark Chamber.
"You're not divine," Kael said. "And you're not dead. What are you?"
The Manifold's voice was wind scraping bone:
> "I am the cost of forgetting.
The hole in every perfect theory.
I am what gods bury when they fail."
Then he reached forward.
And the walls of reality peeled.
Rei stepped in front of Kael.
Her eyes burned.
"You don't get to erase this."
The Manifold tilted his head. "You think you're real?"
"I define real."
And then—
Rei struck.
Not with fire.
Not with force.
But with meaning.
She redefined the Manifold's presence as absent.
And he staggered back, howling in a voice made of missing time.
Kael's eyes widened.
"She can fight him."
But Rei was bleeding from her nose. Her hands trembled.
"I can't hold it—"
Kael stepped in, mind racing, and whispered:
"Then let me stabilize it."
He reached out.
And for the first time, two Spark-bound minds linked.
The Weave didn't just shift.
It evolved.
---
Above them all, in the Divine Hall, the First Voice opened their eyes.
"Two minds. One pattern. An anchor and a vector."
They rose from their throne.
"It's begun."