The white light swallowed them.
Brian, Kaelith, and Lyra felt their bodies dissolve into a haze of energy, yet consciousness remained sharp, painfully sharp. Their hearts pounded, and every pulse echoed like a drum across infinite space.
"Holy moly…" Brian muttered. "I… I can feel everything… my head's about to explode."
Kaelith gritted his teeth. "It's… the soul. The whole… it's around us… inside us."
Lyra's aura flared, stabilizing them both. "Focus. We have to move forward. The pulse is alive… it's watching."
They stepped, but "steps" were meaningless here. Space was fluid. Light rippled like water. Shadows of their past selves darted around them, whispering fragments of memory: victories, losses, betrayals, laughter, and tears they didn't fully remember.
> [ECHO MERGE: 71%]
[DIMENSIONAL STABILITY: CRITICAL]
Brian groaned. "This is… literally insane. I've seen weird, but this… this is next-level crap."
Kaelith pointed ahead. A shape shimmered in the distance. Massive. Humanoid. Surrounded by golden-white energy that twisted like liquid light.
Lyra's voice dropped to a whisper. "That… that's him."
Brian squinted. "Him? Who the hell is 'him'?"
Kaelith shook his head, awe-struck. "The original… the main soul… Frank."
Through the pulsing mist, they saw him. Frank stood on a floating platform of energy, a system interface swirling around him like a halo. His arms moved in precise, practiced motions — training, testing, calculating, syncing with the system that hummed and glowed across every layer of the pulse.
Brian blinked. "Holy shit… he's… he's training inside… himself?"
Lyra's hands trembled. "It's more than training. He's conditioning the main soul, building the framework… for all of you maybe he knows."
Kaelith's fists glowed molten-red. "If he completes this… everything we are, everything we've been through… it all converges."
The pulse reacted to their recognition. Space buckled around them. Light streams curled into threads that tugged at their forms. Shadows of beasts they had fought flickered briefly, then dissolved into silver motes of memory.
Brian clenched his teeth. "Well, then… guess we better not screw this up."
Lyra nodded. "you guys have to reach him… synchronize, or the shards collapse."
The moment they advanced, a wave of the pulse's energy hit them, and reality fractured further. Time dilated, then snapped back. Every movement became a test: balance, focus, emotional control.
Kaelith stumbled. "The Negative System… I can feel it trying to pull me in, but… it's not just mine anymore. It's shared—connected."
Brian grinned despite the chaos. "Finally, something I understand. Shared powers? Sweet!"
They pressed forward, moving through a maze of living light, memory echoes, and fragment shadows. Each step they took revealed more of themselves: moments they never lived, feelings they never had, visions of other shards, laughing and crying in unison.
And then — a wall of white light.
Frank's silhouette shimmered against it, training endlessly, unaware they were watching. Every punch, every system ping, every flex of energy rippled outward. Each ripple hummed with their essence, the original soul's heartbeat vibrating in their chests.
Lyra whispered, awe-struck. "He's… perfect. He's everything you're supposed to be… together."
Kaelith clenched his fists. "We… we're not ready. But we have to try."
Brian smirked. "Yeah, yeah, ready or not… this is where we kick reality in the teeth."
The pulse sensed their resolve. Threads of energy extended toward them, testing, probing, challenging. Shadows of their fractured selves lunged, forcing them to confront every mistake, every fear, every regret.
Brian gritted his teeth. "You want a piece of me? Come on, then! I've punched worse… in at least three other universes."
Lyra's aura flared, Kaelith's fists ignited, and together they shattered the shadows, each strike reverberating through the pulse. The fragments of themselves screamed and laughed, dissolving into threads of pure light that twined around their forms.
And then — a voice. Not Kaelith, not Lyra, not Brian.
> "Shards… reunite. The whole is awakening."
Their eyes widened. The pulse shimmered. The pathway toward Frank rippled like liquid glass.
Brian wiped sweat from his brow. "Holy shit… that's our cue. Time to meet the main event."
Kaelith nodded. "One step closer to the origin… or one misstep, and everything collapses."
Lyra's hands glowed. "W have no choice. You're part of this… whether you guys like it or not."
The pulse surged, wrapping them in light. For the first time, they felt whole fragments merging, aligning. Their powers, hearts, and senses synced—not fully, but enough to step forward, enough to glimpse the scale of Frank's training.
And as they moved into the glow, Brian muttered, half in awe, half in panic:
"Holy moly… so… this is the guy we were all split from. And he's training… training to survive us… or maybe… training us…"
The pulse pulsed again. Reality trembled.
And the two shards Brian and kaelith stepped forward, toward Frank, toward the heart of the soul itself, knowing that nothing — nothing — would ever be the same.