The city lights dimmed as the Balance Protocol rippled through the grid.
Every circuit, every drone, every pulse of energy seemed to bow to the resonance emanating from the girl who stood beside Arka.
She looked fragile a figure made of moonlight and breath but the power humming around her was beyond comprehension.
Kael followed closely, her boots echoing against the trembling glass of the Skyway Bridge. "Where are you taking her?"
Arka's gaze stayed fixed ahead. "To the Central Core. The city's heart still holds fragments of the old celestial network. If anyone can translate her code, it's there."
Kael frowned. "You're assuming she wants to be translated."
"I don't have time for assumptions," Arka replied.
The girl walked silently beside him, her bare feet leaving faint trails of light on the metal floor. Every sensor they passed flickered, whispering in distorted code like the city was speaking a language only she understood.
When they reached the elevator to the lower sanctum, Arka pressed his hand against the biometric panel. It hesitated, then accepted not his code, but hers.
The doors slid open instantly.
Kael's eyes narrowed. "She's overriding security protocols with a thought."
"She's rewriting the definition of access," Arka muttered.
The elevator descended.
As the walls of glass lowered, the city spread above them a lattice of blue and gold light, still trembling from the aftermath of her awakening.
Arka finally turned to her. "Do you remember your name?"
The girl tilted her head, as if the question was foreign. "I am called Balance. But once, before form, I was a whisper within the Rift. You gave me direction, and the Primarch gave me purpose."
"The Primarch," Arka repeated. "He's behind this."
"He was. But he no longer remembers his origin. None of them do."
Kael crossed her arms. "Them?"
"The Archons," the girl said simply. "Those who once guarded the path between creation and silence. They have awakened to restore what was undone when the Abyss fell quiet."
Arka's eyes hardened. "The Third Descent."
The girl nodded. "The heavens will no longer wait. The balance must shift. Either toward renewal… or oblivion."
The elevator stopped with a chime. The doors slid open to reveal the Central Core a vast chamber of silver conduits and floating crystal columns. At its center, the Celestial Node pulsed with faint blue light, the last relic of the First Era.
Arka stepped forward, motioning her closer. "If you connect to the Node, can you show me what the Archons are planning?"
"I can," she said softly. "But it will come with a cost."
Kael frowned. "What kind of cost?"
The girl looked at her, eyes glowing faintly brighter. "A fragment of what anchors me here the part that remembers mercy."
Arka exhaled slowly. "Do it."
She placed her hand upon the Node.
Light erupted through the chamber blinding, violent, divine.
The air trembled. Circuits split open, releasing threads of gold and shadow that wound together into a single image a vision suspended in the center of the Core.
It showed a throne of broken stars. Around it, seven Archons descended from the void beings of immense power, neither flesh nor machine. Above them, a sigil formed the Seal of Continuum, a circle devouring itself endlessly.
Kael whispered, "They're rewriting the world's foundation."
Arka clenched his fists. "They're preparing to reset existence."
The girl Balance opened her eyes again, her glow now faint and unsteady. "If they succeed, every timeline, every rebirth, every soul touched by the Abyss will vanish. Even your legacy."
He stepped closer. "Tell me how to stop them."
She smiled faintly, though her voice trembled. "You can't stop what's meant to end. But you can choose what begins after. The key lies within you the last echo of the Star Wolf."
Kael turned sharply. "That's impossible. The Star Wolf died with the last Era."
"No," Arka said quietly. "He lived long enough to pass his blood."
The girl nodded. "And that blood runs through you. You are not his successor, Arka. You are his continuation."
A thunderous rumble echoed above the sound of the heavens splitting once again. Through the glass ceiling, a fissure of golden light expanded across the night, swallowing the stars one by one.
Kael raised her weapon. "They've begun the Descent!"
Arka drew his blade, its edge igniting with the silver of two worlds colliding. "Then we meet them head-on."
The girl's voice was soft but certain. "Then you will need me whole."
Before Arka could ask, her form shimmered dissolving into threads of light that spiraled into his chest. The sigil on his arm burned white, expanding across his skin like living light.
His vision blurred. For a moment, he saw through her eyes galaxies turning, worlds trembling, and at the center of it all, a throne waiting for someone who refused to kneel.
Kael's voice broke through the storm. "Arka what's happening?!"
He looked at her, his eyes no longer just silver but burning with the mark of both Abyss and Heaven.
"The Balance isn't outside anymore," he said quietly. "It's within me now."
He turned toward the fissure splitting the sky, his voice a low growl.
"Let them descend."