Kael reformed slowly—piece by piece, thought by thought.
Light condensed into bone.Energy wove into muscle.Memory stitched his mind together again.
When the brightness faded, he found himself standing in a white expanse that stretched infinitely in every direction. No horizon. No shadows. No noise.
Just stillness.
The total opposite of the chaos he'd just survived.
A faint hum resonated through the void. Not sound. Not vibration. Something deeper—like the pulse of the universe holding its breath.
Then a figure emerged.
Not the formless distortion the Architect had used before.
This time… it chose a shape.
A tall, radiant humanoid being made of layered light, shifting patterns, and translucent geometry. Its "face" had no features, yet Kael felt it observing him with perfect clarity.
"You have stabilized."
Kael straightened, sweat drying against his skin. "I'm still standing."
"Yes. That is why this layer may proceed."
Kael's jaw tightened. "You pulled me into a nightmare realm, forced me to fight myself, and threw me into a dimension designed to kill anything with a brain. For what? Entertainment?"
The Architect tilted its head slightly.
"Purpose."
Kael stepped forward, fists clenched. "What purpose?"
For the first time, the Architect didn't answer immediately. Instead, the white void shimmered—and a projection unfolded around them like blooming petals of light.
Kael saw timelines.
Hundreds.Thousands.Some bright, some dark.
In one, he was a hero.In another, a tyrant.In another, dead at fifteen, the Nexus mark never awakening.In yet another, he became something beyond comprehension—a being of pure dimensional energy.
The light dissolved back into the void.
"These are the paths you may walk," the Architect said."Our concern is which path you should walk."
Kael frowned. "Why do you care?"
A ripple passed through the Architect's form, almost like hesitation.
"Because your existence was not an accident."
Kael felt the words hit him in the ribs.
"Explain."
The Architect raised a hand.
Reality dimmed.
A silhouette appeared—Kael's silhouette—but not quite. Taller. Older. Wearing armor forged from Nexus light.
A future version he had not yet encountered.
And this one… radiated command.
"You are not the only Kael," the Architect said quietly."Across the multiverse, countless versions of you exist. But only one—this one—created the Convergence."
Kael staggered. "But I didn't—"
"Not consciously. Not intentionally. But your energy signature initiated the chain reaction that destabilized boundaries between worlds."
Kael's heart hammered.
"You're saying I caused all of this?"
"You are the catalyst."
The Architect stepped closer, its form towering over him.
"So I must know, Kael of the Prime Axis… if you can carry the role your energy created."
Kael swallowed hard.
"And if I can't?"
The void trembled.
The Architect's voice deepened into something ancient, powerful, absolute.
"Then another Kael will replace you."
The world ruptured—
—and Kael was thrown into the final test:
A confrontation with the one who started the Convergence.A Kael who isn't him.A Kael who already embraced destiny.A Kael who won.