Elara's scream shattered the bunker.
Light tore out of her like a star exploding underground — a vortex of resonance that shook the air, cracked the stone, and made the Spiral symbols on the walls burn alive.
Rheon staggered back, shielding his eyes.
Kael didn't move.
He wrapped his arms around Elara, holding her upright as her body convulsed with raw, painful power.
"Elara!" Kael shouted over the roar. "Stay with me. Look at me—look at me!"
She couldn't.
Her eyes were rolled back, pupils drowned in white light.
Rheon forced himself forward — even as the Spiral force pushed him back like a hurricane.
"Elara, listen—HEY, LISTEN TO ME!"
His voice cracked. "You're NOT going anywhere without us!"
Her resonance pulsed in their chests, syncing, dragging their breaths, their hearts, their minds toward her spiralised state.
The glowing-eyed woman staggered back in horror.
"She's responding. Phase Four is coming through her."
Kael snarled, "Then shut it down!"
"I can't!" the woman shouted. "No one can!"
Elara screamed again — but this time, her voice was layered.
Echoed.
Overlapping with something ancient.
Something not human.
"Resonance Node… return."
Rheon froze. "Did she just—?!"
Kael felt Elara slipping from his arms, her pulse fading under the Spiral's grip.
"No."
He tightened his hold around her waist, pulling her into him.
"No. You're not taking her."
Elara's light devoured the room.
Rheon yelled, "KAEL, LET GO! If she detonates you'll—"
"I'm her Anchor!" Kael roared. "I don't LET GO!"
Something snapped.
Not inside the bunker.
Inside Kael.
His Anchor markings flared violently across his arms, shoulders, spine — glowing like molten chains holding him together. Pain ripped through him so sharp his breath stopped.
Rheon felt it through the link.
"KAEL!" Rheon grabbed his arm, trying to pull him back. "You're burning out—"
Kael's voice was hoarse, breaking. "Then burn with me."
Elara's resonance spiked.
The Spiral voice deepened.
"Return… Resonance… Node Four awaits."
Her feet left the ground.
She floated.
Kael clung to her, teeth clenched, muscles trembling under the impossible force dragging her upward.
Rheon cursed and anchored himself to Kael from behind, grabbing both of them — a desperate human chain.
The Spiral light swallowed the ceiling.
Stone lifted like weightless dust.
The vault walls peeled like old skin.
Reality itself bent around them.
The glowing-eyed woman fell to her knees. "It's opening—THE REALM IS OPENING—!"
Kael gritted out, "Over—my—dead—body—!"
Elara's voice layered again, whispering in agony:
"I don't… want… to go…"
Rheon's heart cracked.
"Then DON'T!"
He pressed his forehead to hers —
and Kael pressed his to the side of her head, holding her in place.
The three of them locked together —
breathing one another's breath,
bleeding one another's fear,
sharing one another's pain.
The Spiral reacted.
The vortex flickered.
Faltered.
Unstable.
Kael shouted, "RHEON — DO SOMETHING!"
Rheon's hacker brain switched on.
Pattern.
Code.
Loop.
Feedback.
Weak point.
He saw it — in the way the Spiral light pulsed:
It wasn't a portal.
It was a signal.
A frequency connection.
"It's not taking her body!" Rheon shouted. "It's hacking her MIND!"
Kael snapped, "Then BLOCK IT!"
Rheon grabbed Elara's face in both hands.
"Elara — LISTEN TO ME — your thoughts are NOT open source!"
Her breath hitched.
His voice reached past the light.
"Elara, CLOSE the channel!"
"I—I can't—!"
Kael cupped her shaking jaw, his forehead pressed against hers.
"Yes you can," he whispered, voice raw. "We're right here."
The three pulses synced.
A perfect rhythm.
A perfect crack in the Spiral's control.
The light erupted —
a blinding shockwave bursting outward like a star collapsing—
BOOM.
Everything went dark.
Rheon gasped awake first.
Dust.
Silence.
Cold air.
He sat up with a choked cry. "Elara—Kael—?!"
Kael was slumped beside him, unconscious, breathing ragged.
Elara lay between them.
Not glowing.
Not floating.
Normal.
Her face soft, peaceful, alive.
Rheon touched her cheek gently — terrified she'd disintegrate if he pressed too hard.
She flinched and murmured.
He exhaled a broken laugh. "Oh thank god—"
Kael groaned awake beside them. "She…?"
"She's okay," Rheon whispered.
Kael sagged in relief, head dropping forward as he let out a shaky breath — something between a sob and a laugh.
But the glowing-eyed woman was staring at them like she'd witnessed a miracle.
Or a nightmare.
"You three…" she whispered, voice trembling.
"That was not just resistance."
Rheon looked up at her, still shaking.
"What was it then?"
The woman swallowed.
"Chaosborn aren't supposed to overpower Spiral commands."
Her voice lowered.
"Only one type of node can do that."
Rheon stared.
Kael tensed.
Elara stirred weakly between them.
The woman whispered:
"You three are not Nodes."
A pause.
She stepped back.
"You're Architects."
Rheon whispered, "What the hell does that mean?"
The woman stared at Elara as if looking at a sleeping god.
"It means…" she breathed, trembling—
"you aren't chosen by the Spiral.
You are meant to overwrite it."