As Nihil Prime's presence retreated and the Paradox Eater pressed against the breach in reality, Shia Brightblade made a decision that would have been impossible for any other consciousness trapped in the Realm of Heroic Echoes.
She chose to break the paradox itself.
"Reed," she said, her voice carrying a weight that seemed to bend the crystalline air around them. "I've been fighting the wrong battle."
For centuries, she had maintained her prison-fortress by accepting the fundamental contradiction of her existence—that she was both dead and alive, both trapped and free, both guardian and prisoner. The Heroic Paradox had fed on this contradiction, using her acceptance of impossible circumstances to maintain the stable impossibility of her situation.
But watching Reed's near-surrender to The Dark, seeing the absolute devastation in his consciousness as he rejected salvation itself, Shia finally understood the truth that had eluded her for so long.
