The transformation was so gradual that Reed almost didn't notice it happening. One day he was coordinating the final resurrections of the Balance Guard, and the next he found himself sitting in quiet contemplation, watching as younger beings came to him not for orders but for understanding.
The Liberator was dying—not through violence or betrayal, but through the natural evolution of purpose. The title that had defined him through countless battles and resurrections was becoming obsolete, replaced by something far more complex and infinitely more valuable.
He was becoming The Wounded Sage.
"You're not who you used to be," Shia observed, finding him in the meditation chamber he had claimed as his own—a space that existed simultaneously in multiple dimensions, allowing him to perceive the cosmic balance from perspectives that no single realm could provide.
