The rift pulsed like a diseased heart, its edges shimmering with starlight stolen from a thousand dead galaxies. Darkness bled into the already fractured realm as Korrath tumbled through the tear, his shattered ribcage leaking shadow-essence instead of blood. The rift swallowed him, his shadow-essence flickering out of sight, a brief reprieve from his chaos magic, though Emma knew he would return.
"One breach is all it needs," his laughter echoed, corrupted by chaos magic before fading completely.
The bone islands trembled as the Titan's presence warped gravity. Crystalline shards lifted into the air like daggers suspended in a fractured void, prismatic tempests intensifying around them. Through the rift, a shimmering expanse of starlight and void pulsed, the Nexus Veil's threshold whispering with ancient power.
Emma hovered, golden wings cutting through reality at 43% capacity. Her double circled above, necrotic wings trailing un-light, watching with predatory patience.
Lyrion's voice shimmered in her mind. "Emmaruxis is the Titan's anchor, feeding the breach with her necrotic energy. Lead her into the rift. Her momentum will sever the connection."
"How?" Emma asked silently, tracking her double's movements.
"The rift is a conduit to the Nexus Veil," Lyrion explained, "but the Titan's anchor, your double's necrotic essence keeps it destabilized. Sever it, and the path to the Arbiter will clear."
Below, the Seedkeepers fought with desperate ferocity. Lucas, chest carved open to the ribs, caught a witch as it teleported into existence. His 5,000-ton grip crushed its torso. Black ichor erupted in a shimmering haze, coating his face in a glistening veil of corruption. He spat a mouthful of blood and snarled, "Stay down!"
Three more witches materialized around him, chaos magic coalescing around their elongated fingers. Lucas spun, fists carving arcs of destruction through reality. One witch's head exploded under his knuckles. Another's spine shattered with a wet crack.
The third witch teleported behind him, chaos claws reaching for his neck. Lucas pivoted, too slow as blood loss blurred his reactions.
Emma dove, wings giving her a clumsy burst of speed. She caught the witch mid-attack, her hand closing around its throat with 16,000 tons of pressure. Vertebrae shattered, black ichor erupting across her golden form. The witch's body went limp, chaos magic dissipating as she flung the corpse aside.
"They're targeting your blind spots," she called to her team, banking hard to avoid her double's diving attack. "Stay aware of teleportation patterns!"
Lucas nodded grimly, positioning himself as a shield for Chloe. His chest bled freely, but his snarl was a vow, he'd die before they touched her.
Aisha, one-armed and half-blinded, tracked a witch's teleportation signature, calculating its arrival point milliseconds before it appeared. As the witch blinked into existence, her crystallized blood-blade was already slicing through its throat. Black ichor painted her face as she spun to face the next threat.
"Grid pattern," she gasped through blood-flecked lips. "They're using a recursive algorithm for spatial displacement."
A witch teleported directly into her path, chaos magic negating where their bodies overlapped. Aisha's scream echoed with pain and dread, her mind racing—how much more could she lose before she was nothing? Her shoulder dissolved, blood cascading down her already mutilated form. Yet she drove her blade deeper, refusing to break, her precision unyielding even as fear threatened to consume her.
Emma's rage burned, but Lyrion's voice steadied her. "Your crew's sacrifices anchor you, not the Titans' lies. Focus on their trust."
Her wings trembled as she hovered, Lyrion's guidance giving her a moment's clarity. She glanced at Lucas, his bloodied form a shield for Chloe, and her resolve hardened.
The Titan's star-filled gaze pressed against her mind. Time stretched into an eternity as a vision surged forth, Emma as Emmaruxis, her golden wings blackened, leading a Titan army to unmake reality. The temptation lingered, power to end all threats, at the cost of her humanity.
"You are not her," Lyrion's voice cut through. "Your crew's trust defines you."
The vision faded, and Emma rejected it. Her crew's loyalty was a brighter light than any power the Titan offered.
Emma's wings flared as she rocketed upward, pursuing her corrupted double. They clashed mid-air, the impact sending shockwaves across the fractured realm. Her double's claws raked across her face, opening wounds that sealed almost immediately. Emma's fist connected with her reflection's jaw, snapping necrotic bone with an 18,000-ton strike.
"You waste power fighting me," her double hissed through a shattered jaw that was already re-aligning. "We could unmake this together."
"Not interested in your version of creation," Emma snarled, golden blood leaking from cuts across her crystallized cheekbones.
Chloe bellowed from below, her voice strained through agony. A witch had teleported into her path, chaos magic coalescing around its hands. Chloe, intestines still partially hanging from her abdominal wound, didn't hesitate. Her vision blurred, death whispering with each heartbeat, but she roared through the fear. She launched forward, driving her fist through the witch's chest with a 4,000-ton impact. Black ichor sprayed across her face as the witch's heart pulped around her knuckles.
"This is us now," she gasped, yanking her hand free from the witch's corpse. "Kill or die!"
Markus, torso half-dissolved and legless, dragged himself across the bone island with his remaining arm. His fading consciousness clung to memories of the crew's laughter, their bond, he wouldn't let them fall. A witch materialized before him, chaos claws extended. With his last strength, Markus swung his crystallized fist, connecting with 3,000 tons of force. The witch's skull caved inward, black ichor splashing across his face as he collapsed.
"Em..." he whispered, blood pooling beneath him. "Don't let them..."
Markus's whisper cut through Emma like a blade. Grief and rage crystallized into resolve, she wouldn't let their sacrifices be in vain. Her wings pulsed with golden light as her capacity surged to 44%, power thrumming through her transformed biology.
Sylvara appeared at Emma's side, star-eyes blazing with ancient light. "If the Titan breaches fully, this entire sector of the omniverse collapses," she warned. "Emma, channel Starvox. a power system that amplifies your voice with cosmic resonance. Use it to disrupt the Titan's psychic pressure."
"Focus your intent through your vocal cords," Lyrion clarified. "Let your will resonate with Fluxion."
Emma's Questmind pulsed: "Quest Active: Find the Arbiter. Path to Nexus Veil secured. Titan breach destabilizing, proceed with caution."
A witch blinked into her flight path, chaos magic already coalescing around its hands. Emma roared, her voice amplified by Starvox, shattering the witch's psychic defenses. She didn't slow, she accelerated, tearing through the witch with enough force to atomize its torso. Her capacity climbed to 45%, golden wings blazing brighter as Starvox amplified her resolve.
The rift pulsed wider, darkness spilling outward. Through it, something massive shifted. a limb draped in shadow-stuff, extending from a body of cosmic proportions. The Titan Veiled in Shadow reached through the fractured barrier between realms.
"The Veil's done," Korrath's voice echoed from within the rift, his broken body glimpsed through reality's tear. "Freedom comes..."
"The rift is your path to the Nexus Veil, where the Arbiter waits," Sylvara confirmed, her star-eyes flaring. "Sever the Titan's anchor, and the threshold will stabilize."
Emma's corrupted reflection circled higher, necrotic wings cutting through crystalline storms. "Choice against chaos," she called, voice resonating with Titan harmonics. "You know which endures."
The rift roared, darkness flooding outward in pulses that shook the bone islands. Lucas looked up, blood streaming from his numerous wounds. "Emma!" he bellowed. "Whatever you're planning, do it now!"
Lucas's bellow, Aisha's precision, Chloe's defiance, they were her anchor against the Titan's gaze, their loyalty a shield.
The thread of eternity stretched before her, not a loop of Titan will, but a path she carved with her choices.
Emma's golden wings blazed as she rocketed upward, breaking through a crystalline tempest. Shards of reality cut into her flesh before her accelerated healing sealed the wounds. Her Starvox-amplified roar shattered a witch's form mid-teleport, its obsidian flesh disintegrating into ash.
Emmaruxis pursued, exactly as she'd planned. Emma led her corrupted reflection toward the pulsing rift, accelerating to relativistic speeds.
"Now, Emma!" Lyrion urged. "The momentum trap!"
At the last second, Emma tucked her wings and dropped, her double overshooting, momentum carrying the corrupted vessel straight toward the tear in reality. Emmaruxis's necrotic form plunged into the rift, severing the Titan's anchor.
The rift stabilized immediately, darkness receding as the Titan's limb withdrew, star-filled gaze dimming. The passage to the Nexus Veil shimmered, golden light replacing the corrupted void.
"The threshold is clear," Sylvara called. "The Arbiter awaits."
Emma hovered at the rift's edge, golden wings trembling at 45% capacity. Beyond lay the Nexus Veil, shimmering with ancient power, and the Arbiter who could end the Titan threat.
She glanced back at her crew, their bloodied forms fighting on despite impossible odds. Their trust was her anchor, their loyalty her shield against corruption.
"I'll find a way back," she promised silently.
Then she crossed the threshold, golden light blazing against darkness as she entered the Nexus Veil, the path to the Arbiter finally open before her.