The rift didn't close.
Instead, it widened—spilling a galaxy's worth of versions into the air like fractured starlight.
Each fragment hovered above Kae'Luan like a memory that almost belonged to him.
Him as a warrior, bleeding in the sands of Sobo.
Him as a coward, begging for a restart.
Him as a child, staring at the corpse of someone he loved.
Him as a villain.
And one—just one—of him smiling beside Maya in a universe where the Loop never existed.
Kae'Luan staggered back, pulse thundering.
"What is this?"
Juro, who'd just caught up from the gate, stared at the vortex of selves above them. "You opened the Final Spiral. This is... every version of you that ever could have been."
"And the one that ruled them all," Maya said, slowly rising, her side still bleeding, "is watching."
They all looked up.
High above, on a platform of folded time, stood Kael Prime.
He wasn't human anymore.
He was regal, cruel, and calm—like the Loop itself had fashioned him into something unbreakable. A being with golden circuitry in his skin and black veins where blood should be.
He looked like Kae'Luan.
But his eyes held no mercy.
"Welcome," Prime spoke, voice booming with every timeline's authority. "To the Spiral of Selves."
Kae'Luan stepped forward, unsure of whether to speak or attack.
Prime smiled faintly. "Do you even remember what you were supposed to do?"
"I remember... you trapped us. All of us."
"I preserved us," Prime said coldly. "I did what you never had the strength to do—contain the chaos. Every death, every failure, every betrayal... I made sure we could learn from it. Perfect it."
"You turned our lives into a test," Maya said bitterly.
"I turned our lives into a design."
Prime lifted his hand.
Around him, the spiral spun faster.
Each version of Kae'Luan began to move—echoes of memories clashing into one another, sometimes embracing, sometimes killing each other outright.
Kae'Luan felt the pull in his chest.
Like being slowly peeled from the inside.
"Why am I still me?" he asked. "Why didn't I dissolve into all of them?"
"Because," Prime replied, "you are the anomaly. The Glitch. The Loopbreaker. And that makes you the greatest threat to everything I've built."
Maya took Kae'Luan's hand.
Juro loaded his blaster, the side still sparking from its recent overload. "Then it's about damn time we tear this design down."
But before they could move—
The spiral roared.
Thousands of Kaels—some half-formed, some monstrous—descended like a wave.
Each one was him.
And they were coming to erase the anomaly.
The first attacker hit hard.
A version of Kae'Luan with charred skin and glowing red eyes slammed into him, forcing Kae'Luan to the ground.
"I failed Maya," the version hissed. "And I'll make sure you don't live long enough to do the same."
Kae'Luan shoved him off and ducked as another version came with a chain of golden loop-ink, swinging it like a whip.
Juro covered the flank, shooting at any form that looked too far gone. "This is madness!"
Maya drew a pulseblade and carved through a version that looked exactly like Kae'Luan—down to the scar on his jaw. "We can't kill them all!"
Kae'Luan grabbed the chain from the fallen version and swung it in a wide arc, slamming five of his alternates into each other.
"No," he shouted, "but I can talk to them!"
He jumped onto a nearby platform of floating memory threads and shouted over the chaos:
"Listen to me! I know you feel it—that endless ache, the hunger to finally be free. Prime's not saving us—he's chaining us! You are me! You know what I lost. What we all lost!"
Some slowed.
Some flinched.
But Prime stepped forward, his voice louder, colder. "He speaks with a human heart. I speak with design. There is no place for uncertainty in salvation."
A version of Kae'Luan began to scream—splitting in half, caught between belief and submission.
Maya ran to him and caught his collapsing form. "He's still in there... he remembers love."
Prime's eyes narrowed.
"You want love? Then love this."
He reached into the spiral and ripped something out.
A shard of memory—searing white and trembling.
It hovered in the air like glass, then cracked open—
And revealed a timeline they hadn't seen yet.
Kae'Luan's worst one.
Him... killing Maya.
She gasped.
He fell to his knees.
Juro fired wildly at the spiral, trying to interrupt the projection. "Get it out of his head!"
But Kae'Luan wasn't moving.
Tears welled up in his golden eyes. "No... I didn't... I would never..."
Prime descended the spiral stairs like a god arriving to judge.
"That is your truth," he said. "Beneath all your defiance, you're still capable of that."
Kae'Luan didn't lift his head.
Until Maya's hand touched his face.
"I've seen your worst," she whispered, "and still I chose you."
He looked up.
And for the first time—he didn't see just Maya.
He saw the Maya.
His anchor.
Across every loop, every spiral, every version—she was the constant.
And Prime knew it.
Which meant—
"This whole spiral," Kae'Luan said slowly, rising, "isn't about control. It's about fear. You're afraid I'll succeed where you failed. That I'll end the loops."
Prime's eye twitched.
A crack of anger.
"You are not ready to face me."
"I don't need to be perfect," Kae'Luan said. "I just need to be me."
And suddenly—
The spiral shifted.
The Kaels who had attacked paused.
One—then another—began to step back.
A slow wave of defiance spread through the loop selves.
One by one, they turned away from Prime.
And toward the original.
Toward Kae'Luan.
"Don't listen to him!" Prime bellowed. "He'll undo all our survival!"
"No," Kae'Luan whispered. "I'll finally let us live."
Maya raised her pulseblade.
Juro slammed a new core into his blaster.
Kae'Luan turned to the spiral gate's center.
"This ends now."
But just as they surged forward—
Prime smiled.
"I expected this."
He raised one finger.
And from the heart of the spiral—
He released the true backup.
A version of Kae'Luan that had never failed.
One that had killed Maya. Killed Juro. Killed every loop threat to maintain stability.
He was perfect.
Flawless.
And dead inside.
"Meet," Prime said softly, "the Last Loopkeeper."
Kae'Luan stopped.
His pulse skipped.
Because this version wasn't angry.
He wasn't cruel.
He was calm.
Too calm.
And as he looked at Maya—
He whispered, "This time... you won't distract me."
Then he raised his hand—
And pulled Maya into a memory shard.
Gone.
"KAE'LUAN!" she screamed as the memory collapsed around her.
Kae'Luan lunged—but was too slow.
And the Loopkeeper?
He just smiled.
"I only need to beat you once."
The gate behind them exploded—
And the entire spiral began to collapse.
Kae'Luan turned to Juro, heart racing. "We're losing time. We have to get her out—"
But then a voice echoed again.
A soft one.
From inside the gate.
A child's voice.
"Kael...?"
He froze.
It was his voice.
As a boy.
Calling from the timeline that started everything.
Kae'Luan turned slowly—
And saw the one spiral Prime had kept hidden.
The origin.
His true beginning.
Where everything fractured first.
And where he'd be forced to return.
To be continued...