Chapter 106: Echoes Through the Fractured Realms
The silence before the storm is often more terrifying than the storm itself.
In the aftermath of the monumental events of the Hundredth Chapter—when the cosmic veil was pierced and the Boundless Origin of Energy was awakened—Kael's name now echoed across realms once hidden, sealed, or long forgotten. But even as the universe reeled from this awakening, something more sinister began to stir in the farthest edges of fractured time.
A new Realm had cracked open—not because of force or authority, but because it wanted to be found.
It was called Eidryn—The Realm of Forgotten Fates.
A Whisper in the Deep
Kael stood atop the ancient tower of Aegis Caelora, his cloak torn, the crimson winds brushing past his face. His Authority Core pulsed violently within his chest—not from pain, but as if it were... afraid.
Zeraphin approached, his aura now a gentle luminescence rather than the burning star it once resembled. "You're feeling it too, aren't you?" he asked, eyes scanning the horizon, where the sky shimmered with unstable runes and temporal fractures.
Kael nodded. "Something is calling us. Not like a trap… more like a door left open on purpose."
"The last time a door called out to you," Elenai said, appearing in a fractal blink, "you rewrote the laws of Death itself."
Kael smirked. "And we got you back, didn't we?"
She grinned. "Fair."
The Map Written in Breath
In the ancient library beneath the Tower, hidden behind a vault only Kael could unlock, a scroll began to unravel on its own. It had no ink, no words—only shifting patterns of breath, sound, and memory. The scroll reacted to Kael's presence, revealing a map of broken stars and ruined fates.
A specific phrase pulsed into visibility:
He who bears the Throne may walk unbidden where gods fear to tread.
The Throne Beyond Reality.
It wasn't just a seat. It was a permission—a legacy from something older than creation itself.
Eidryn: The Bleeding Edge
When the trio finally reached Eidryn, reality bent.
Time moved like a spiral, not a line. Colors hummed with voices. The air spoke in riddles. A thousand Kaels walked past them—some dying, some victorious, some... evil. All versions that could have been.
"This place isn't a realm," Elenai whispered. "It's a mirror of choices never made."
Suddenly, from the fractured skies, descended an entity.
It had no form, only presence. It called itself Vekarith, the Curator of Unchosen Truths. He claimed to have existed before even the Authority of Time.
"You wear the Throne," Vekarith said, voice splitting Kael's thoughts in half. "But do you understand what it rules?"
Kael clenched his fists. "Every possibility. Every version. Every fate. That's what I rule."
Vekarith smiled—or at least, the realm itself did.
"Then choose, Kael. Choose which part of yourself dies here. And which one ascends."
The Duel of Fates
Kael was suddenly pulled into a battle not of might—but of selves.
He faced alternate versions of himself.
One who had surrendered to the corruption of the Authority Ranks.
One who ruled the cosmos but had lost everyone he loved.
One who never left Earth, living a powerless life of regrets.
Each version bore a fragment of him—a potential he had avoided or abandoned.
But Kael, the True Bearer, invoked something none of the others could.
Not just power.
Will.
He summoned the Vessel of Equilibrium and poured not raw energy—but balance into himself, merging the strengths of all his variants, while casting off their weaknesses.
The result?
A transcendent form of Kael—called Verakai, the Paradox Ascendant.
Backlash
But ascension never comes free.
Eidryn itself began to collapse, as Vekarith screamed in defiance.
"You've upset the order! You've made a throne for paradox!"
Kael responded with a calm that chilled even Zeraphin. "The order was never real. Just another story afraid of being rewritten."
With a gesture, he unbound Eidryn's core—allowing all forgotten fates to flow back into reality, not as chaos, but as options.
Back in the waking cosmos, new stars ignited.
The Authority Rankings began to shift.
The Final Echo of Eidryn
As the group returned from the collapsing Eidryn, something unexpected followed them.
A child—no older than seven. Silver-eyed, floating, ageless.
He looked at Kael and said,
"I am the result of your choices."
Kael stared in silence.
The child smiled.
"You can call me Nex. I will be the last chapter of your story."
Zeraphin looked shaken for the first time in ages.
"What... is he?"
Kael didn't answer. He didn't know.
But deep in his soul, he felt it.
This child was not the end.
He was the reason the end must come.
To be continued in Chapter 107...