For centuries, no mortal had ever seen the true face of the Fate Exchange's Architect.
Until now.
The air around the city changed.
Every clock stopped.
The rain froze midair, droplets suspended like shards of glass.
Above the skyline, a vast tear ripped open across the sky—a colossal fracture between dimensions, glowing with blinding, crackling crimson light.
From the center of that rupture, it emerged.
The Architect.
It wasn't a creature.
It wasn't a god.
It was something beyond comprehension—a living contract, forged from the endless suffering of every soul that had ever bartered with the Exchange.
Its form shifted constantly.
One moment it looked like a massive, cloaked figure with countless chains wrapped around its body.
The next, it was a thousand faces screaming in agony, each one stretching across a sea of writhing contracts that spiraled endlessly behind it.
And when it spoke, the very ground beneath Danny's feet cracked.
"Daniel Wong. Final Debtor. Ultimate Breach. Prepare for Termination."
The Architect stretched out an enormous hand—its fingers made of shredded contracts, each fingertip dripping liquid shadows.
With a flick of its claw, an invisible force hurled Danny across the shattered street.
He slammed into a concrete wall, ribs cracking on impact, his vision blurring.
But even through the haze of pain, Danny stood.
He wasn't going to run.
Not this time.
Claire ran to his side, tears streaming down her face.
"Danny, you can't fight that… It's too strong!"
Danny wiped the blood from his mouth, eyes blazing with defiance.
"Doesn't matter. If I fall, I fall standing."
The Architect raised both hands, and the entire city seemed to tilt toward oblivion.
Buildings crumbled. Streets split open.
The world itself was being rewritten.
The Architect's final contract burned into existence in midair—a scroll forged from human skin and soaked in the blood of thousands.
With the stroke of its quill, it began to sign Danny's final fate.
But before the final stroke completed, something incredible happened.
The broken fragments of every soul Danny had encountered—every life he had touched—rose up from the cracks in reality.
The old man who had given his heart willingly.
The victims of the Grinning House.
Even the faces of those he couldn't remember—but who had forgiven him in death.
They stood behind him, forming a wall of light against the overwhelming darkness.
A new power surged through Danny's veins—not from the Fate Exchange… but from the very humanity he had once lost and now reclaimed.
The fragments of his soul pieced back together, glowing with a defiant brilliance that even the Architect recoiled from.
For the first time, Danny's voice echoed louder than the Architect's.
"This is my final deal. I choose my own fate!"
With every ounce of strength, he hurled the last burning fragment of his broken contract at the Architect's heart.
The explosion of light tore through the darkness, ripping apart the chains of every binding contract in the Architect's form.
The sky cracked open with a roar of thunder as the Architect let out a soundless scream, collapsing into a vortex of blinding light.
And just like that…
It was over.
The sky cleared.
Time resumed.
The mark beneath Danny's eye was gone, not torn away—but peacefully faded.
And for the first time in his life… he was truly free.
Claire stood at his side, gripping his hand tightly.
Danny turned to her, his smile—finally his own—soft and genuine.
"Let's go home," he whispered.
🎬 [End of Chapter 15 – Final Battle Concluded]