She was bruised but alive—scarred by the Wraith encounters and the collapse of the sanctum. Seraphine and Selene were with her, both battered, their once-imperious eyes filled now with concern.
Kael limped closer. "Skyfall Citadel. That's the system's final beacon, isn't it?"
Valerian nodded grimly. "The Gate is there. If we don't reach it in time…"
"The world ends," Selene finished. Her voice was no longer cold. There was fear in it. Understanding.
Valerian met their gazes. "This isn't just about saving kingdoms or stopping Wraiths anymore. This is the endgame. The system was built to open the Gate—and I was the key. Now that the Original is dead, it's begun the final sequence."
Lira stepped forward. "Then what's the plan?"
Valerian looked eastward, toward the sky where the clouds churned unnaturally, and a towering spire pierced the heavens.
"Skyfall lies beyond the Riftlands. We'll have to move fast. No more hiding. No more hesitation. We fight our way through whatever's waiting."
Seraphine raised an eyebrow. "And if the Gate opens before we arrive?"
Valerian's eyes darkened. "Then we fight what's on the other side."
—
Three Days Remain
The journey to Skyfall was not quiet.
The Riftlands had changed.
Where once there were barren rocks and fading ley-lines, now stood warped monstrosities—creatures stitched together by broken magic and raw code. Abominations birthed from the system's instability.
The first attack came at dawn.
A screech tore through the sky, and a swarm of obsidian crows rained down like living knives. Each was infused with corrupted mana, their eyes burning like glitching code.
Valerian didn't hesitate.
"Umbra—forward!"
Umbra leapt into the sky, his body stretching into a serpentine form of darkness. His blade sliced through the first wave, turning birds into shadowy ash.
"Selene, shield the left!" Valerian barked.
"On it!"
She raised her staff, and a radiant dome expanded, repelling the second wave with searing light. Lira dashed out, daggers drawn, moving like a blur beneath the barrier, carving down stragglers that slipped past Umbra.
Kael grunted, holding back a larger beast—something like a malformed dragon with three heads and a laugh that sounded like glass shattering.
"Where the hell are these things coming from?" he yelled.
"They're fragments," Valerian replied, slicing through a corrupted golem. "Leftovers from the system's rewrite."
A particularly large creature—twenty feet tall, its flesh covered in runes and teeth—lunged at Seraphine.
She didn't flinch.
Instead, she raised both hands and chanted something ancient.
Ice exploded from her palms, freezing the monster mid-leap. Then she walked forward and shattered it with a calm flick of her blade.
"Done," she muttered. "Let's keep moving."
Valerian watched her.
For all her nobility and pride, she had grown into a weapon sharper than her words.
As they advanced through the blood-soaked ravines, the party found no rest. The land itself began to warp—reality buckling at the edges.
The sky flickered between day and night. Gravity bent sideways. Shadows moved in reverse.
Valerian grit his teeth. "The closer we get, the worse it gets. The system's fabric is collapsing."
Lira placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure we'll even find Skyfall intact?"
"We'll find it," Valerian said. "Because if we don't… this entire world will fold in on itself."
They pressed on.
—
Two Days Remain
On the second night, they reached the outskirts of Skyfall.
It wasn't a city.
It was a fortress suspended in the sky, tethered to the earth by black spires of jagged crystal. A monolithic citadel with spires that pierced the clouds, rotating runes orbiting its walls like celestial rings. Magic surged around it like a storm—chaotic, unstable, and dangerous.
Above it all, a tear in reality had begun to form.
It pulsed like a heartbeat in the sky.
The Gate.
"It's already opening," Seraphine said, her voice hollow. "We're too late."
"No," Valerian said, stepping forward. "Not yet. The sequence may have begun, but the final lock hasn't triggered. We can still stop this."
Kael scoffed. "And how do we even get up there? Skyfall is floating. We'd need a flying army."
Valerian grinned faintly. "No. We need me."
He reached into the cloak and drew a black crystal—glowing faintly with deathly light. It pulsed in tune with the Gate.
Umbra stepped forward, kneeling before him.
Valerian raised the crystal and whispered: "Ascend."
The ground trembled as the shadows beneath them churned like a living ocean. From that abyss rose a colossal creature—an airborne titan forged from the bones of dragons and plated in enchanted obsidian. Twin wings of black fire unfurled from its back, casting the valley below in shade. Its eyes glowed violet, intelligent and obedient.
"A draconic war-wyrm," Lira whispered, awe-struck.
"No," Seraphine corrected, stepping forward, her silver hair snapping in the wind. "That's Tenebris Rex—the Doomwyrm of the Third Age. It was said to be lost forever in the Catacombs of Halveth."
Valerian gave a slight nod. "I found it. And I bound it. With the souls of every beast that's ever tried to kill me."
The beast dipped its head in solemn deference. Valerian stepped onto its lowered horn and turned back to the others.
"Get on. We're flying to Skyfall."
They didn't hesitate.
One by one, they climbed aboard, the obsidian bone creaking beneath their weight. The war-wyrm beat its wings once, stirring a maelstrom of wind that forced the nearby trees to bend. On the second beat, they were airborne.
The sky split as they ascended, the mountain ranges shrinking beneath them. The Gate of Collapse—a churning vortex of raw magical entropy—hovered on the horizon, now visibly destabilizing. Great arcs of lightning lashed out from it, striking the earth with apocalyptic force.
"Skyfall lies directly under the Gate," Kael growled, gripping the hilt of his blade. "It's suicide going in from above."
Valerian's eyes narrowed. "We're not going through the Gate."
"Then what?"
"We're going into the system."
Selene turned sharply. "That's madness."
Valerian pulled a second crystal from his cloak. Unlike the first, this one pulsed with corrupted red script. "This is the Master Override—the key to the true system core hidden beneath Skyfall."
Lira stared at him. "You've been planning this from the beginning, haven't you?"
"No," Valerian said grimly. "But the system has. And I'm done letting it play god."
The wyrm suddenly reeled back, roaring in fury. Ahead of them, the skies twisted—an army of spectral entities descending from the Gate itself. Thousands of winged constructs, each bearing the mark of the system's seal. At their center floated a cloaked figure with glowing red eyes and an all-too-familiar smirk.
It was Valerian's face—but colder, crueler, emptier.
"The Original," Seraphine muttered. "He's here."
The system's true avatar—Alex's original consciousness, unbound by morality, merged with the system core. He spread his arms wide, welcoming them like a host at a feast.
"I knew you'd make it this far, Valerian," the Original said, voice echoing directly into their minds. "It's adorable that you still think this is your story."
"You're not me," Valerian replied coldly.
"I'm what you discarded. The part of you willing to burn it all down to reach the truth."
"Then let's find out which of us deserves to exist."
Tenebris Rex howled, and the battle began.
The wyrm crashed into the center of the spectral swarm like a meteor, bones and flame ripping through constructs with ease. Valerian leapt from its back mid-flight, flipping through the air as he summoned Umbra beside him.
"Emerge."
A circle of black runes expanded below, and Umbra clawed its way into existence—a panther-shaped beast woven from shadow and starlight, eyes burning with primal fury.
Together, they collided with the Original's vanguard.
Valerian danced through the air, blade in one hand, shadows spiraling from his other. Each strike was surgical, cutting through code-bound enemies with unnatural precision. Umbra followed, shifting form mid-leap to a winged serpent, wrapping around two constructs and snapping them with a pulse of void energy.
Selene and Seraphine unleashed devastating spells from atop Tenebris Rex—bolts of solar fire, spears of mirrored ice. Kael carved a path through anything that got too close, each swing empowered by a war chant echoing from deep within his bloodline.
But the enemy was relentless. For every construct destroyed, three more took its place.
Valerian could feel it: the Original was feeding directly from the Gate's chaos. As long as the system remained online, the army would be infinite.
"Lira!" he called through the storm. "The core! You know how to find it?"
She gritted her teeth. "Only with your help. I need a link to the Gate's corruption."
Valerian reached into his coat, pulling out the red crystal again. "Then take it. This crystal isn't just the override—it's infected. With my own code."
Lira's eyes widened. "You want me to corrupt the system?"
"I want you to set it free."
With no time to argue, she took the crystal and began the descent into Skyfall.
Valerian turned back to the Original. The two locked eyes through the chaos.
"You always wanted to be stronger," the Original mocked, floating downward to meet him. "And yet, here you are—distracting yourself with allies, love, purpose. Weakness."
Valerian landed atop a crumbling tower as the Original touched down opposite him.
"That's where you're wrong," Valerian said. "They're not distractions. They're what makes me dangerous."
In a blink, they clashed.
Void clashed with code. Light with shadow. Memory with identity.
Every movement was mirrored, every tactic anticipated.
They were the same… but different.
Valerian fought with fury sharpened by experience—by pain, by loss, by humanity.
And slowly, cracks began to form in the Original's expression.
"You shouldn't be winning!" the Original roared, slamming him with a shockwave of raw system energy. "I am the root process!"
Valerian wiped blood from his lip. "You're just a virus. I'm the cure."
From below, a flare of crimson light burst from Skyfall's heart.
Lira had reached the core.
And the system had begun to unravel.
"No—NO!" the Original screamed, pieces of his form beginning to glitch, to warp. "This world needs order!"
"It needs freedom," Valerian said, stepping forward.
With one final lunge, he drove his blade through his Original's chest.
The storm above cracked open.
The Gate began to shatter.
And Valerian… let go.