At that moment, across the Vault and every thread line it touched, there was silence deeper than death.
Then…
Basukhi opened his eyes again.
Twin galaxies, still fierce, still burning with memory, but something had shifted.
Choice.
"…Very well," Basukhi said, voice stripped bare of divine posturing, ancient in its purity. "Then I will not be god. Nor ghost. Nor weapon"
He coiled his vast form downward until his massive head was level with Taufik. His breath smelled of eons; his scales glittered with the past. But in his gaze was something present.
"I will be myself. Not because they allowed it. Not because you made it so. But because I choose to be"
Taufik nodded. No words. Just... Agreement.
And that was enough.
The Vault pulsed, not with power, but with acceptance. The laws that governed it shifted minutely, accounting for a presence once stricken from all systems.
[New Constant Registered]
[Basukhi: Immutable Entity | Chosen Identity: Independent Being]
