The sound of shifting stone made Kael spin. A figure emerged from a tear in the horizon — tall, white-haired, and impossibly calm. Her eyes glowed faintly like the glyph on his chest.
"I've been waiting," she said, her voice smooth, almost melodic. "You shouldn't be here."
Kael's hand instinctively went to his chest, feeling the burn of the mark. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What are you?"
"Veyra," she replied simply. "I am a Revenant, like you. But unlike you, I have not been… corrupted. Yet."
Kael's stomach twisted. He had heard whispers of Revenants — the resurrected, the marked. Some were said to be monsters, half-shadow, half-human. "And you're here to stop me?" he asked, bracing for attack.
Veyra shook her head. "Not to stop you… to warn you. The shadow inside you is awake, Kael Draven. It isn't just a parasite. It's a predator. If it takes full control, it will consume everything you care about… and then move on to consume other worlds."
Kael felt the truth of her words pressing in on him, as if the universe itself was leaning closer to listen. "Then why are you helping me?"
Her gaze softened, almost imperceptibly. "Because we share the same fate. If you fall, I fall. And if the Nexus collapses…" She gestured toward the fractured horizon. "Then everything falls. Every universe, every reality, every timeline you think is safe."
Kael swallowed hard, feeling the weight of a responsibility he had never asked for. "I can't even control this… thing inside me."
Veyra stepped closer, her eyes locked onto his. "You can. But you'll have to face it — every fear, every memory, every temptation. And even then… it will fight you until your last breath."
The wind of this fractured world swirled around them, carrying whispers, echoes of lives that had never existed. Kael understood one thing clearly:
He wasn't just fighting for survival. He was fighting for the very fabric of existence.