Chapter 91: The Fracturing

The scream tore through the battlefield, raw and primal, but it didn't come from Aurelia or the Original. It came from the earth itself—a shuddering, guttural wail as the ground beneath them split apart. Golden light and inky darkness gushed from the fissure like blood from a wound, the two forces twisting around each other in a violent, seething dance. Aurelia's hand remained pressed against the Original's chest, her fingers burning where they touched that corrupted flesh. The contact sent waves of agony up her arm—not physical pain, but something deeper, something that scraped against her very soul. Memories that weren't hers flooded her mind in jagged fragments: the first sunrise and the long shadow it cast, a blade of living darkness plunging into radiant flesh, the moment the world had fractured and she had been born from the broken pieces.

The Original's lips curled into a knowing smile even as her form began dissolving at the edges, shadows peeling away like burnt parchment. "You feel it now, don't you?" she whispered, her voice layered with something almost like pity. "What we truly are."

Aurelia's golden eyes widened as the truth struck her like a physical blow. They weren't just enemies. They were counterweights. Light and shadow. Creation and destruction. Two halves of an equilibrium that couldn't exist without the other. And the Original had known it all along.

Kael collapsed to his knees as the vision tore through him—not of a possible future this time, but of the past. The true past. He saw the First War not as history remembered it, but as it had truly unfolded. The Original hadn't been the aggressor. She had been betrayed. The echo of the shard in his chest—her shard—thrummed in recognition, resonating with this buried truth. Though the physical fragment was gone, its ghost remained, whispering to him in the voice of the earth itself. She was never the villain. The realization hit him like a blade between the ribs. All this time, they had been fighting the wrong battle. His head snapped up just in time to see Aurelia recoil from the Original, her radiant glow flickering wildly like a guttering candle. "Aurelia, stop!" Kael shouted, his voice raw. "It's a trap!" But the words came too late.

Across the battlefield, Lucian heard Kael's warning just as his sword found its mark—plunging deep into Eryx's stomach. His brother gasped, black blood bubbling from his lips, but instead of pain, his expression twisted into something disturbingly close to relief. "Finally," Eryx choked out, his clawed hands gripping Lucian's wrists with surprising strength. "You remember." And Lucian did. The Crown's whispers in the void hadn't just shown him possible futures—they had unlocked the memories the Original had stolen from him. The truth of that final battle so long ago: he hadn't betrayed the Original to save the world. He had betrayed her for power. And Eryx… Eryx had tried to stop him. The sword slipped from Lucian's suddenly numb fingers as his brother collapsed against him. "I'm sorry," Lucian whispered, the words like ash in his mouth. Eryx's laugh was a wet, broken sound. "Save it… for her." His blackened fingers pointed weakly toward where Aurelia and the Original stood locked in their deadly embrace. "Finish… what we started." Then his body went still.

Aurelia felt it the moment Lucian's resolve shattered—a ripple through the fragile bond they had formed. She turned just in time to see him cradling his brother's lifeless form, his face a mask of horrified realization. The distraction cost her. The Original's hand snapped up, her taloned fingers sinking into Aurelia's glowing chest. "Thank you," the Original murmured, her voice dripping with cruel amusement. "For making this so easy." The pain was beyond anything Aurelia had ever known. Not just the physical violation of those claws in her flesh, but the unmaking as the Original began pulling her essence apart thread by golden thread. Somewhere far away, Kael was screaming her name. Somewhere closer, Lucian was rising, the Crown of Shadows flaring to life once more. But Aurelia could only watch as cracks spiderwebbed across her radiant skin, golden light leaking from the fractures like blood. The Original smiled. "Don't worry, little fragment. This won't hurt… much longer." Then the world exploded in light and shadow.