The One Who Chose Wrong

—where Kael walks into a mirror and sees the man he was never meant to become.

The Rift bled silver light.

It wasn't glowing—it was weeping. Streaks of starlight slid down its jagged edges, dripping into a pool of memories beneath it. The Celestial Scar had opened fully now, pulsing like a heart between realities, daring someone to cross.

Kael stood before it, stripped of armor, stripped of titles. Just a man. A man holding the fate of the future—and the guilt of countless pasts.

Aeris clutched his arm. "You don't have to go alone."

He looked into her eyes—burning gold and dusk—and whispered, "That's the problem. I do."

Behind them, the older Kael—Vaelen, once thought dead—leaned against a pillar of broken chronostone. His voice was raw, hollow. "You won't survive unless you remember what broke you."

Kael stepped forward. "That's the point."

And without waiting for an answer, he stepped into the Rift.

Everything shattered.

Not into pieces, but into versions.

Kael fell through an ocean of timelines where he'd made different choices:

—Where he never saved Aeris.—Where he chose to destroy Null, and became a god of silence.—Where he joined the Paradox Guild, and rewrote the war for power.—Where he was born a villain.—Where he died before it all began.

Each world peeled past his skin like paper, cutting deeper and deeper until he hit the one he feared most—

The world where he became Eidolon.

It was raining ash.

The skies above the Glass Citadel were torn open, time swirling like a corrupted aurora. The ground was cracked, with statues of Kael in every direction—some smiling, some crying, some holding Aeris' dead body.

Kael walked alone through the blackened city. Echoes of screams folded into the wind.

A figure stood at the edge of a crumbling spire, staring out at the unmaking of time.

He wore Kael's face. But older. Crueler. And carved with scars that never healed.

"Ah," Eidolon said without turning. "I remember this moment."

Kael said nothing. He didn't need to.

Because Eidolon turned—and spoke his name with authority.

"Kael."

And for a second, he forgot who he was.

The forgetting was quick. Subtle.

His breath hitched.

His memories blurred.

He remembered fighting, but not why. Loving, but not who. Choosing, but not what for.

Eidolon smiled. "Feels like truth, doesn't it? All those choices... pointless. Love? A chain. Time? A lie. I freed us, Kael. You don't need to suffer anymore."

Kael fell to his knees.

His fingers clawed at the stone.

He couldn't remember Aeris.

Just a flicker. Just the scent of sunlight and stardust. The whisper of a laugh through rubble. The warmth of a hand that once brought him back.

Eidolon knelt beside him, pressing a cold blade to his throat. "Say it," he murmured. "Say you never loved her. Say fate is fiction."

Kael trembled.

Then—

A whisper:"The first time I saw her… the world was falling apart. But she looked at me like I was the only thing still holding."

He gasped.

The blade dropped.

And Kael remembered.

He surged to his feet, eyes blazing. "You tried to erase her name. You burned our memories. But I'm not you. I made the same mistakes—but I loved differently."

Eidolon's face twisted. "You will become me."

Kael stepped forward, unafraid. "No. I'm the Kael who forgave. Who held on. Who let her choose."

He clenched his fist—and the Rift within this world began to collapse. Reality rejected Eidolon's rule.

Because love… was stronger than forgetting.

Aeris' voice echoed from the collapsing sky.

"Come home."

Kael turned, reaching out—her hand was there, reaching through timelines.

He took it.

And as their fingers touched, Eidolon screamed—

—but it was the scream of a child who had never been loved, not a villain.

And that scream shattered the timeline.

Kael awoke, gasping.

He was back in the Sanctum.

Aeris holding him. Crying.

Dray looking at the stars, silent.

And Vaelen—gone.

Kael whispered, "He was me."

Aeris nodded. "But not the you I chose."

Kael kissed her forehead. "Then let's make sure I never forget that again."

Outside, the Rift sealed behind them.

But the damage wasn't over.

For somewhere else… a library stirred.

And a book with no title flipped open.