Pact of the Rift

The silence after Aeris Omega vanished was more deafening than any explosion.

Kael stood amid the shattered mirrors of the Last Echo, breathing hard, his hand bleeding from the clash, the pain reminding him—this is real.

But so was she.

The Aeris he loved.

And the Aeris who might now become the final fracture in everything he had rebuilt.

As Kael turned, the echoes began to swirl again, drawn not to him—but to something else. A pull. A whisper. A presence that had been watching since the beginning.

From the void between timelines stepped a cloaked figure—The Rift Seer.

"You've cracked the seal," the Seer said, his voice ancient, like layered thunder through a canyon. "Now the Rift wants answers."

Kael narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"

The Seer's cowl lifted just enough to reveal eyes like collapsing galaxies. "The one who watched you tear fate apart. And the only one left who can show you how to fix it—before it consumes her."

Kael's pulse jumped. "Aeris."

"Not just Aeris. All of them."

The Seer waved his hand, and the world turned.

Kael was hurled through time—not forward, not back, but inward. He landed on a floating platform, surrounded by an infinite spiral of Aerises—each one a different version of the woman he loved. Some crying. Some fighting. Some… monstrous.

Each one a consequence of a choice he did or didn't make.

"Your love fractured the balance," the Seer intoned. "You gave her life in a world that denied it. But love without anchor becomes a storm. And now, the storm has a name."

"Aeris Omega."

Kael fell to his knees, overwhelmed by the guilt pressing down on him. Every decision. Every sacrifice. Every time he had told himself it was the only way.

"Then help me stop her," he said, eyes blazing. "I'll pay any price."

The Rift Seer turned, slowly.

"Then you'll have to see her truth. Not the Aeris you remember. Not the one you protected. But the one who was left behind."

"And in doing so… you may have to betray the one you love now."

Lightning cracked above them.

Kael's soul trembled.

Could he?

Would he?

The Seer extended his hand, fingers glowing with a paradoxal light.

"Swear the Pact, Kael. Sacrifice the lie to unveil the Rift's truth."

Kael hesitated, eyes burning, heart torn. He thought of Aeris—his Aeris—the one who had stayed with him through every twisted loop of fate.

But he also saw Omega's eyes—the pain, the fury, the abandonment.

"If I don't…?" Kael asked.

The Seer's answer was simple.

"Then she becomes the Rift's heir. And your Aeris dies in every future."

Kael reached out.

And in the moment their hands met, the Rift screamed open.

Reality bent.

Time fractured.

And Kael was pulled into the past—not his own—but hers.

The forgotten childhood.The lonely years.The betrayal that turned her heart to glass.And the voice that whispered from the void: You are not broken. You are reborn.