The Rifted Crown

Lightning danced across the sky like veins of fire.

Kael stood frozen on the shattered rooftop of Halcyon Tower. The world around him was silent—eerily so—as if time itself had paused to watch what would happen next.

Aeris's body lay cradled in his arms, limp and still. Her skin was pale, almost translucent. The warmth was already fading.

"Come back to me..." he murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her bloodless cheek.

His voice cracked—deep, raw. This wasn't the man who bent timelines. This was the boy who had watched the only person who ever truly saw him slip away.

Then…

Footsteps.

Click.Clack.Click.

The other Aeris stepped forward.

She was... her. But not.

She glowed faintly — not with power, but with stillness. Her eyes were clearer. Her movements smoother. She didn't blink. Didn't twitch.

"Who are you?" Kael demanded, standing slowly and shielding the fallen Aeris behind him.

The clone-Aeris tilted her head, like a cat studying prey. "I'm the version of her that never hesitated. The one who made the sacrifice in the Lab."

"Liar."

"Ask her," she said, pointing to the Aeris behind him. "Why did she survive when the others didn't?"

Kael's fists clenched.

"Because I saved her."

The clone smirked. "No. You delayed her death."

Suddenly, the tower trembled.

A crack split across the concrete roof. Sparks shot out of the rift-mark in Kael's palm.

The air thickened — time-space density increasing.

Kael's senses exploded with data:Temperature shift: +23°.Temporal friction: Spiking.Quantum bleed: Red zone.

"She's destabilizing the thread," Kael muttered, stepping back. "You're not her. You're a—"

"A failsafe," she completed for him, stepping through the air like it was water. "Made from her DNA. Her memories. Her will. But loyal... to the Rift."

The world blurred.

And then—Kael was inside a memory.

The Lab. Years ago.

Aeris strapped to a table. Screaming. The lights flickering red.

Kael (a younger one, terrified) bursting through the door, guns blazing.

But this time — he was too late.

Dr. Ryven was already inside, activating the sequence. Aeris's body was split into two light-forms—each one suspended in opposing tubes.

One screaming.One silent.

The screaming one became the Aeris he knew.

The silent one—

"—was me," said the clone, her voice echoing from all directions.

Back on the rooftop.

Kael gasped, snapping back into the present.

"That memory was locked," he whispered. "Erased."

The clone smiled. "The Rift remembers everything."

Kael summoned his chrono-blade. Its silver arc buzzed with unstable energy. "Then tell the Rift... this ends now."

They clashed.

Metal against light.Speed against inevitability.Kael fought like a man with nothing left to lose. Every slash tore holes in the air, sending aftershocks across the skyline.

But she moved like water, like shadow — bending space around her body. Every time he struck, she became mist, and reformed behind him.

"You don't understand," she said, landing a blow that shattered Kael's shoulder plate. "This world isn't dying. It's resetting."

And then... the original Aeris stirred.

One finger twitched.

Then another.

Kael saw it — hope blazing in his eyes.

"Aeris! You're—"

But before he could reach her—

A golden spear shot through his chest.

Blood sprayed the concrete.

Aeris's eyes opened fully — just in time to see Kael fall.

"KAEL!"

She crawled toward him, but the clone grabbed her ankle, dragging her back toward the rift.

"You weren't meant to wake up."

"Let me go!" she screamed, slashing with her blade, drawing blood — finally, real blood.

The clone stumbled.

Kael, still conscious, reached up with trembling fingers.

"Aeris... run..."

She didn't.

Instead, she plunged her palm into the Rift-mark on her chest, screaming as energy poured out of her.

"You want the crown?" she shouted. "TAKE IT!"

The rooftop exploded in white light.

Silence.

Smoke drifted across the ruin of Halcyon Tower.

The clone was gone.

Kael lay motionless. So did Aeris.

But from the wreckage...

A boy stepped out.

Ten years old. Blonde hair. A familiar fire in his eyes.

He looked at the sky, then directly at the reader—

"You've seen the past. Now witness the reason it all had to break."