The night after Skyfall Citadel was silent.
Too silent.
Even the wind that usually whispered through the broken towers had stilled, as though the world itself held its breath. The campfire crackled, shadows dancing across each of their faces. None of them spoke for a long while.
Valerian sat alone atop the collapsed statue of an angelic guardian, the Astral Prism in his palm, its surface still glowing with swirling stardust.
> [System: Astral Prism Synchronicity – 27% Complete.]
[Warning: Core Memory Reconstruction May Trigger Cognitive Displacement.]
He closed the notification, eyes narrowing.
Everything was moving too fast. First, the false prophecy. Then the sealed war-wyrm. Now this prism, whispering truths that didn't line up with anything he remembered—truths that felt more real than what the system had told him.
He turned it over in his palm. "What are you hiding from me, Alex?"
Below him, Lira stood watch at the camp perimeter. Selene was sharpening her blades again, the motion hypnotic. Seraphine knelt by the embers, lost in quiet thought.
Valerian watched them with quiet awareness. They had changed—not just from the battles, but from each other. Lira had grown more distant yet fiercely protective. Selene had started taking initiative rather than following blindly. Seraphine had softened her icy logic with something like hope.
And yet, they were all waiting for him.
Waiting for him to unravel the final truth.
> [System Alert: Memory Drift Detected.]
[Astral Prism Integration Threshold Reached – Initiating Memory Reconstruction.]
The world around him dissolved.
---
He was standing in a silver room.
White walls. No ceiling. Just infinite light above, like a sky without end.
Across from him stood a man in a high-collared black coat.
Alex.
Not a reflection. Not a memory. The real him—or at least, the part he left behind.
Alex looked older. Wiser. But his eyes still held that same fire. "You're almost there," he said. "And now you're wondering if this was your path, or mine."
Valerian stepped forward. "You're not supposed to exist."
"And yet, here I am," Alex said calmly. "You've started to see the cracks in the system, haven't you? It's not a tool. It's a cage."
Valerian's fists clenched. "Why did you split yourself off?"
"Because I had to. Because to beat the system, I had to give it exactly what it wanted: a villain. A puppet. A vessel strong enough to open the final gate."
Valerian froze.
"…So I was never the villain."
"You were the key, Valerian. The system doesn't reward you for overcoming fate—it rewards you for following it perfectly. Every quest. Every choice. It's steering you toward the convergence. The end of this world."
"And you just let it happen?!"
Alex looked at him with sorrow. "No. I created you to stop it. To rebel against it."
The light around them began to fracture.
> [Warning: Unauthorized Memory Retention Detected.]
[Connection Terminating…]
Alex's final words rang out as everything shattered:
"At the final gate, you must choose. Me… or the world."
---
Valerian gasped as reality slammed back into him.
Lira was already at his side, hands on his shoulders. "Valerian! Talk to me. What happened?"
He looked up, breath ragged. "I saw him. I saw Alex."
The others rushed over.
Selene frowned. "He's still alive?"
"No… Not in the usual way. He embedded himself in the system. He built this loop."
Seraphine's eyes widened. "Are you saying… the system isn't divine?"
"It's a prison," Valerian said coldly, standing up. "We're all inside it. The seals, the quests, even the enemies—they're part of the same mechanism."
"Then what's the final goal?" Lira asked, quietly.
Valerian looked toward the horizon, where the stars above pulsed unnaturally.
"To open the final gate. To release Alex. To end this cycle."
Umbra's wings spread wide, its form flickering at the edges like static. "And what will you do, master?"
Valerian's grip tightened on the Astral Prism. "I'll stop him. I'll break the system from inside. Even if that means destroying what he left behind."
> [System Notification: New Main Quest – "The Final Gate"]
[Objective: Reach the Broken Spire. Final Countdown – 5 Days Remaining.]
---
The journey to the Broken Spire was brutal.
The sky darkened each day as if responding to Valerian's defiance. The creatures that once stalked in the shadows now walked in the open—twisted amalgamations of beasts and code, corrupted by proximity to the system's core.
The group fought constantly.
On the third day, a swarm of null-wraiths ambushed them at a shattered temple. Valerian cleaved through them with his blade sheathed in darkfire, while Umbra torched the sky above. Lira took a wound to the thigh but refused to fall behind. Seraphine's spells began to fracture space with unstable power, and Selene's strikes blurred into shadows.
They were no longer just survivors.
They were warriors against fate.
But even so, the signs of strain showed. Lira had grown quieter. Seraphine's hands trembled after each cast. Selene didn't sleep at all.
Valerian tried not to think about what it would cost them if they reached the gate—and couldn't stop what was coming.
---
On the fifth night, they finally stood before it.
The Broken Spire.
It jutted from the center of a shattered valley like a knife plunged into the heart of the world. Rivers of light and data poured from its cracks, warping gravity around them. Glyphs pulsed up and down its height in unfamiliar languages—codes older than magic, older than gods.
And above it, suspended in the sky like a heartbeat waiting to drop… floated the Gate.
A ring of black fire and starlight, its center pulsing with a singularity so dense it bled light in reverse.
> [Final Convergence Site Detected.]
[Proceed to Final Chapter – Chapter 30: "The Choice of the Key."]
Valerian stepped forward. His party stood behind him—wounded, weary, but unyielding.
"Are we ready?" he asked.
Lira nodded first. "Always."
Selene flipped her dagger and smiled. "Took you long enough."
Seraphine looked up at the gate, her voice a whisper. "Let's end this lie."
And Umbra let out a draconic growl. "The time has come, master."
Valerian looked up.
At the heart of the gate, he could see a figure waiting—cloaked in black, with his own face.
Alex.