The coffin shuddered, its iron surface cracking as Lyra's screams morphed into something inhuman—a chorus of Gideon's victims. Kael lunged, but the desert floor split, swallowing the coffin into a vortex of sand and time. Lira hauled him back, her violet eyes blazing.
"She's gone!" Kael roared, wrenching free.
"Not yet," Lira hissed. She pressed her palm to the shifting sands, her skin glowing with stasis-energy. "The pod… Gideon kept me alive by bonding me to his power. I can track her."
The ground solidified into a mirror-like surface, reflecting not their faces, but Lyra trapped inside the coffin—Gideon's essence coiling around her like serpents. Her veins pulsed black and blue, her eyes flickering between amber and cobalt.
"Kael!" Her voice echoed through the mirror. "Don't let him—!"
The image shattered as Gideon's form erupted from the sand, now fused with Lyra's half-transformed body. Her left arm was hers, trembling and human; her right was Gideon's monstrous claw, dripping with time-forged venom.
"Perfection," Gideon's voice rumbled from her throat. "A vessel strong enough to hold us both."
Kael's shardless hand found Lira's dagger. "Fight him, Lyra!"
Lyra's human hand seized her own monstrous arm, veins bulging. "Kill… me…"
Gideon's claw slashed her cheek, silencing her. "Sentimentality is a flaw I'll purge."
Lira stepped forward, stasis-energy crackling. "You forgot something, Gideon. I'm not just a relic—I'm a loophole."
She slammed her fists together. The desert froze—sand suspended mid-air, Gideon's hybrid form locked in a snarl. Only Kael and Lira could move.
"The stasis pod tied me to his power," Lira panted. "I can pause him… but not for long. End this."
Kael raised the dagger, trembling. Lyra's human eye met his, pleading.
He hesitated.
Lira's energy faltered. Time lurched forward. Gideon's claw speared through Lira's stomach.
"No more distractions," he spat.
Lira gripped the claw, her blood sizzling as stasis-energy surged into Gideon. "You're… not… winning."
The energy detonated.
Gideon-Lyra howled, their fused body splitting at the seams. Lyra collapsed, human again but seared with blackened scars. Gideon's essence recoiled, a wraith-like haze.
"This changes nothing," he snarled. "She's mine. You're all mine."
The sand swallowed him, leaving Kael cradling Lyra and Lira's lifeless body.
Lyra stirred, her voice a raw whisper. "The coffin… it showed me things. Gideon's plan… it's not just you. He's breeding an army. Our army."
She touched Kael's chest. A vision seared his mind—a legion of hybrids, their faces his and Lyra's, marching across time.