Kael's stomach lurched as reality twisted around him. The bunker, the walls, the countdown-gone.
He stood on a vast, blackened plain beneath a sky that wasn't a sky at all, but a swirling abyss of shifting light and shadow.
Stars pulsed in unnatural patterns, forming strange, alien constellations. The ground beneath him felt solid but looked like an endless void.
Liyara and Garran stood beside him, equally disoriented.
"Okay," Garran muttered. "This is new."
A deep, resonant voice filled the space-not from any direction, but from everywhere.
"You stand at the edge of the Cycle."
Kael turned. Before them loomed a massive, obsidian monolith. Its surface shimmered with ancient symbols, the same ones they had seen in the bunker. But now, they weren't just glowing-they were moving, shifting like living things.
Liyara's voice was barely a whisper. "What is this place?"
Kael swallowed hard. "I think it's the source."
The voice spoke again.
"One path leads to continuation. The other... to annihilation."
Before them, the monolith split, revealing two doors. One pulsed with cold, blue light. The other radiated a deep, crimson glow.
Garran clenched his fists. "A choice. This is what it meant."
Kael's pulse pounded. Everything they had seen-the visions, the warnings-had led to this moment.
"Which one do we take?" Liyara asked, her gaze shifting between the two doors.
The voice whispered one final time.
"Choose."
Kael stared at the two doors, his breath shallow. The blue one felt cold, logical—like order and control. The red door, however, radiated raw emotion, chaos, and something else… potential.
"I don't like this," Garran said, shifting uncomfortably. "Feels like a trick."
"It's not a trick," Liyara replied, eyes still on the monolith. "It's a test."
Kael nodded slowly. "It always was."
He stepped forward, the others flanking him.
"I think we choose not based on what we fear," he said, "but on what we hope for."
Garran exhaled, steadying himself. "Then let's hope we're right."
Kael reached for the handle.
Kael stared at the two doors, his breath shallow. The blue one felt cold, logical—like order and control. The red door, however, radiated raw emotion, chaos, and something else… potential.
"I don't like this," Garran said, shifting uncomfortably. "Feels like a trick."
"It's not a trick," Liyara replied, eyes still on the monolith. "It's a test."
Kael nodded slowly. "It always was."
He stepped forward, the others flanking him.
"I think we choose not based on what we fear," he said, "but on what we hope for."
Garran exhaled, steadying himself. "Then let's hope we're right."
Kael reached for the handle.
Kael's fingers hovered over the handle of the blue door. The cold radiating from it prickled his skin, but something about it felt… final. Inevitable. He hesitated, glancing back at Liyara and Garran.
Without a word, he shifted his hand to the red door.
The moment his skin brushed the crimson-lit surface, the entire monolith vibrated with a low hum—like the sound of a world holding its breath. The door creaked open, spilling warm, pulsating light across the void.
A wind swept out from the threshold, carrying with it voices—familiar ones. Laughing. Crying. Calling his name.
Kael stepped through.
The light swallowed him whole.
For an instant, there was only silence. Then, a rush of sensation: heat, weightlessness, a thousand memories crashing down at once. His first breath. His mother's smile. The taste of rain on a battlefield. The face of the first person he had ever failed.
And then—clarity.
He stood again, not on a blackened plain, but in a place both real and unreal. Towering trees twisted into fractal patterns, glowing with veins of silver. The sky overhead was a swirl of galaxies, slowly rotating like the eye of an ancient god.
Liyara and Garran appeared beside him, blinking against the brilliance.
"What… what is this place?" Garran whispered.
Kael looked around, heart thudding. "A world reborn. Or maybe… one that was always waiting."
Behind them, the monolith began to dissolve into motes of starlight, drifting upward into the endless sky.
A new path lay ahead—lush, alive, unknown.
They had chosen.