The golden light from the setting sun had long faded, leaving a veil of twilight over Aeravelle. The stars blinked overhead, silent witnesses to the broken wall, the scorched earth, and the civilians struggling to reclaim their peace. The last hour had felt like a lifetime, a whirlwind of fear, tension, and fury. And at the center of it all, like the eye of a storm, was Jerry.
I sat on a stone bench near what used to be the city's outer gate, staring at the gaping wound in the kingdom's defenses. My thoughts were loud, louder than the sounds of rebuilding echoing all around me. Everything hurt—my body from the exhaustion, my heart from the betrayal, and my mind from the weight of what was to come.
Uzi was pacing in tight circles like a spring coiled too tightly. Her orange-and-purple visor flickered in sync with her irritation.
"He just waltzed in here, smirked, and blew the place to bits. Who even does that?" she grumbled.
N hovered nearby, concern radiating off him like static. "Well, technically, he didn't waltz. More like... casually appeared through space-time. Still bad, just... you know, clarification."
Uzi shot him a look. "Thanks for the clarification, N. We totally needed that right now."
N scratched the back of his head. "Hey, I'm just trying to help. Also, I think I stepped on a piece of ancient rubble. Does that make me cursed?"
I barely registered their banter. My eyes were fixed on the last place Jerry had stood—right in front of the shattered wall, where dust still clung to the cracks like dried blood.
That's when she arrived.
A tear in the air, shimmering like a bubble, blinked into existence beside us. It popped silently—and out stepped V.
Her sleek form was intact, her violet visor gleaming as if she'd just walked out of a fresh fight. She surveyed the scene with a raised brow.
"Huh. Kingdom looks like it got the short end of a thermal blade. Let me guess—emo space wizard with god complex?"
"Hi, V," Uzi said flatly.
"You're late," I said, standing up.
"Fashionably," V replied with a wink, then looked past me at the rubble. "Dramatic entrance. I'll give him that. He always did have a taste for the theatrical."
N approached cautiously. "We were trying to rebuild. Now we're trying not to fall apart. Again."
"So, same old," V replied. She crossed her arms and tilted her head at me. "What's the plan, Red?"
I took a breath. "We need answers. About the Fracture. About Jerry. About why this world feels like a ticking clock counting down to something we can't see."
The next morning, the palace granted us access to their archives. Princess Elira led us down spiraling marble steps beneath the throne room, into the candlelit catacombs where tomes older than entire empires lined the walls.
"This is where we keep the kingdom's forbidden knowledge," she said softly. "What little we know about the Fracture is here."
I poured over pages for hours, sifting through metaphors and metaphysics. There were scattered mentions of a boundary between realities, of worlds colliding, of chosen wielders and false prophets. All vague. All dangerous.
Finally, one line struck me:
When the Threadbearer rises, and the Balance falters, the Fracture shall open to those who break fate itself.
Threadbearer. That had to be Jerry. His ability—the manipulation of fate through fracture and code—was beyond comprehension. He wasn't just a villain. He was a trigger.
Uzi leaned over my shoulder. "So... we punch him harder?"
"No," I said. "We stop him before the Fracture expands. We find the anchor point and seal it."
"Cool, cool," said N. "Do we have a map for that? Or are we just winging it like an anime squad with friendship powers?"
V smirked. "You mean we aren't doing that? I brought the matching cloaks."
We all laughed, even briefly. For a second, we were more than a team of survivors. We were a crew. A unit. Maybe even friends.
Two days later, the kingdom's scouts returned with word: strange energy readings were pulsing from the north, just past the crystalline forest.
That night, we camped beneath towering luminous trees. Their leaves glowed faintly with hues of blue and pink, rustling like whispers.
Mia cooked over a small flame, Jack sharpened his makeshift blade, and Ayaka quietly traced runes in the dirt. But the silence hung over us like a fog.
"He was one of us," Ivy muttered suddenly.
"He still is," said Lucas.
"No," I said quietly. "He made a choice. And now we have to live with it."
The next day, we reached the ruins of an ancient observatory. The energy signatures were strongest here. As we stepped into the shattered stone hall, symbols lit up along the walls.
In the center of the chamber, floating above a pedestal, was a sphere. Pure black. No reflection. No light.
The room felt... wrong.
"Is that it?" Olivia whispered.
"That's a piece of the Fracture," I said. "A nexus."
Before we could act, the shadows deepened.
Jerry appeared again. No warning. Just that familiar flicker in the air and his smug, unreadable smile.
"You're early," he said, voice smooth. "I expected at least another day. Bravo."
We fanned out instinctively, abilities pulsing.
Uzi stepped forward, visor gleaming. "You're not hurting anyone else. Not today."
Jerry clapped mockingly. "Oh, Uzi. Still trying to protect your little group like it's not all pointless."
V narrowed her eyes. "Get to the point."
Jerry walked slowly toward the nexus sphere. "You don't understand, do you? This world isn't real. Not to me. It's code. Glitching. Dying. I'm just the janitor cleaning up the mess."
N hesitated. "You still could've asked for help. You didn't have to become this."
Jerry paused.
"I was never asking," he said. "This was always going to happen. I just stopped pretending otherwise."
He turned to me. Our eyes met.
"You're going to try and stop me. That's fine. Maybe you'll even succeed. But just remember this—"
The air buzzed.
His body began to fade, particle by particle.
"—not everyone who breaks the world is trying to destroy it. Some of us just want to build a better one."
And with that, he vanished
We stood in stunned silence. Not just because of what he said. But because deep down, some part of it rang true.
He wasn't just breaking things.
He was rebuilding something, too.
And we had to figure out what that was… before it consumed us all.