The moment Steven released the Codex, time fractured.
There was no explosion. No scream. Only stillness—as if the universe, in shock, had forgotten how to move.
Steven floated within the silence, no longer bound to gravity or thought. His body felt weightless, his senses stretched across a million fragments of reality. Every possible version of him—strong, weak, broken, divine—flashed through his consciousness like shattered mirrors. He had let go of the Codex, but it hadn't let go of him.
Aetheron stood alone in the chaos, sword grounded, his eyes scanning the void for signs of movement. "Steven...?" he whispered. "What have you done?"
The Codex, suspended in midair, pulsed like a dying star—dim, unstable. It cracked. Thin fissures formed along its surface, leaking golden light like divine blood. Pain's form reemerged from the collapse, battered but grinning, pieces of reality orbiting around him like debris caught in a black hole.
"You gave up your only weapon," Pain hissed, staggering forward. "How poetic. You, the Starcaster, the wielder of creation—reduced to nothing but hope."
But before Pain could move, something unexpected happened.
The Codex stopped pulsing.
It shattered.
Not in an explosion, but in silence—like a glass heart breaking under the weight of eternity.
The shards didn't fall. They floated. Glowed. And then, from the center of the fractured Codex, a being emerged. Not Steven. Not Pain.
A woman.
Her form was ethereal—woven from starlight and shadow. Her eyes glowed with the wisdom of creation, her presence so ancient and powerful that even Pain took a step back, uncertain.
"Who..." Aetheron's voice cracked. "Who is she?"
Pain narrowed his eyes. "No... it can't be. She's just a myth."
The woman turned toward them, her voice soft but resonating through every corner of existence.
"I am the Will of the Codex."
Steven, still suspended in timeless limbo, stirred. He could hear her. Feel her. A warm current reached into his soul, pulling him toward her light. "You... were inside it this whole time?"
"I am what was sealed to keep the Codex balanced. You awakened it, Steven Lethal. But by letting go... you surrendered your ego. And that is what made me free."
Pain scowled, his form flickering with instability. "You think some ancient will can stop me? I have devoured gods. I was a god."
The Codex-Will raised her hand, and with a single motion, the collapsing fragments of the universe stilled. Stars paused mid-burst. Black holes closed like blinking eyes. Time obeyed her.
"You are not balance. You are deviation. And deviation must be corrected."
Pain roared and lunged forward, unleashing everything—the fury of obliterated worlds, the sorrow of his divine fall, the rage of his endless exile. But the Will raised a single finger.
And Pain stopped.
Frozen in place.
Aetheron gasped. "She stopped him with a thought..."
The Will looked at Steven once more, her tone gentle. "This is not the end, Starcaster. Merely a reset. But this time, you will not wield the Codex. You will become it."
Steven's eyes widened. "What do you mean—?"
But before he could finish, she reached toward him, and the shards of the Codex spiraled around his body. They pierced his skin—not with pain, but with purpose. Light enveloped him, remaking him from the inside out.
And then, everything went dark.
---
To be continued