Cassandra's fragmented soul flickered like broken neon at the void's edge. Her fingers pierced Raine's slit pupil with crystalline cracks: "299... Your countdown isn't apocalypse... It's you digging your grave shovel by shovel..."
Void storms whipped Ellen's starlit scales into reverse-spinning clockwork across her spine. Her synthetic voice trembled: "Raine... Core syncing all timelines... Each dimension replays your death reel..."
Garret's ice-claw jammed into his own temple, ooze projecting holograms—Raine standing over Citadel ruins, crown thorns impaling Ellen and Serena. His pupils contracted: "Fuck... How many times? How many times you chose them over..."
Serena's six-winged draconic form tore through the void, asphalt blood etching inverted crosses. She kicked away Garret's projection, fangs biting Raine's eye: "Count the gears in your eyeball... Each tooth marks bones you crushed restarting worlds..."
Raine's vision fractured into 299 frames. Each showed different choices: Crushing Ellen's chip in Cycle 87, pushing Serena into the void in 154, crowning Hermann in 298... All ruins bore obsidian obelisks engraved "Vessel Reclaimed."
"Enjoying?" Cassandra's remnant wormed into his ear canal, voice buzzing cranial bones. "Every 'salvation' sows demonic seeds..."
Ellen's metal fingers stabbed Raine's scarred scale, assembling a micro-planetarium. Her pupils mirrored 299 Raines speaking unison: "Purge protocol activated... Recommend immediate Cycle 300 formatting..."
Serena's wings hurled void tempests, smashing Ellen into chrono-vortices. Her asphalt blood mixed with Raine's crystallized ichor, burning reverse-growing thorns: "Listen—Cycle Counter's a joke! Those numbers are your mother's..."
Garret's claw speared intervening space, ooze congealing into Elaina's phantom. She cradled baby Raine, inserting a scale-chip into void fissures: "When he counts to 300... Return my child..."
Raine's pupil convulsed as reverse-clock projections illuminated 299 wastelands. Each ruin's center knelt his clone clutching crown fragments.
"Choice?" Cassandra split into 299 Elainas sneering unison. "That collar around your neck isn't fate... It's a delusional leash..."
Ellen's core detonated in the vortex, releasing 299 encrypted signals. Scales formed Dracula's crest with bloody text: 「Third Princess Serum Activated - Final Purge Ready」.
Serena's claw throttled Raine toward the central obelisk. Her heartbeat synchronized with monolith vibrations: "Read the inscription... With mommy's dragon-tongue..."
Upon touching the glyphs, 299 memories flooded in—Elaina clutching infant Raine here each cycle's end, driving scale-chips into her heart.
"Vessel must survive..." Serena's fangs pierced his carotid. "The true vessel... Never you..."
Mechanical roars erupted from the void's depths. The 300th obelisk rose, crowned by Elaina's pristine corpse—her chest embedded with a clock-chip pulsing with Raine's eye.
"The cure is poison..." Cassandra's final whisper dissolved into static. "Beware your creation..."
Submerged Currents
Garret's ooze-vision revealed Dracula's fang necklace absorbing multiverse data. Void rifts showed Citadel labs—hundreds of Elaina clones floating in mucus pods, each labeled with cycle numbers...