The horizon had barely finished blooming with the new dawn when the air above Rotham shimmered—subtle at first, then sharp. A tear in space, quiet but deliberate.
From it stepped a figure cloaked in flowing light, face hidden beneath a mask forged of fractured timelines.
The Architect.
Selin stepped back instinctively.
"He's real…"
Rotham stood firm.
The Architect had once been a myth, a whispered legend told among the galactic fringe—the first one who walked the cycle and chose to forget. The one who had built the system… and then vanished within it.
But now, with the cycles undone, he had returned.
"You shouldn't exist anymore," Rotham said.
The Architect nodded slowly.
"And yet, I do. Because something always fills the void."
His voice was not a sound, but a series of layered thoughts—dreams from long-dead stars.
"You broke the loop. Freed the branches. But in doing so, you created a fracture.""One that others will try to exploit."
He raised his hand. A ripple of dark energy pulsed from his palm—showing Rotham a glimpse of what lay ahead: fragmented realms, surviving echoes clinging to corrupted timelines, and something worse—
A new cycle trying to form.
"Nature abhors emptiness," the Architect whispered."And there are things far older than the Tree. Watching. Waiting."
Rotham clenched his fists.
"Then help me stop it. This time… we build something better."
The Architect stepped closer.
"No, Rotham. This time… we build together."
The sky shifted once more. From the fractured stars above, blueprints formed — not of machines, but of possibilities.
Together, Rotham and the Architect turned to face the stars.
Not to fix the past.But to forge the future.